The biggest jump-scare the film industry has had in 2025? The return of horror as a main player at the UK box office. As a genre, it has impressively outperformed previous years (a 22% year-on-year increase for the UK and Irish box office: £83,766,086 in 2025, compared with £68,612,395 in 2024).
“Last year, no horror film reached £10m at the UK or Irish box office. This year, five films have,” says Charles Gant, box office editor of Screen International. The big hits of the year – Weapons (£11.4m), Sinners (£16.2m), The Conjuring Last Rites (£14.98m) and 28 Years Later (£15.54m) – have all hung about the multiplexes and in the public consciousness. Although much of the industry commentary focuses on the singular brilliance of Zac Cregger’s Weapons and Ryan Coogler’s postmodern epic Sinners, their successes indicate something is shifting between audiences and the genre.
