Hollywood’s 2025 Box Office Crisis: Poor scheduling hurt Bridget Jones 4; Will it affect Snow White, A Minecraft Movie, and More? Analyzing

Hollywood’s 2025 box office downturn worsens as poor scheduling leads to empty theaters on key weekends, raising concerns over declining attendance and missed opportunities.

Written by Seema Sinha , Entertainment Journalist

Published on Mar 19, 2025 | 01:01 PM IST | 1.5K

Picture Courtesy: Universal Pictures, Warner Bros, Disney, Ryan Coogler

Not a single movie out of the four debutants and multiple holdovers at the box office managed to gross even at least a million on Monday, March 17, after registering the weakest box office business of the year between Friday and Sunday. This suggests Hollywood’s theatrical woes are much worse than they appear at first glance.

News flash, though—the makers and exhibitors themselves are to blame for the struggle, as the scheduling of titles in the first trimester of the year hasn’t made any sense.

The series of scheduling misfires began in the very first month, as no studio thought of taking advantage of the Martin Luther King Jr. weekend in January, leaving holdover releases like Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Mufasa: The Lion King to capitalize on the holiday.

Then came the Valentine’s Day weekend with no chick flick or rom-com playing on screens in North America. Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, which is doing exceptional business in international markets, was released directly on Peacock, leaving Galentine’s Day celebrators out of movie theaters.

The spring break stretch, which is all about spending time with family and friends while awaiting summer, was also missed by studios, with no lighthearted title in sight. Instead, theaters played five R-rated offerings, none of which wowed viewers. Snow White, which is arriving on March 21, we feel, could have debuted earlier to take advantage of this spring frame. International Women’s Day would have been a suitable window, but Cinephiles got a low-budget thriller, Last Breath, for that weekend instead.

The disastrous mishandling of the calendar looks set to continue in Q2, starting with A Minecraft Movie, which is scheduled to debut in theaters on April 4—when kids will be at school. A movie called Sinners is set for the Easter long holiday. Are we elated about a gory offering during the period the world celebrates Jesus by remembering his sacrifices? Probably not!

What’s bizarre after all this is that the blame for slow business is being placed on COVID-19-led shutdowns followed by the 2023 labor strikes.