October 2025 Sees Lowest Box Office in 30 Years

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Movie theaters had a really difficult October, with ticket sales dropping to their lowest level in over three decades.

Major new movies, including Disney’s “Tron: Ares” and Dwayne Johnson’s “The Smashing Machine,” didn’t perform as well as hoped, resulting in a total box office revenue of only $425 million for the month.

October movie ticket sales were the lowest they’ve been in 26 years, since 1997, according to Comscore. Back then, popular films like “Kiss the Girls,” “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” and “The Devil’s Advocate” earned a combined $385 million (not adjusted for inflation).

According to Paul Dergarabedian, a leading box office analyst at Comscore, Halloween marked a disappointing end to an already difficult month for movie theaters.

The Halloween weekend box office was surprisingly slow, bringing in only $49 million in ticket sales from Friday to Sunday. While “Regretting You” from Paramount and Universal’s “Black Phone 2” were the top earners, overall attendance was down. Experts believe several things contributed to the low numbers, including a shortage of big new movie releases, many people choosing to trick-or-treat on Friday night, and the excitement surrounding the Los Angeles Dodgers’ World Series win over the Toronto Blue Jays.

Okay, so a couple of movies actually did pretty well – I was really excited to see Taylor Swift’s concert film do numbers, and “Chainsaw Man” was a hit too. But honestly, they weren’t enough to save the weekend. Some bigger titles really disappointed. Luca Guadagnino’s “After the Hunt” only made around $7.8 million, Disney’s Springsteen doc brought in $20 million, which felt low, and Jennifer Lopez’s “Kiss of the Spider Woman” totally flopped with just $1.6 million. It was a bit of a rough weekend for blockbusters, overall.

Big-budget films like “Tron: Ares,” which cost $180 million to produce but only made $126 million worldwide, and A24’s “Smashing Machine” ($50 million budget, $19 million revenue) contributed to recent financial losses.

Despite the disappointing October, the year has had its highs and lows. April saw strong numbers from “A Minecraft Movie” and “Sinners,” while March was disappointing with titles like “Snow White” and “The Alto Knights.”

Currently, movie ticket sales for 2025 are 2.9% higher than they were at this point in 2024, though that difference has been getting smaller since the summer. Sales were up 25% compared to last year during the summer months. However, overall revenue in the US is still more than 22% below what it was before the pandemic in 2019.

Experts predict a strong holiday season for movie theaters. As one analyst noted, things are looking up with the holiday movie season starting next weekend, which will be a big relief for Hollywood. New films like “Zootopia 2,” “Wicked: For Good,” and “Avatar: Fire and Ash” are expected to significantly increase ticket sales as the year closes.

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2025-11-03 13:18