24 Aug Summer Box Office Won’t Reach $4 Billion Milestone After All [Variety]
BY REBECCA RUBIN
August 24, 2025 | Heading into the summer, Hollywood was bullish that several promising blockbusters would be able to propel ticket sales above $4 billion for only the second time since the pandemic. But as the season winds to a close, it’s clear the domestic box office will fall short of that lofty benchmark.
Overall revenues from May 1 to Aug. 24 have reached $3.53 billion, according to Comscore. Popcorn season is typically the most profitable period for the movie business, with revenues regularly accounting for around 40% of the annual box office. But domestic ticket sales have only surpassed the $4 billion figure once since COVID lockdowns, during the glory days of “Barbenheimer” in 2023.
Disney’s “Lilo & Stitch” is the highest-grossing film of the summer with $421 million in North America and $1.03 billion globally. It’s the only 2025 release from a Hollywood studio to cross $1 billion. Other bright spots were “Jurassic World Rebirth” with $844 million, “How to Train Your Dragon” with $626 million, “Superman” with $604 million, “F1: The Movie” with $603 million, plus A24’s indie hit “Materialists” with $85 million and Zach Cregger’s sleeper hit “Weapons” with $199 million to date.
But those box office wins weren’t enough to offset a number underperforming tentpoles, like “Thunderbolts*” ($382 million) and “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” ($471 million), neither of which lived up to the heights of prior Marvel movies, as well as Pixar’s “Elio” ($150 million), “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” ($597 million) and “M3GAN 2.0” ($39 million). In the case of the latest “Mission: Impossible,” the film’s outsized $400 million budget makes it a major money loser despite its high gross. Compounding those disappointments, the season lacked a runaway sensation on the size and scale of 2024’s “Inside Out 2” ($1.69 billion), 2023’s “Barbie” ($1.44 billion) or 2022’s “Top Gun: Maverick” ($1.49 billion).
“On paper, 2025 boasted one of the strongest slates of summer movies ever,” said senior Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “What was not considered was that the summer movie ecosystem is very fragile; there is no margin for error. August this year is when things really slowed down. And with no July holdover smash like last year’s ‘Deadpool & Wolverine,’ the momentum was hurt in the home stretch of the season.”