April 16Apr 16 Author 31. Freakier Friday - £8.9 million Here we go again. Years after Tess and Anna endured an identity crisis, Anna now has a daughter of her own and a soon-to-be stepdaughter. As they navigate the myriad challenges that come when two families merge, Tess and Anna discover lightning might indeed strike twice..Director: Nisha GanatraCast: Lindsay Lohan, Jamie Lee Curtis, Julia ButtersRelease Date: 8th August 2025Distributor: DisneyCertification: PGGenre: ComedyRotten Tomatoes: 73%IMDb: 6.2 Top 15 Chart Run: 2-4-2-5-4-8-11-15 (8 weeks)Opening Weekend: £1,758,698 (#2) Lindsay Lohan's big comeback was a big success with this making more than $150 million worldwide against a $45 million budget. This has become her biggest ever hit in the UK, beating out (you wouldn't guess) 'Herbie: Fully Loaded' with made £6.7 million in 2005. The (kinda) original 'Freaky Friday' was only really a cult-hit and made £6.6 million in 2003. Released only a week after 'The Naked Gun', this opened slightly lower but hung around stronger and ended up comfortably winning the legacy-comedy-sequel war.
April 19Apr 19 Author 30. The SpongeBob Movie: Search For SquarePants - £8.9 million Ship's about to go down. Desperate to be a big guy, SpongeBob sets out to prove his bravery to Mr. Krabs by following The Flying Dutchman, a mysterious swashbuckling ghost pirate, on a seafaring adventure that takes him to the deepest depths of the deep sea, where no Sponge has gone before.Director: Derek DrymonCast: Tom Kenny, Clancy Brown, Rodger BumpassRelease Date: 26th December 2025Distributor: ParamountCertification: PGGenre: KidsRotten Tomatoes: 79%IMDb: 5.7 Top 15 Chart Run: 3-5-6-9-11-11-15-x-14 (8 weeks)Opening Weekend: £3,040,355 (#3) Surprisingly, as I don't feel like SpongeBob is as ubiquitous as it once did, this became the most successful SpongeBob movie in the UK, smashing the £8 million of 'SpongeBob: Sponge Out Of Water' (2015) which makes you wonder how well the third SpongeBob film would have done if it didn't skip cinemas during the pandemic. It nearly trebled it's budget worldwide so expect more big screen adventures to come. It must have been the Ice Spice effect!
April 19Apr 19 Author 29. The Roses - £10.3 million All's fair when love is war. Life seems easy for picture-perfect couple Ivy and Theo: successful careers, a loving marriage, great kids. But beneath the façade of their supposed ideal life, a storm is brewing – as Theo’s career nosedives while Ivy’s own ambitions take off, a tinderbox of fierce competition and hidden resentment ignites.Director: Jay RoachCast: Olivia Colman, Benedict Cumberbatch, Andy SambergRelease Date: 29th August 2025Distributor: DisneyCertification: 15Genre: ComedyRotten Tomatoes: 64%IMDb: 6.6 Top 15 Chart Run: 1-2-5-5-6-11-12 (7 weeks)Opening Weekend: £2,183,191 (#1) We have our first 2025 film to pass £10 million. With 29 films doing so, this is one more than in 2024 and four more than in 2023. This is a remake of the 1989 film 'The War Of The Roses' directed by Danny DeVito which was adapted from a 1981 novel. Like I said with 'We Live In Time', I think a lot of this film's success relies on the paring of the lead actors. One of the best-performing British films of the year, Olivia Colman has proved to be a bit of a cheat code for selling British comedies in recent years with 2024's 'Wicked Little Letters' (£9.6 million, EOY #31) also being a huge hit.
April 19Apr 19 Author 28. Snow White - £11.6 million The classic tale comes to life. Following the benevolent King’s disappearance, the Evil Queen dominated the once fair land with a cruel streak. Princess Snow White flees the castle when the Queen, in her jealousy over Snow White’s inner beauty, tries to kill her. Deep into the dark woods, she stumbles upon seven magical dwarves and a young bandit named Jonathan. Together, they strive to survive the Queen’s relentless pursuit and aspire to take back the kingdom.Director: Marc WebbCast: Rachel Zegler, Gal Gadot, Andrew BurnapRelease Date: 21st March 2025Distributor: DisneyCertification: PGGenre: KidsRotten Tomatoes: 39%IMDb: 2.2 Top 15 Chart Run: 1-1-3-5-6-11-14-12 (8 weeks)Opening Weekend: £3,856,173 (#1) The film with the most disastrous production of 2025, 'Snow White' was filmed in 2023 and seemed to face controversy after controversy before reaching the big screen. Peter Dinklage criticised it's announcement in 2022 for the use of dwarves in the story, Zegler shared some (mild) criticisms of the original animated film which paired with her not being white led to the worst people on the internet hating her and there was a reported feud between Zegler and Gadot for their opposing views on the Arab-Israeli conflict. All of this led to the film being 'protested', becoming the most disliked trailer in YouTube history and being review-bombed (look at that ridiculous 2.2 IMDb rating). The budget has been reported as being anything between $270-330 million and it only made $200 million making it one of the biggest bombs of 2025. I saw it (because I love Zegler) and thought it was ok. Disney's other live-action remake last year was much more successful.
April 19Apr 19 Author 27. Final Destination: Bloodlines - £11.6 million Death runs in the family. Plagued by a violent recurring nightmare, college student Stefanie heads home to track down the one person who might be able to break the cycle and save her family from the grisly demise that inevitably awaits them all.Director: Zach Lipovsky & Adam B. SteinCast: Kaitlyn Santa Juana, Teo Briones, Richard HarmonRelease Date: 14th May 2025Distributor: Warner Bros.Certification: 15Genre: HorrorRotten Tomatoes: 92%IMDb: 6.7 Top 15 Chart Run: 1-3-6-6-7-11 (6 weeks)Opening Weekend: £4,009,856 (#1) 2025 was a great year for horror with this being the first of five films in the genre to pass £10 million. For context, only 'Alien: Romulus' (£13.4 million, EOY #21) did it in 2024 and only 'Five Nights At Freddy's' (£10.6 million, EOY #24) did it in 2023. The sixth film in the death-defying series, this came out 15-years after the previous film ('Final Destination 5', £5.3 million) and completely reinvigorated the franchise becoming the best reviewed and biggest film in the franchise worldwide, making over 6x its budget. In the UK, it had to settle as being the second biggest film after 'The Final Destination' (£12.7 million, 2009) rode the 3D-boom to become one of the biggest horrors of all-time.
April 19Apr 19 Author 26. One Battle After Another - £11.8 million Some search for battle. Some are born into it. When their evil nemesis resurfaces after 16 years, a band of ex-revolutionaries reunite to rescue the daughter of one of their own.Director: Paul Thomas AndersonCast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del ToroRelease Date: 26th September 2025Distributor: Warner Bros.Certification: 15Genre: DramaRotten Tomatoes: 94%IMDb: 7.7 Top 15 Chart Run: 1-2-2-5-7-10-12 (7 weeks)Opening Weekend: £2,471,784 (#1) The winner of the Best Picture at the recent Oscars ceremony, this was Paul Thomas Anderson's first time with a big budget and the results align with this making more than double than his previous biggest hit 'There Will Be Blood' (£4.9 million, 2008). To show just how much of a draw DiCaprio is, this was still £1 million short from entering his personal top 10 films of all-time. The best comparison I can think of for this is 'Killers Of The Flower Moon' (£9.9 million, EOY #26, 2023) as that was another awards favourite, epic with a massive budget from an auteur director. It's budget was so high (around $150 million) that it probably has been a bit of a money-loser for Warner Bros. but when it earned this many awards, they'll probably accept that.
April 19Apr 19 One Battle After Another was another Best Picture winner I could get behind a thrilling experience with plenty of depth that didn't feel almost 3 hours long for me. I decided to give Freakier Friday a go and thought Jamie and Lindsay's chemistry was still excellent, but did find the concept a bit much with 4 people now involved.
April 19Apr 19 It's a shame I Swear is likely only going to be remembered for that horrendously overblown BAFTAs controversy, it's a really beautiful, honest and sensitively told film about a really inspirational man and very informative about the condition as well, this controversy is ironic as it definitely has shown there's still a lot that needs to be learned.I saw trailer for Salt Path constantly and I was a bit cynical of that story being true even then, the exposure wasn't too much of a surprise.Actually expected Snow White to be a lot lower than that given the extremely negative response from just about everyone, still a bomb though.One Battle After Another a real highlight of the year, I guess the budget was always going to make it hard to make it all back, but an admirable performance for a 3+ hour film.
April 20Apr 20 I really have watched very few of these in need to try harderFreakiest friday I enjoyed but same as Jade 4 does overcomplicate it a bit much Snow white probably only watched it because of the controversy and tbf it just isn't a great adaption even ignoring all the political correctnessFinal destination brilliant film really want to see how they go from here definitely deserved its success , suprised it was still only the 2nd best but then as you said everyone was obsessed with 3d back when it came out
April 20Apr 20 Author 25. Weapons - £11.8 million Last night at 2:17 AM every child from Mrs. Gandy's class woke up got out of bed went downstairs opened the front door walked into the dark ...And never came back. When all but one child from the same class mysteriously vanish on the same night at exactly the same time, a community is left questioning who or what is behind their disappearance.Director: Zach CreggerCast: Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Alden EhrenreichRelease Date: 8th August 2025Distributor: Warner Bros.Certification: 18Genre: HorrorRotten Tomatoes: 93%IMDb: 7.4 Top 15 Chart Run: 1-1-1-3-3-9-15 (7 weeks)Opening Weekend: £2,818,535 (#1) 2025 was Warner Bros. year, they released eight films that reached #1 in the UK Box office, four of which are still to come (plus another film that missed #1) and they released the biggest 18-certificate film of the year in 'Weapons'. This compares favourably to the preview years where 'Scream VI (£7.7 million, EOY #34, 2023) and 'Poor Things' (£7.6 million, EOY #36, 2024) were the top performers. Comedians-turned-horror director is now a well-trodden path with Jordan Peele ('Get Out', 'Us', 'Nope') and Danny and Michael Philippou ('Talk To Me', 'Bring Her Back') following the same path a Zach Cregger who rose to fame as a member of sketch-group 'The Whitest Kids U' Know'. In terms of a word-of-mouth, well-marketed horror flick, 'Longlegs' feels like the obvious comparison and this outperformed that, ending up with £8.1 million (EOY #35, 2024). This is also the rare-Oscar winning horror film with Amy Madigan winning Best Supporting Actress, 40 years after her only previous nomination for the aptly-titled 'Twice In A Lifetime'.
April 20Apr 20 Author 24. A Complete Unknown - £12.2 million The ballad of a true original. New York, early 1960s. Against the backdrop of a vibrant music scene and tumultuous cultural upheaval, an enigmatic 19-year-old from Minnesota arrives in the West Village with his guitar and revolutionary talent, destined to change the course of American music.Director: James MangoldCast: Timothée Chalamet, Edward Norton, Elle FanningRelease Date: 17th January 2025Distributor: DisneyCertification: 15Genre: BiopicRotten Tomatoes: 82%IMDb: 7.3 Top 15 Chart Run: 1-1-1-2-6-9-11-14 (8 weeks)Opening Weekend: £2,616,302 (#1) James Mangold returned to music-biopics after 'Walk The Line' (£10.4 million) was his mainstream breakthrough in 2006 with Bob Dylan story 'A Complete Unknown. Timothée Chalamet joined Cate Blanchett in earning an Oscar nomination for playing Bob Dylan after she did it in 'I'm Not There' (2007). It fell agonisingly just short of 'Back To Black' (£12.3 million, EOY #24, 2024) in terms of recent music biopics, although both well trail 'Bob Marley: One Love' (£17.2 million, EOY #15, 2024).
April 20Apr 20 Author 23. Nosferatu - £12.9 million Succumb to the darkness. A gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman and the terrifying vampire infatuated with her, causing untold horror in its wake.Director: Robert EggersCast: Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult, Bill SkarsgårdRelease Date: 1st January 2025Distributor: UniversalCertification: 15Genre: HorrorRotten Tomatoes: 85%IMDb: 7.1 Top 15 Chart Run: 1-2-4-6-10 (5 weeks)Opening Weekend: £5,246,910 (#1) The first smash-hit of 2025 and still one of the most surprising, 'Nosferatu' is a modern retelling of the 1922 German film which itself was a rip-off of 'Dracula' after they couldn't get the rights to the character. It's crazy how much of an 'auteur' genre horror has become recently with Robert Eggers building his reputation on highbrow indie hits that grew in popularity with each release: 'The Vvitch' (£1.2 million, 2016), 'The Lighthouse' (£1.4 million, 2020) and 'The Northman' (£4.7 million, 2022). His films have always felt a bit niche so giving him $50 million to remake a 100 year+ film felt like a risk to me but this smashed all expectations and made $182 million worldwide. This outgrossed all of his other films final totals in its opening weekend.
April 20Apr 20 Author 22. Dog Man - £13.8 million Part dog. Part man. All hero. When a faithful police dog and his human police officer owner are injured together on the job, a hare-brained but life-saving surgery fuses the two of them together and Dog Man is born. Dog Man is sworn to protect and serve—and fetch, sit and roll over. As Dog Man embraces his new identity and strives to impress his Chief, he must stop the pretty evil plots of feline supervillain Petey the Cat.Director: Peter HastingsCast: Pete Davidson, Isla Fisher, Lil Rel HoweryRelease Date: 7th February 2025Distributor: UniversalCertification: UGenre: KidsRotten Tomatoes: 82%IMDb: 6.3 Top 15 Chart Run: 1-3-3-3-5-6-9-15 (8 weeks)Opening Weekend: £3,252,537 (#1) Another Universal film and one's who's premise also could have been a horror film in other hands, 'Dog Man' was released in February and managed to hold as the biggest kids animation film for most of the year before eventually ending third. Based on Dav Pilkey's graphic-novels, this is a spin-off to his 'Captain Underpants' series and managed to become a bigger hit than 'Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie' (£8.4 million, 2017). Making $145 million against a $40 million budget, this was a monster success and I bet nearly everyone here forgot it was even released.
April 20Apr 20 Author 21. The Bad Guys 2 - £14.6 million Back in badness. The now-reformed Bad Guys are trying (very, very hard) to be good, but instead find themselves hijacked into a high-stakes, globe-trotting heist, masterminded by a new team of criminals they never saw coming: The Bad Girls.Director: Pierre PerifelCast: Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron, AwkwafinaRelease Date: 25th July 2025Distributor: UniversalCertification: PGGenre: KidsRotten Tomatoes: 87%IMDb: 7.0 Top 15 Chart Run: 3-3-5-6-4-4-5-6-7-10-9-9-13 (13 weeks)Opening Weekend: £1,628,702 (#3) The film that was the first to eventually stop 'Dog Man' being the biggest animated film of the year also came from Universal and was one that just seemed to still around forever. The first 'The Bad Guys' film did something similar opening to £2,279,074 (#3, 2022) and closing with £13.5 million after 12 weeks in the top 10. This film opened pretty much exactly the same, spent the same 12 week run in the top 10 (opening in July and dropping out in October) but ended up finding an extra £1.1 million during that time. Earning this much and only peaking at #3 is insane! Very unfortunate to just miss out on the top 20.
April 21Apr 21 Author 20. 28 Years Later - £15.6 million Time didn't heal anything. Twenty-eight years after the Rage virus outbreak, a heavily-defended island survives connected to the mainland by a single causeway. When one of the group leaves the island into the dark heart of the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders, and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors as well.Director: Danny BoyleCast: Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jack O'ConnellRelease Date: 20th June 2025Distributor: SonyCertification: 15Genre: HorrorRotten Tomatoes: 88%IMDb: 6.6 Top 15 Chart Run: 1-2-4-5-7-10-14 (7 weeks)Opening Weekend: £4,780,374 (#1) '28 Years Later' didn't quite take 28-years to hit cinemas, releasing only 18-years after '28 Weeks Later' in 2007. There were questions whether this would do well, especially with the budget upped to $60 million but this ended up doing more than what the original two films did combined in their first releases ('28 Days Later' - £6.3 million, '28 Weeks Later - £5.4 million). It ended up being Danny Boyle's third-biggest film and not landing too far behind 'T2 Trainspotting' (£17 million). This was the planned opener to a new trilogy of films and it looked positive but we'll have to see if the underperformance of this year's 'The Bone Temple' will make them rethink. 2025 was a pretty solid year at the box office, exemplified by the fact that you needed to earn £15.6 million to reach the top 20 this year versus £13.2 million ('Wish') in 2023 and £13.8 million ('The Wild Robot') in 2024.
April 21Apr 21 Author 19. Marty Supreme - £16.1 million Dream big. Marty Mauser, a young man with a dream no one respects, goes to hell and back in pursuit of greatness.Director: Josh SafdieCast: Timothée Chalamet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A'zionRelease Date: 26th December 2025Distributor: Entertainment FilmCertification: 15Genre: DramaRotten Tomatoes: 93%IMDb: 7.7 Top 15 Chart Run: 5-3-4-5-6-7-7-12 (8 weeks)Opening Weekend: £1,388,196 (#5) If anyone says that they always knew that 'Marty Supreme' was going to be amongst the top 20 films of the year and outgross numerous blockbusters, then you're a liar. It had a high budget ($70 million) but has made $180 million worldwide so made a handsome profit. This opened in a fairy small amount of cinemas (having the best per-theatre average for any film released in 100-250 cinemas since '12 Years A Slave' in 2014) but exploded in weekend two as it opened wider having a 98% increase in business. It had a non-traditional marketing campaign (odd TikToks, a clothing range) and it proved to be a great strategy. Even with this huge success, it was only the fourth biggest 'Best Picture' nominee of this award season (with two of them still to come in this list and one in the 2026 list).
April 21Apr 21 Author 18. Thunderbolts* - £16.1 million Careful who you assemble. After finding themselves ensnared in a death trap, seven disillusioned castoffs must embark on a dangerous mission that will force them to confront the darkest corners of their pasts.Director: Jake SchreierCast: Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Lewis PullmanRelease Date: 1st May 2025Distributor: DisneyCertification: 12AGenre: SuperheroRotten Tomatoes: 88%IMDb: 7.1 Top 15 Chart Run: 1-1-2-5-9 (5 weeks)Opening Weekend: £5,979,242 (#1) Marvel's attempt at a Suicide Squad, despite earning the best reviews of the franchise for quite a while, couldn't buck the underperforming trend only making about $380 million worldwide. Director Jake Schrieier returned to film after a 10-year break where he made his name on prestige TV (as well as directing one of my favourite music videos, 'Want You Back' by HAIM). Despite the underperformance, Marvel were still impressed enough to hire him to direct their upcoming X-Men film.
April 21Apr 21 Author 17. Sinners - £16.7 million Dance with the devil. Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back.Director: Ryan CooglerCast: Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, Miles CatonRelease Date: 18th April 2025Distributor: Warner Bros.Certification: 15Genre: HorrorRotten Tomatoes: 97%IMDb: 7.5 Top 15 Chart Run: 2-2-2-2-3-6-10-15-x-12-15-14 (11 weeks)Opening Weekend: £2,424,954 (#2) The most nominated film of all-time at the Oscars, 'Sinners' climbed back above 'Thunderbolts*' after a well-timed awards season re-release. The word of mouth for this film was insane with it only dropping 1% in its second week and missing the top spot by less than £100k. It was so unlucky to spend four weeks at #2 behind two major releases ('A Minecraft Movie' and 'Thunderbolts*'). The only films that have performed this for both director Ryan Coogler and star Michael B. Jordan are the 'Black Panther' films. I know its very reductive to focus on Hailee Steinfeld out of everything in this movie, but my god I loved her in this.
April 21Apr 21 Author 16. Captain America: Brave New World - £18 million The future favours the brave. After meeting with newly elected U.S. President Thaddeus Ross, Sam finds himself in the middle of an international incident. He must discover the reason behind a nefarious global plot before the true mastermind has the entire world seeing red.Director: Julius OnahCast: Anthony Mackie, Harrison Ford, Danny RamirezRelease Date: 14th February 2025Distributor: DisneyCertification: 12AGenre: SuperheroRotten Tomatoes: 46%IMDb: 5.6 Top 15 Chart Run: 2-2-2-4-5-10 (6 weeks)Opening Weekend: £6,404,345 (#2) We have our second MCU-film of the section and this became only the 2nd out of 37 MCU films to miss the #1 spot. The other being 'Captain America: The First Avenger' in 2011. The only positive news for Mackie's future as the character is that opened higher than the first two Chris Evans Captain America films, although it only beat the first film's final total. $415 million grossed against $180 million means it probably made some money but probably not enough for Sam Wilson to be the face of the MCU going forward.
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