July box office shows modest growth as blockbusters drive 16-34s to cinemas
July box office totalled £107.4m in the UK and Ireland, 3% higher than last year, according to the latest figures from Comscore.
Three summer blockbusters targeting the 16-34 demographic came out in the month, each driving solid results.
Jurassic World Rebirth led the pack, grossing £30.3m. Its £12.4m opening weekend was the second largest of the year so far, behind A Minecraft Movie (£15m).
James Gunn’s much-anticipated Superman, meanwhile, earned £23m — outpacing other recent superhero flicks including Thunderbolts, Captain America: Brave New World, Venom: The Last Dance and Joker: Folie à Deux.
Gunn’s film has also already outperformed all other Superman titles with the exception of Man of Steel (£29.9m lifetime gross).
Another superhero title cracked the top three in July. The Fantastic Four: First Steps grossed £12.3m.
June releases F1 (£10.5m in July), How to Train Your Dragon (£5.2m in July) and 28 Years Later (£4.3m in July) rounded out the month.
Tom Linay, content business director at cinema sales house Digital Cinema Media (DCM), estimated that admissions — figures for which are not officially released until later in the month — are likely to be slightly down year on year for July.
He chalked this up to a difficult comparable from last summer, when Despicable Me 4 and Inside Out 2 drove higher admissions for lower ticket prices.
Whereas Linay described July 2024 as “strong for family content”, this year was comparatively lacking, with Universal’s The Bad Guys 2 (£3.6m) and Paramount’s Smurfs (£3.4m) seeing middling results.
Nevertheless, “another month is up year on year on the box office”, he told The Media Leader, noting that the large number of 16-34 blockbusters didn’t appear to cannibalise each other’s audiences.
Cinema has had a strong 2025 thus far, with increased attendance figures helping to drive a substantial rise in ad revenue for the channel. As the latest Advertising Association and Warc Expenditure Report found, cinema was the fastest-growing media channel in Q1 (+19.2% revenue).
Between F1, How to Train Your Dragon, Jurassic World, Superman and The Fantastic Four, the summer is likely to result in five films earning above £20m.
August preview: Comedy and arthouse
After a month of blockbusters, August brings a more diverse slate.
Comedy reboot The Naked Gun debuts on 1 August, while Disney sequel Freakier Friday comes out next weekend. The Roses, an adaptation of Warren Adler’s 1981 novel The War of the Roses (and which spawned a 1989 film), comes out at the end of the month.
“People are desperate for a big, good comedy,” said Linay. “People have forgotten what it’s really like to laugh in a room full of people.
“You used to get one big comedy a year. We haven’t had that as much and I think that’s gonna come back.”
Mystery and horror fans can look forward to Weapons (Warner Bros), while romance Materialists releases in the UK later in the month.
A string of Oscar contenders are also making their debut: Ari Aster’s Covid-19 story Eddington debuts on 22 August, followed by Darren Aronofsky’s Caught Stealing a week later.
As Linay described: “If you’re a film fan, August is amazing.”
