The beginning of 2025 painted a promising picture for the movie industry, with an estimated box office revenue of $42.9 million on New Year’s Day. This figure marks the highest collection for the holiday since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, showcasing a notable recovery for cinemas across the nation. Comparatively, New Year’s Day 2022 garnered $40.2 million, buoyed significantly by the superhero blockbuster Spider-Man: No Way Home, which alone contributed $23.1 million to that total. The 2025 revenue represents an impressive 33% increase over the same day in 2024 and a robust 38% uptick compared to New Year’s Eve earnings.
Leading the box office this New Year’s was the Disney prequel, Mufasa: The Lion King, bringing in an impressive $10.3 million. Close behind was the animated feature Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which earned approximately $8.95 million. Although Sonic had topped the box office for the previous two weekends, Mufasa has dominated since Christmas, showcasing the enduring appeal of Disney’s branded content. Moreover, legacy titles such as Moana 2 and Wicked continued to perform strongly as holdovers from Thanksgiving, contributing $5.1 million and $4.6 million respectively, demonstrating the staying power of family-friendly content and musical adaptations even after the initial holiday rush.
However, what truly stood out during this festive box office surge was the significant uplift in abstract, auteur-driven narratives. Notable among them are Focus Features’ Nosferatu and Searchlight’s Bob Dylan biopic titled A Complete Unknown. Nosferatu has reportedly crossed the $53 million mark, establishing a new benchmark for director Robert Eggers, outpacing his previous heights with 2022’s The Northman, which earned $34.2 million domestically. With a noteworthy daily take of $4.96 million on Wednesday, the vampire flick has firmly positioned itself among the top performers in Focus Features history.
Conversely, A Complete Unknown, directed by James Mangold, accumulated $31.7 million to date, including $3.1 million on New Year’s Day alone. This film is poised to become the highest-grossing offering from the Searchlight banner since the Disney-Fox merger in 2019, expected to surpass 2022’s The Menu, which grossed $38.5 million.
Interestingly, both Nosferatu and A Complete Unknown have gained impressive traction at the box office without the usual boost that comes from Oscar nominations. Nosferatu is on track to eclipse Focus Features’ Oscar winner, The Darkest Hour, which recorded $56.4 million. In a similar vein, A Complete Unknown is likely to surpass the cumulative totals of several prior Searchlight Academy Award winners, including The Favourite and Jojo Rabbit.
As the industry reflects on these promising figures, 2024 closed with a box office tally of $8.72 billion, a slight decline of 3% from the previous year’s $9 billion. The forthcoming weekends appear quiet, devoid of wide releases from major studios or arthouse labels, with 2025’s calendar featuring three such weekends—including Halloween and mid-December. This breather may serve as a strategic interlude, allowing the industry to recalibrate and potentially gear up for more competitive offerings later in the year. The initial momentum of 2025 offers a hopeful outlook for film enthusiasts and professionals alike, suggesting a rejuvenation of the cinematic landscape in the post-pandemic world.