Empty theaters. Empty seats. If you’ve stepped foot into a movie theater lately — or more likely didn’t — you’ve probably noticed that the box office has been looking a little bleak this October. And no, it’s not because there weren’t Halloween movies to go see. Even the horror releases, which usually carry October, are crawling.
In fact, people just aren’t going to the movies at all.
Domestic box office revenue for October 2025 is expected to land somewhere around $425 million — which makes this the worst October in 27 years, according to Comscore. The only exception is October 2020, when nearly every theater was closed and the world was in pandemic lockdown, and even then Christopher Nolan’s Tenet still dragged in $55 million on its own.
But if we remove 2020 from the conversation, the last time October was this low was 1997, when ticket sales landed at $385 million — and remember, that’s not adjusted for inflation. By 1999, October box office had broken the $600 million mark. Back then, movie theaters were packed. Today? We’re looking at showtimes where you could shout across the auditorium and no one would tell you to be quiet.
So what happened?
You can’t blame COVID anymore. You can’t say “people just didn’t know what was in theaters.” Everyone knows what’s out — they’re just… choosing not to go. Streaming habits, pricing, quality of films, people not wanting to gamble $17 on something they may not like — it’s a cocktail of issues.
At this point, AMC might need to call Nicole Kidman back and tell her to film a sequel to the “Heartbreak Feels Good” spot. Maybe this time she’s just sitting in a totally empty theater whispering, “We come to this place… alone.”
Because right now?
It’s a ghost town out there.
