2025 has been an up-and-down year at the box office, and unfortunately, October is going to go down as a major low point in this rollercoaster of a year — so much so that we’re looking at the worst October in terms of domestic ticket sales in nearly three decades, not counting 2020 when theaters were shut down for most of the year due to the pandemic. This month was about as bad as could be, and worse than anyone could have predicted.
The October 2025 box office will go down as the worst in 27 years sans 2020, with total ticket revenue for the month totaling around $425 million. For context, the last time non-Covid year October ticket sales were lower was back in 1997, when the month totaled $385.2 million. Mind you, that is unadjusted for inflation. If we take inflation into account, that number would be closer to $779 million in today’s dollars. That is sobering.
Revenues for the month of October peaked in 2018 with $832.8 million, led by Sony’s superhero hit “Venom,” which ended up making $856 million worldwide and $190 million of that in North America that month. October 2018 also included massive hits like “A Star Is Born” and the “Halloween” reboot.”
October 2025 stands in stark contrast to those high highs, as just about everything has been a disappointment or a relatively small win. Hits like “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc,” which recently opened at number one with $18 million domestically, can only do so much to make up for the many, many misfires Hollywood has endured over the last 30 days or so.
Everything went wrong at the box office in October
Aside from “Black Phone 2,” which opened to $27.3 million earlier this month, just about every other big movie has either been a relative disappointment, a small win, or an outright flop. There has been virtually nothing to help make up for the losses along the way. Case in point, “Black Phone 2” is the second-biggest movie thus far in the month of October with about $52 million domestically and counting.
The number one movie? Disney’s massive flop “Tron: Ares,” led by Jared Leto, who has asserted himself as box office poison at this point. Against a budget of over $200 million, the movie opened to just $33.2 million domestically and leads the month of October overall with lousy $64 million and change. Having a big flop like that atop the charts is a bad sign, and it gets worse.
In the number three spot is Warner Bros.’ pricey “One Battle After Another,” which remains a big flop relative to its outsized budget. It’s coming up on $40 million domestically during the month of October, which isn’t much, but it’s far more than many other adult-focused awards season hopefuls have pulled in this month. “Roofman” ($19.9 million), “Regretting You” ($16.9 million), “Good Fortune” ($12.6 million), “The Smashing Machine” ($11.3 million), and “The Strangers: Chapter 2” ($7.8 million) all put up anemic numbers, doing little to motivate moviegoers en masse.
The misses have far outweighed the hits, and the hits have been too small to make a difference. Yes, “Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl” pulled in $33 million on a single weekend, but that was a limited event. It wasn’t like “The Eras Tour,” which helped lift the box office for weeks on end. It was a one-and-done.
Can November and December turn things around?
As a result of this terrible stretch, theaters are all but starving to death as movies like “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” ($10.8 million) and “After the Hunt” ($3 million) have done little to move the needle. The month will end on a dour note, as the Halloween weekend box office will be led by the likes of “Bugonia” and another round of “KPop Demon Hunters.” The returns will be tiny.
So, where does that leave us? Hollywood and theater owners alike are going to have to hope that November and December deliver the goods and we can finish the year strong. The good news is, on paper, there is a lot to look forward to. November 7 sees the release of “Predator: Badlands,” while November 14 is packed with “The Running Man,” “Keeper,” and “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t.” Then things really pick up with “Wicked: For Good” on November 21, followed by “Zootopia 2” headed into Thanksgiving.
As for December? The deck is stacked with the likes of “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2,” “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” “Anaconda,” and more. There is reason to believe the final two months of the year will be a major improvement. Is it going to be enough to offset the bad this year has brought? That remains to be seen.
With months like this, it’s easy to see why the global box office may never fully recover from the pandemic. Moviegoing habits have changed too much. The bar for what gets people out of the house has been raised too high. Things are more uncertain than they’ve ever been, and that uncertainty doesn’t appear to be going anywhere any time soon.
