Market share for UK independent films at the UK-Ireland box office was down in the first half of 2025 compared to the equivalent period for 2024,
Market share for UK independent films at the UK-Ireland box office was down in the first half of 2025 compared to the equivalent period for 2024, with Studiocanal’s We Live In Time the best performing UK independent title.
The John Crowley-directed time-hopping romantic drama, starring Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield and produced by SunnyMarch, grossed £8.8m after its January 1 release. The best-performing UK independent title for the first half of 2024 was Studiocanal’s Back To Black, which brought in £12.3m.
In the first half of 2025, the market share of UK independent films was 8.4%, almost three percent lower than for the equivalent period in 2024 (11.2%), according to statistics from the BFI covering titles released between January and June 2025, excluding event cinema.
Black Bear’s The Salt Path – despite controversy surrounding the author of the novel upon which the film is based, Raynor Winn – was the second best-performing UK independent title, grossing £7.9m after its May 30 release. Marianne Elliott directs, with Number 9 Films lead producing.
Both The Salt Path and We Live In Time world premiered at Toronto.
Venice Silver Lion winner The Brutalist grossed £3.8m for Universal after its January 24 release. US filmmaker Brady Corbet’s Hungary-shot feature, starring Adrien Brody, qualified as a UK independent film as it was produced through a UK offshoot of US production company Brookstreet, as well as Intake Films and the now-shuttered Lipsync.
The total box office gross of the top 10 UK independent films in the first half of 2025 was £34m, a 22% drop on £43.6m for the same period in 2024, and a 52% drop on the pre-pandemic 2019 high of £70.5m.
Six UK independent releases grossed more than £2m in the first half of 2025, compared with five in the equivalent period of 2024 and 11 in 2019.
Only one documentary made the top 10 for UK independent titles in the first half of 2025 – Sony’s Becoming Led Zeppelin, bringing in £1.1m after a February 5 Imax release followed by a February 7 general release, landing in eighth place in the top 10. Bernard MacMahon directs, with the UK’s Allison McGourty a producer.
UK-Ireland January-June top 10 UK independent titles
| Rank | Title (origin) | Distributor | Release date | Jan-Jun total |
| 1 | We Live In Time (UK-Fr) | Studiocanal | 1/1/25 | £8.8m |
| 2 | The Salt Path (UK) | Black Bear | 30/5/25 | £7.9m |
| 3 | The Brutalist (UK) | Universal | 24/1/25 | £3.8m |
| 4 | The Penguin Lessons (UK-Sp) | Lionsgate | 18/4/25 | £3.3m |
| 5 | Marching Powder (UK) | True Brit | 7/3/25 | £3.1m |
| 6 | Warfare (UK-US) | A24 | 18/4/25 | £2.2m |
| 7 | The Ballad Of Wallis Island (UK) | Universal | 30/5/25 | £1.8m |
| 8 | Becoming Led Zeppelin (UK-US) | Sony | 2/2/25 | £1.1m |
| 9 | Mr Burton (UK) | Icon | 4/3/25 | £1.1m |
| 10 | Hard Truths (UK-Sp) | Studiocanal | 31/1/25 | £0.9m |
Overall, including event titles, the UK-Ireland box office for 2025 has passed half a billion pounds, at £532.2m, up 18% on the same point last year.
There were 61 million cinema admissions (in UK cinemas only and including event releases) during this period, 12% higher than in the first half of 2024 and 27% lower than the first half of 2019.
While the market share for UK independent films was down, the share of all UK-qualifying features at the UK-Ireland box office was 44.7%, way up on the 26.3% 2024, and the highest since 2020 (46.1%). Universal’s Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy was the best-performing UK-qualifying film, grossing £46.4m after its February 13 release, followed by Paramount’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, with £26.1m after a May 21 release.
UK-Ireland January-June top 10 UK-qualifying titles
| Rank | Title (origin) | Distributor | Release date | Jan-June total |
| 1. | Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy (UK) | Universal | 13/2/25 | £46.4m |
| 2. | Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (US) | Paramount | 21/5/25 | £26.1m |
| 3. | How To Train Your Dragon (UK-US) | Universal | 13/6/25 | £19.3m |
| 4. | F1 (US-UK) | Warner Bros | 25/6/25 | £15.9m |
| 5. | Dog Man (UK-US) | Universal | 7/2/25 | £13.8m |
| 6. | 28 Years Later (UK-US) | Sony | 20/6/25 | £13.7m |
| 7. | Snow White (US) | Walt Disney | 21/5/25 | £11.6m |
| 8, | We Live In Time (UK-Fr) | Studiocanal | 1/1/25 | £8.8m |
| 9. | The Salt Path (UK) | Black Bear | 30/5/25 | £7.9m |
| 10, | Mickey 17 (US-S Kor) | Warner Bros | 7/5/25 | £7.1m |
A UK-qualifying film is defined as such by the BFI research and statistics unit if it has received BFI certification via the cultural test, under one of the UK’s official co-production agreements or the European Convention on Cinematographic Coproduction, or if a film is obviously British on the basis of its content, producers, finance and talent. Warner Bros’ US-South Korea Bong Joon Ho-directed co-production Mickey 17, for instance, is UK-qualifying having shot at Leavesden with VFX handled by UK companies including Framestore and DNEG.
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