Hollywood movies just had their worst performing summer season since 1981 when adjusting for inflation and excluding the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Overall, the movies released during this time brought in $3.67 billion, the lowest total not counting 2020 and 2021, and adjusting numbers for inflation. 
The summer began on a high note with a strong Memorial Day weekend performance led by “Lilo &amp; Stitch” and “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning.” But by summer’s end, the momentum was gone, and Labor Day weekend was a disaster from a financial standpoint.
Entertainment commentators are blaming this on a whole host of problems, with none agreeing on a single cause. But one thing that’s not up for debate is that lately, the movie industry is struggling in a big way.
Underperforming titles released this summer, which The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/business/media/box-office-collapse-hollywood.html">described</a> as playing to “near empty auditoriums,” include “After the Hunt,” starring Julia Roberts, Sydney Sweeney’s boxing biopic “Christy,” and “Die My Love,” led by big-name stars Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson.
These movies aren’t just bombing with fans &#8212; they’re also costing the studios millions. “After the Hunt” cost $70 million to make and brought in a paltry $3.3 million, the outlet noted. “Christy” also flopped hard with an abysmal $1.3 million opening weekend. The sports film had a more modest budget of $15 million, but after <a href="https://ew.com/sydney-sweeney-christy-sets-record-for-worst-drop-in-second-weekend-11853251">dropping to 900 screens</a> in its second week and collecting a $90-per-theater average, it’s safe to say the film won’t be recouping even that.
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A lot of the blame is being put on a shortened theater-to-streaming timeframe, which is currently 17 days compared to the old standard of 90 days. This disincentivizes moviegoers to visit theaters, especially for genres like comedy and romance that don’t require large screens and surround sound to get the full effect.
While audiences complain at the overabundance of remakes, franchise films, and superhero movies, which on the whole aren’t performing as well as they used to, industry insiders point to the numbers as proof of why these are still being made. Original films are some of the worst performing of the bunch. This makes it a risky proposition for studios to even try.
One Variety critic <a href="https://variety.com/2025/film/columns/where-have-all-the-indie-hits-gone-bugonia-after-the-hunt-1236570489/">mentioned</a> some other factors, like Netflix “rob[bing]” theaters of films which could have potentially drawn people to theaters and television shows taking the place of indie movies.
In August, an unnamed studio executive <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/global-summer-box-office-overseas-2025-domestic-1236357631/">told</a> The Hollywood Reporter they are “very, very nervous for the future” of the industry based on the results and said they “don’t think there is enough of an audience” for future theater openings.

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Hollywood Just Had Its Worst Summer Box Office In Over 40 Years

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Hollywood Just Had Its Worst Summer Box Office In Over 40 Years