For a normally calm month this September was a very strong one. The Global box office recorded $2.3 billion, the highest grossing September of the decade! It tends to be the lowest grossing global month of the year; a break between the hot summer that went by and the busy Q4 to come. This year, while still the second lowest grossing month of 2025, far ahead of March (+29%), the September performance against the three-year average (2017-2019) was the second best, being only -7% below. The International box office (excluding China) even nearly matched the pre-pandemic benchmark in September (-1%).
After nine months in 2025 the total Global box office is estimated to have reached $25.2 billion. That is right in-between the past two years at that point, +7% above the same period last year and -7% below the one in 2023. The Global cume is -16% (or $4.9 billion) behind the pre-pandemic three-year average, the narrowest since March.
Top Titles
September this year was dominated by two global releases grossing $803 million combined within the month. Over a third (35%) of the worldwide gross this month.
The highest grossing global movie in September was Warner Bros.’ THE CONJURING: LAST RITES with a phenomenal $441 million. This final chapter already outgrossed all other instalments of the massive horror franchise.
The second highest grossing global release was Japan’s anime smash DEMON SLAYER: INFINITY CASTLE, adding $362 million within September for a cume of $614 million. This was mainly driven by the impressive roll-out outside of Asia this month by Sony / Crunchyroll.
International box office (excluding China)
An International skew of the major global releases in the market supported an overperformance of the International box office (excluding China) in September. The region contributed 57% of the worldwide box office in the month. This is the second highest share of the year so far and even above the month’s historical strong 54%.
The International box office (excluding China) was also only -1% below the pre-pandemic average for the month. That is the smallest gap of the past 12 months and the 3rd best this decade! Nevertheless, September generally remained the soft box office month it is historically, grossing just $1.3 billion, the fourth lowest monthly result in the past 12. Compared to historically being the lowest grossing month of the year, this time September will at least rank a bit higher.
Domestic
The Domestic market had a solid September. It achieved $602 million. This is just -13% below the three-year average; the sixth best of the past 12 months. It’s also the second highest grossing September this decade, marginal -3% behind the same month last year, when BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE reigned the Domestic box office. Nevertheless, it is one of only three markets that stayed negative year-on-year for the month among the tracked Top 20 major markets.
As usual, September has a smaller range of titles released in the Domestic market. This year for the first time two titles crossed $100 million: THE CONJURING: LAST RITES ($163m) and DEMON SLAYER: INFINITY CASTLE ($120m). Combined these two titles contributed nearly half (47%) of the month’s box office. One further title grossed over $40 million, DOWNTON ABBEY: THE GRAND FINALE – the most since 2019. However, no more titles got over $30 million, which makes it one less title in sum getting over that benchmark in September than in the past two years.
At the end of September, the Domestic cume for the running year is at $6.6 billion. That is +3% above last year at the same time and -8% below the period in 2023. September finished an encouraging quarter narrowing the gap to the three-year average significantly from -29% at the end of Q2 to -23% now.
China
For the second month in a row, China had a local box office break out hit. The World War 2 drama 731 grossed $214 million in September. A commanding 57% market share for the month! That makes it already the fifth highest grossing title at the Chinese box office in 2025 so far.
September performed just -14% below the pre-pandemic average. The third best month by that metric this year. Only behind the record start of the year, with February (+81%) and January (+53%). September had a box office of $373 million. That is the second-best September of the decade, only behind the same month in 2023 (-6%) and a massive +83% above the poor result last year.
At the end of September, the Chinese cume for 2025 stands at $5.9 billion, which is the second best of the decade. Clearly +20% on last year, the third-highest growth of the tracked Top 20 major markets. Just -8% below 2023 at the same point in time. The good result in August helped China to stop their year-to-date gap to the three-year average from further widening, staying stable at -7%, same as a month prior, though still a long way down from the peak of +72% at the end of February.
Outlook
Nine months are gone already of 2025. A solid state between the past two years at that point. The most recent Quarter built some momentum being the second-best Quarter since 2019. Only behind Q3 of 2023 (-13%), when the BARBENHEIMER phenomenon took over.
Three more promising months to go! October starts with the Golden Week in China and the global release of Disney’s TRON: ARES. This is then followed by Universal horror-hit sequel BLACK PHONE 2 plus an attractive bouquet of mid-size entries catering to different demographics with comedy GOOD FORTUNE, Colleen Hoover adaptation REGRETTING YOU. and biopic SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE.
This should be the prologue for 2025’s grand finale. Complemented by multiple capable counter-programmers, three of the major releases of 2025 are coming in the final two months of the year: WICKED: FOR GOOD, ZOOTOPIA 2 and AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH!
