Lilo & Stitch and Mission: Impossible lead 50% May box office growth
May box office in the UK and Ireland totalled £109m, according to the latest figures from Comscore, representing a 50% increase compared with May 2024.
Year-to-date revenue is now 20% ahead of this time last year and 8% ahead of 2023, following a similarly impressive April.
According to Tom Linay, content business director at cinema sales house Digital Cinema Media (DCM), cinema admissions were up 34% year on year for the month of May, with year-to-date cinema admissions up 11%.
“Every month this year has been over 10m admissions with the exception of March,” he told The Media Leader, referring to that month as a “blip” in an otherwise encouraging start to 2025.
The top film in May was Disney’s live-action remake of Lilo & Stitch, which grossed £27.6m in its first two weeks of release. This makes it already the third-highest-grossing title of the year, behind A Minecraft Movie (£56.5m) and Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (£46.4m).
But there were a number of other solid performers. Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning grossed £19.3m to become the fourth-largest release of 2025 so far. Marvel flick Thunderbolts also earned £16m, while Final Destination Bloodlines drew horror fans to cinemas to the tune of £9.9m.
Rounding out the top five for the month is April holdover Sinners, which earned an additional £7m to bring its total gross to £15.8m.
According to Linay, the strong May growth is reflective of the “really nice mix of films in cinemas at the moment”, as well as strategic releases during the half-term holiday for Lilo & Stitch and Mission: Impossible.
The half-term week in May was the second-biggest week for admissions since Barbenheimer, Linay indicated, fractionally behind Valentine’s Day week this year (carried by Bridget Jones and Captain America: Brave New World).
“During holiday periods, you get really strong mid-weeks as well as weekends,” he explained, adding that mid-week attendance has remained buoyed this past week even after the return to school as “people are finding time to go [to the cinema]” amid a packed film slate.
June preview: John Wick, F1, family fun and a return to a zombie apocalypse
The spring momentum for box office and attendance is likely to carry through to the summer period, said Linay, thanks to a high diversity of quality films coming out in June and July.
June begins with John Wick spin-off Ballerina. Later in the month, Danny Boyle’s much-anticipated zombie flick 28 Years Later debuts on 19 June. Horror fans will additionally be treated to M3GAN 2.0 the following week.
The month also features two major family films: Universal’s live-action remake of How to Train Your Dragon and Pixar’s latest feature, Elio.
For DCM’s part, Brad Pitt’s F1 has provided the “most commercially sought-after spots for the summer”, according to Linay. The racing title debuts on 25 June and “by all accounts, the film absolutely delivers”, he added.
July is shaping up to be a similarly stacked month for blockbusters, with debuts of Jurassic World Rebirth, Superman and The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
Linay concluded: “We’re in a period of growth, but there’s still a lot of room to grow. It takes time and it’s never a straight line.”