Last year, November was a breakthrough. It was the first November since 2019 that had an attractive fuller release calendar to sustain the recovery reached in prior months. This November may not have provided an additional step forward, but it stabilized last year’s progress on a global scale. A comeback of US-titles succeeding in China compensated for minor shortfalls elsewhere.
Global box office generated $2.6 billion in November. That is just marginally -1% below the same month last year and clearly the 2nd highest grossing November since 2019! Compared to the average of the last three pre-pandemic years (2017-2019) the gap was just -14%.
At the end of November the cume of the total Global box office in 2025 is estimated to have reached $29.7 billion. That continues to be right in-between the past two years at that point, +5% above the same period last year and -4% below the one in 2023. The Global cume is -18% (or $6.4 billion) behind the pre-pandemic three-year average.
The top 4 global releasing movies this month contributed a combined box of $1.3 billion, half of the global total. This is a huge step up from last month. All four titles have individually clearly outgrossed the October top box office of TRON: ARES ($130m).
The highest grossing global movie in November was Disney’s ZOOTOPIA 2 with an incredible $556 million after just one weekend! Making it the highest global opening for an animated movie of all time. Further the highest global opening this year and the 4th highest of all time. Universal’s sequel to last year’s breakout Broadway-adaptation WICKED grossed an impressive $393 million in November. The third highest grossing global release in November was NOW YOU SEE ME, NOW YOU DON’T achieving $187 million within the month. This was followed by the Disney release of 20th Century Studios’ PREDATOR: BADLANDS with $174 million.
China
For the first time in ages the Chinese box office shared multiple global hits as theirs as well. Three of their top 5 titles were also among the aforementioned releases. Above all was the tremendous result of ZOOTOPIA 2 at #1, grossing $272 million on its opening weekend. That is nearly half (49%) of the title’s global November result. It’s further already outgrossed the very successful lifetime of the first instalment ($257m) and is the highest grossing US-movie in China since AVENGERS: ENDGAME ($627m), which is also the all-time leader.
At #2 the Chinese box office welcomed Japanese anime smash DEMON SLAYER: INFINITY CASTLE grossing $88 million. At #3 NOW YOU SEE ME, NOW YOU DON’T contributed $37 million.
Due to this set of results and especially due to ZOOTOPIA 2 this November pushed the market to perform +7% above the pre-pandemic three-year average. The third best value of that metric this year. Grossing $502 million in November, the Chinese market continued its recovery since July after contracting a bit in October. Behind the record-breaking start of the year in January and February the five months since July have been the highest grossing of the year. Moreover, in all its volatility since the start of this decade, November has consistently been one of the weakest months in China. Not this year. It’s the highest grossing November since 2018, surpassing the strongest November of the decade in 2021 by +89%!
Because of the strong November China narrowed its year-to-date gap to the three-year average slightly from -12% at the end of October to -11% now. Still, harshly down from the peak of +72% at the end of February. The Chinese cume for 2025 stands at $6.8 billion, which is the second best of the decade. Clearly up +19% on last year, the second-highest growth of the tracked Top 20 major markets. Just -5% below 2023 at the same point in time.
International box office (excluding China)
Not as outstanding as China, the International box office (excluding China) had a solid November. The region provided $1.3 billion to the global box office. It was the second highest grossing November of the decade. Clearly ahead of the years 2021 to 2023 (2021: +33%; 2022: +22%; 2023: +17%) and just -11% below last year’s November. The gap to the pre-pandemic average for the month was ranked in the middle of the past 12 at #7.
Domestic
The Domestic market had a good November, grossing $813 million and having a -19% gap to the pre-pandemic average. This put it in the middle of the past 12 months at rank #6. This November performed clearly in double digits ahead of the years 2021 to 2023 (2021: +53%; 2022: +24%; 2023: +42%). Conversely, it trailed last year’s November by -12%. This marks the sixth month in row which grossed less than the same month last year.
For the first time since July the Domestic market had a title grossing more than $200 million within the month. WICKED: FOR GOOD generated a massive $269 million in November. That is 68% of the global monthly cume for the title! It illustrates the Anglo-American skew of the franchise, while UK & Ireland and Australia contributed combined 45% of the International cume.
ZOOTOPIA 2 grossed $159 million on rank 2. Having two movies crossing the $100 million level in a month is an improvement after having none in the prior month. Both movies combined had a market share of 53% in November.
At the end of November, the Domestic cume for the running year is at $7.9 billion. That is +1% above last year at the same time and -5% below the period in 2023. The gap to the three-year average is at -23%. The Domestic market continues to only rank #14 of the tracked Top 20 major markets compared to the pre-pandemic average. It’s performing a bit better referring the year-on-year growth of the tracked Top 20 major markets after ten months on rank #10.
Outlook
Lighting up the global box office in November, ZOOTOPIA 2 and WICKED: FOR GOOD fulfilled their promise to be two of this year’s major movies. They will carry strong holdovers into the final month of the year before the third instalment of James Cameron’s mega-franchise AVATAR hits global theatres with FIRE AND ASH! The first part from 2009 is still the highest grossing movie of all time with $2.9 billion. The second part THE WAY OF WATER from 2022 is at #3 with $2.3 billion. While the theatrical market as a whole is unfortunately still far from fully recovered, the results of the highest grossing movies have been even higher this decade. Four of the top 10 highest-grossing movies of all time have been released in the four years since 2021 and eight of the top 21! Let’s see if James Cameron can get his fourth movie into this all-time pantheon.
