Lowest October Box Office in Three Decades Recorded in 2025

According to CINEMADRAME News Agency, critically acclaimed films such as The Mastermind, A Simple Accident directed by Jafar Panahi, and Blue Moon were released this October, yet box office sales hit their lowest point in the past thirty years. The Hollywood Reporter reported that U.S. box office revenue for October 2025 was around $425 million, marking a slump unseen since 1997—not adjusted for inflation and excluding pandemic-era sales. In 1997, films earned $385 million, which is equivalent to $779 million today when adjusted for inflation.

Delays related to Hollywood strikes during the summer two years ago are cited as one factor contributing to the decline. Disney’s Tron: Ares failed to meet expectations, grossing just $63 million after three weeks, but it remained the month’s top-grossing film. It was followed by Black Phone 2 and Official Release Party of a Showgirl, each earning $34 million.

Other films that struggled to attract audiences included Kiss of the Spider-Woman starring Jennifer Lopez, The Smashing Machine starring Dwayne Johnson, Anemone starring Daniel Day-Lewis, After the Hunt starring Julia Roberts, and Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere.

Cinema owners and Hollywood studios are hoping that November releases, including Zootopia 2, Predator: Badlands, The Running Man, and Wicked: For Good, will revive theater attendance.

Sunday Update: Paramount’s Regretting You Tops North American Box Office

According to reports, Paramount’s Regretting You earned $8.1 million over the Halloween weekend in its second week, surpassing Universal’s Black Phone 2, which grossed $8 million, to claim the top spot at the North American box office. Paramount reports these figures, but other studios indicate that Black Phone 2 led with $8 million while Regretting You earned $7.2 million, placing second.

Netflix’s Kpop Demon Hunters added $5.3 million this weekend, bringing its domestic total to $24.3 million and ranking third. The musical animation was released in a limited run in August, earning $18 million.

Regretting You saw a 41% drop from its opening weekend and, with a $30 million budget, has now surpassed $50 million in global box office revenue.

Black Phone 2 has grossed $61 million domestically and $104 million worldwide, making it the only Blumhouse film in 2025 to surpass the $100 million mark. However, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, scheduled for December, is expected to reach a similar milestone.

The fifth-highest-grossing film in North America this weekend was Bugonia, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, which earned $4.8 million in 2,043 theaters. Starring Emma Stone as a tech CEO abducted by two conspiracy theorists, the film received a B CinemaScore from audiences, with 61% of viewers male and nearly 39% aged 24–34.

The total box office for Halloween weekend reached $53.5 million, marking the lowest weekend gross of the year since March 14–16, when Paramount’s Novocaine earned $8.8 million for a $52.1 million weekend.

Following the lowest October box office in 27 years, Disney and U.S. theater owners are hoping that Predator: Badlands, starring Elle Fanning, will reverse the recent slump. In recent weeks, films such as Tron: Ares and The Smashing Machine have failed to meet expectations.

Earlier: Lowest October Box Office in 27 Years Coincides with Year’s Lowest Weekend

Deadline reported that all films were expected to earn around $49 million over the Halloween weekend, marking a record low not seen since the beginning of January. In addition to Halloween festivities, another factor contributing to the slump was a baseball game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays.

Universal and Blumhouse’s The Black Phone 2 earned $7.6 million in its third week, marking a 41% drop. Having surpassed $61 million domestically, it remained at the top, with $2.4 million on Halloween alone, making it the highest-grossing film in the U.S. that day. Bugonia, starring Emma Stone, earned $1.8 million, placing second.

The anime film Kpop Demon Hunters earned $600,000 on Friday across 2,890 theaters and began its second week with $3.4 million.

Bugonia, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, was produced on a $45 million budget, with Fox paying several million more to acquire the film. Its wide-opening weekend gross of $4.4 million across 2,043 theaters marks the filmmaker’s best debut to date. Audiences gave Bugonia a B CinemaScore and an 80% rating on PostTrak, with 53% recommending it.

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, which had a similar budget to Bugonia, opened with $8.8 million. However, the two films target different audiences—one appealing to younger viewers, the other to middle-aged men, many of whom chose not to attend the cinema. If Bugonia reaches $30 million domestically and surpasses $100 million worldwide, it will match the records of Lanthimos’s previous works. His past hits include The Favourite, which earned $34.3 million in the U.S. and $95.9 million globally, and Poor Things, with $34.5 million domestic and $117.6 million worldwide.

Fox handled Bugonia similarly to The Conclave, opting for a mid-fall release rather than a Thanksgiving or Christmas launch. The weekend gross of Bugonia now matches the total domestic earnings of Lanthimos’s Kinds of Kindness, which in June 2024 earned only $5 million in the U.S. and $16.4 million overall.

Bugonia’s audience is 61% male and 63% aged 18–34. Among ticket buyers, approximately 53% are of European descent, 24% Latinx, 7% Black, 7% Asian, and 6% Native American.

The animated film Stitch Head from Briarcliff Entertainment is projected to reach about $2.2 million by Sunday. Based on 26 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a 69% score.

The political drama Anniversary from Roadside Attractions, starring Diane Lane, Kyle Chandler, Dylan O’Brien, Phoebe Dynevor, and Zoey Deutch, which depicts a close-knit family fractured by a movement called “Change” in the U.S., will gross approximately $247,000 across 809 theaters, or $305 per theater. The film has a 67% rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 43 reviews.

According to Comscore, total October box office revenue has reached $440 million, an unprecedented low since the late 1990s. The highest-grossing October in U.S. cinema history was 2018, with $832.8 million, when Venom, A Star Is Born, and Halloween collectively earned $481 million. October 2024 grossed $478 million. In October 2021, as audiences gradually returned to theaters post-pandemic, Dune, No Time to Die, and Venom 2, along with other releases, brought the monthly total to $645 million.

As of October 30, 2025, annual box office revenue has reached $7 billion, showing a 3% increase compared to last year but still 24% below 2019’s total of $9.26 billion.