THE WEDNESDAY CHARTS | August and 2025 year-to-date box office summary | Summer 2025 | September preview | September 3, 2025
August and summer 2025 were a mixed bag.
It’s time for August and summer 2025 box office numbers, with a preview of the September lineup —
THE WEDNESDAY CHARTS | August and 2025 year-to-date box office summary | Summer 2025 | September preview | September 3, 2025
1) August 2025 at the box office
- The August domestic box office was down -14.6% compared with the pre-pandemic average (the average of August 2019/2018/2017). It's not a great number, but it does continue to close the year-to-date gap between 2025 and the pre-pandemic average.
August was down -24.6% compared with last year, when Deadpool & Wolverine broke records, and It Ends With Us and Alien: Romulus opened to $50 million and $42 million, respectively. August 2024 was a gigantic month, helping bring 2024 a long way back.
- This year’s August was driven by Weapons, three modest sequels (Freakier Friday 2, The Bad Guys 2, Naked Gun 4), and two days of KPop Demon Hunters.
Without Weapons and KPop — both original stories that were not on the map just three months ago — August would have struggled badly. Those two movies provided a lot of help:
- Year-to-date, the box office is now down -23.5% compared with pre-pandemic levels. Business continues to run ahead of last year, but that margin is shrinking; it’s now up +4.8% — you can see it above.
Starting the year down -45.7% during the first three months is simply an impossible burden to carry the rest of the year.