February box office down 18% amid meagre film slate
The UK and Ireland February box office totalled £82.2m, an 18% decline compared with February 2025.
As predicted last month by DCM’s content business director, Tom Linay, a lull in the film slate performed poorly compared to last February, when Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy and Captain America: Brave New World contributed £38.3m and £16.1m to the box office, respectively.
However, given cinema’s stronger-than-expected January, the year-to-date box office is running just 1% behind last year.
Linay estimated that February attendance was down roughly 15% year-on-year. Official attendance figures are released later in the month.
While DCM anticipated that February would likely be one of the weakest months of the year, it still performed “a little stronger than expected”, according to Linay.
The top film of February was Emerald Fennell’s much-anticipated Wuthering Heights, which grossed £22m during the month amid mixed reviews from critics.
The title’s £7.6m Valentine’s Day-aligned opening weekend was the second-highest for a romance title released after the Covid-19 pandemic, behind Mad About The Boy (£12.3m), and the ninth-highest February opener of all time.
However, just one other title cracked the £10m mark in February. Animated basketball comedy film Goat grossed £11.9m, including a £3.5m opening weekend.
Other films saw more modest returns. Horror sequel Scream 7 was the third-highest-grossing movie of the month despite its 26 February release date, with £4.9m earned during the month.
As Linay noted, Scream 7 achieved the series’ highest-grossing opening weekend (£3.8m), which he described as “probably a sign of decent health” in cinemagoing.
This was followed by Sam Raimi’s horror flick Send Help (£4.2m) and thriller Crime 101 (£3.9m). January holdovers Zootropolis 2 (£3.3m) and The Housemaid (£2.8m) also cracked February’s top 10.
Linay commented that it was “nice to see mid-budget films doing okay”, adding that Lionsgate “smashed it” with The Housemaid, which is by far the top-grossing film of the year to date (£32m).
March preview: No need for a Hail Mary
March is shaping up to be a much more competitive month than February, thanks to an easier year-on-year comparable and a more robust film slate.
The month begins this weekend with the release of Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride! and Pixar’s latest original feature animation, Hoppers.
The most anticipated film of the month is Ryan Gosling’s sci-fi flick Project Hail Mary, which premieres on 20 March after previews the week prior.
“This is a book that people love, and it sounds like it’s been done very well,” Linay explained, referencing early critical response.
The end of the month sees a spattering of family-friendly films well-timed to run during the Easter holiday. These include Enid Blyton adaptation The Magic Faraway Tree and Bluey feature Bluey At The Cinemas: Playdates with Friends, both debuting on 27 March.
Looking further ahead, DCM is already looking to promote April’s The Super Mario Galaxy Movie to agencies. Linay shared with The Media Leader that the sales house will be conducting a roadshow featuring Mario Kart races on the Nintendo Switch.
