What a way to start 2025! Thedomestic boxoffice pulled in a total of$42.9Mon New Year’s Day. That’s higher than each of 2022, 2023, and 2024.
One major difference is the breadth of films currently doing well at the box office.
Eight different films broke the $1 million mark. That wasn’t the case in previous years.
In 2022, it was just five pictures:Spider-Man: No Way Home,Sing 2,The King’s Man,American Underdog, andThe Matrix Resurrections.
In 2023, only four crossed $1M:Avatar: The Way of Water,Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, andWhitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody. (Three sequels and a documentary).
2024 saw a similar range to 2025, with eight films passing $1M, but the ceiling was lower.
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Our Take On The New Year’s Day Box Office
Notice, also, the longevity of the movies winning in 2025. Three have been out for over a month. That endurance is always a good sign, as long tails tend to correspond with a healthy casual theater-going audience.
The core theater audience tends to see things in the first two weeks of release, which is reflected in the 2024 numbers. Everything exceptWonkahad been out for less than 14 days.
I read the 2025 numbers as not only a sign that theaters have brought back more of their core audience but that they’ve gained ground in the fight with streamers. People aren’t just waiting forGladiator II,Moana 2, andWickedto hit Netflix or Max. They’re still excited to see these films on the big screen.
While the success of blockbuster sequels is to be expected, it’s exciting to see three R-rated films—Nosferatu,A Complete Unknown, andBabygirl—make up nearly a quarter of the total box office. It shows that the appetite of the audience isn’t just PG movies made for mass consumption. Thoughtful, serious, auteur-driven works still have value.
Overall, this seems to bode well for everyone who loves seeing movies in the theaters.
