UK box office up 14% in H1 as Toy Story 5 leads big June

UK and Ireland box office revenue totalled £99.4m in June, a 29% increase compared with June 2025.

Halfway through the year and box office has already totalled £604.9m, a 14% year-on-year increased compared to H1 2025 and 34% higher than H1 2024.

It is British cinema’s best start to the year since the pandemic disrupted cinemagoing.

Tom Linay, head of film at cinema advertising sales house Digital Cinema Media (DCM), estimated that cinema admissions were also up 9% year-on-year, including a 16% bump in June. (Official admissions figures are released later in the month.)

“These are really good numbers,” he said. “That would be three months in a row where admissions are over 11.5m.”

Linay further shared that DCM’s revenue grew 15% in H1, driven by growing interest from advertisers looking to capitalise on the increase in cinemagoing by appearing next to major cultural moments.

Pixar’s Toy Story 5 was by far the biggest title in June, earning £32.2m within its first two weeks of release to already become the fifth highest-grossing title of the year.

The film is tracking to become the second-biggest animated film of all time in the UK & Ireland, sandwiched between its predecessors Toy Story 4 and Toy Story 3.

The strong early performance bodes well as it has come even before the summer school holidays have fully kicked into gear.

The second highest-grossing film of June was Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day, which grossed £11.3m. Linay commented this performance was “a win for Spielberg and for original science-fiction”.

He continued: “In the last 10 years, [Spielberg’s] films have not been at this level. The last time he earned this much, it was Ready Player One.”

Rounding out June’s top five were three horror titles: spoof-horror reboot Scary Movie (£9m), Obsession (£8.5m; £17m lifetime), and Backrooms (£6m; £12.4m lifetime).

Linay said the performance of Obsession and Backrooms was remarkable, noting that Obsession‘s fifth weekend was its biggest weekend, a rarity that suggests strong word-of-mouth.

Obsession is currently ranked as the fifth-highest-grossing horror film of all time, while Backrooms ranks ninth, and is distributor A24’s highest-grossing title of all-time in the region.

“We’re in the realms of the biggest horror movies of all time with these,” Linay said. “You don’t get horror films this size that often, and we’ve had two that were released in the space of two weeks.”

Other leading titles in June included Masters of the Universe (£5.2m) and holdover Michael (£3.8m; £52.8m lifetime). Supergirl, which debuted during the final week of June, opened to just £3.7m, a far cry from last year’s Superman.

July preview: Odyssey and Spider-Man set to dominate a packed month

“You would think this month would be big,” Linay told The Media Leader.

July plays host to some of the year’s most-anticipated releases, timed to take advantage of the summer holiday.

The month began with Minions & Monsters (1 July), the latest film in the Despicable Me universe. Each of the five  Minions and Despicable Me titles have grossed between £47m and £49m in the UK and Ireland. “It’s my favourite box office stat,” Linay said. “It’s the most consistent franchise.”

Families will also be treated to Disney’s live action remake of Moana on 10 July.

For adult audiences, Olivia Wilde dark comedy The Invite debuts today (3 July).

Undoubtedly, however, the two biggest films of the month — and, in all possibility, the year — come later this month. Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey opens on the 17th and Marvel tentpole Spider-Man: Brand New Day begins previews on the 29th before a wide release on the 31st.

Linay added: “You would imagine The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day are the biggest live action films of the year this year.”