Step by step the prosperous summer season has here. After April woke up the global box office, a wave of blockbusters accelerated the business in May. The more consistent, diverse and uninterrupted release calendar is finally starting to stabilize the industry.
The International (excluding China) and Domestic markets recorded the highest grossing May since 2019 ($2.8bn) with a total of $2.4 billion. That is +40% up on May last year and +3% on the same month in 2023, when GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3, FAST X and THE LITTLE MERMAID opened. The gap to the average of the last three pre-pandemic years (2017-2019) was at a narrow -6%!
The Global cume at the end of May is approximately $13.4 billion. Comfortably +13% ahead of 2024 and on par with 2023, the highest grossing first five months in any year so far this decade. This is still helped significantly by China being +24% ahead of 2023 thanks to the huge performance of NE ZHA 2. While Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) (-3%) and Domestic (-4%) are only marginally behind, the sub-regions of Asia Pacific and Latin America are still trailing -14% and -15%, respectively, against 2023. The Global cume remains -19% (or $3.1 billion) behind the pre-pandemic three-year average.
On this month’s Global Box Office Tracker (GBOT, above), the stacked bar graph on the left shows total box office levels split out by the three key global markets: Domestic, China and International (excluding China). The pie chart indicates the current deficit compared to the average of the three pre-pandemic years (2017-2019) and where those losses are currently coming from. The bar graph on the bottom right displays the percentage drops globally.
Top Titles
The group of this month’s four biggest global new releases combinedly grossed $1.47 billion! Two strong holdovers added another $275 million.
Clearly the highest grossing new release in May was Disney’s live action version of LILO & STITCH, generating a global box office of $555 million within the month. Disney also released the second highest-grossing global movie in May with Marvel’s THUNDERBOLTS*. The MCU ensemble grossed $368 million within the month.
The third global release crossing the $300 million mark in May was Paramount’s MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING contributing $320 million.
Warner Bros’ FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES was fourth with $222 million within the month, while the studio also scored with two strong April holdovers. SINNERS added an impressive $160 million in May to bring its cume to $348 million at the end of the month, while A MINECRAFT MOVIE contributed another $115 million in May for a cume of $946 million at month’s end.
Domestic
As in April, the Domestic market had a stand-out performance among the major global markets in May. By grossing $970 million, it had the best May performance since 2019 ($1.08bn), +22% above the same month in 2022 ($796m), the previous best. This is only marginally (-2%) below the level of the pre-pandemic three-year average. It is also the fourth best result in that metric since March 2020, just behind the peaks in August last year (+15%), July 2023 (+11%) and August 2023 (+7%).
At the end of May, the Domestic cume for the running year is at $3.3 billion. That is +23% above last year at the same time and now only -4% below the period in 2023. Due to the thriving May the gap to the three-year average continued to narrow significantly from -37% a month ago to -29% now. Coming down from a peak of -47% at the end of March!
International (exc. China)
For the second month in a row the International box office (excluding China) didn’t reach the Domestic market’s heights in May, despite having a very good month as well, grossing $1.4 billion in May. This was just -9% below the pre-pandemic average for the month and comfortably +23% up on May last year and -7% behind the one in 2023.
China
In contrast to the global box office trend, the #1 market in the running year, operated at the low end of all major markets for the third month in a row. In a hangover from the astonishing success of NE ZHA 2, the Chinese box office just cumulated $241 million in May. This is the second lowest May result of the past five years, -55% percent below the pre-pandemic average. For the third consecutive month China had a performance less than half of the three-year average. March, April and May recorded the widest gap to the historic benchmark of the past 12 months.
The third consecutive catastrophic month further swallows the historic Chinese New Year / NE ZHA 2 credit. After being up on the three-year average by +72% at the end of February, this dropped to +7% now. Nevertheless, after five months in 2025 the Chinese box office cume is at $3.8 billion; still nearly +$500 million ahead of the current Domestic cume. This is very likely to change in June.
Outlook
The lack of a constant flow of audience appealing product was a major issue for the recovery of the Global box office since the pandemic shock. Finally, this is becoming less of an issue. For the second month in a row multiple global blockbusters were on offer and broke through.
This is going to continue in June. Filled with strong holdovers the marketplace receives at least one wide release a week. BALLERINA, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, MATERIALISTS, 28 YEARS LATER, ELIO, F1® THE MOVIE and M3GAN 2.0 are a convincing group of movies catering to diverse audience demographics. At last, we reached a stage again, where the pressure of the industry is not laid on the shoulder of a single movie, in the absence of alternatives. This freedom, variety and choice should let the theatrical industry grow further. May was only the start of an anticipated sizzling summer!
