Not counting the pandemic year of 2020, the October of 2025 box office earned just $425 million. That’s the worst October showing since 1997.
Except.
It’s actually worse than that.
Much worse.
Look at how the real math maths.
In 1998, the October box office grossed $455.6 million. In October of 1997, the gross was just $385.2 million. Okay, bad, right? But…
Those 1997 and 1998 grosses do not account for inflation. This means we are not looking at an apples-to-apples comparison.
Patti Scialfa and Bruce Springsteen attend the 2025 AFI Fest – Opening Night Gala Premiere of “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere” at TCL Chinese Theatre on October 22, 2025 in Hollywood, California. (Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)
If you adjust for inflation, that $455 million jumps to $906 million, and that $385 million is actually $779 million. So…
In reality, this October’s $425 million is an even bigger catastrophe during a year when we were assured the box office would make its big comeback.
The problem, as always, was not a lack of content, but the lack of appeal of that content.
- Tron: Ares = flop.
- Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere = flop
- The Smashing Machine = flop.
- Black Phone 2 = Modest success
- Bugonia = flop
- Chainsaw Man = flop
- Roofman = flop
- Anemone = flop
- After the Hunt = flop
- Kiss of the Spider Woman = flop
Bruce Springsteen, Emma Stone, Julia Roberts, Daniel Day-Lewis, Dwayne Johnson, Jennifer Lopez… Flop, flop, floppity-flop-flop-flop…
Tell me, who are these movies for?
Who asked for these movies?
Who’s the audience for these titles?
Oh, it’s the strikes, it’s the pandemic, it’s streaming…
No. No, it’s not. It’s that pile of shit listed above.
Spider women weren’t asking for a musical remake of a 40-year-old gay-themed movie hardly anyone saw 40 years ago.
The first two Trons didn’t exactly break the bank, so some genius at the Disney Grooming Syndicate said, I know! Let’s try one with Jared Leto!
Arturo Castro and Alan Tacher are seen on the set of the “Despierta America” morning show to promote “TRON: Ares” at Univision Studios on October 9, 2025 in Doral, Florida. (Manny Hernandez/Getty Images)
Good movies flop all the time. Bad movies become blockbusters all the time. Life isn’t fair, but one truism remains true: you gotta give the public what they want. It’s not even about mass appeal, really. In a country of 330 million, if you appeal to a mere five percent of that number, you got yourself a hit.
Hollywood is so insulated, politicized, hostile towards its own customers, self-involved, and smug, that they have a pool of 330 customers and can’t get one percent of the population to show up for most of these titles.
John Nolte’s first and last novel, Borrowed Time, is winning five-star raves from everyday readers. You can read an excerpt here and an in-depth review here. Also available in hardcover and on Kindle and Audiobook.
