The Great Return of the Big Screen: Why People Are Still Gathering to Experience Films Together

There is something quietly triumphant about walking into an Irish cinema this autumn, and hearing the familiar crunch of popcorn and the warm hum of people settling into their seats. For a time, we feared those sounds might fade, replaced entirely by the click of the remote and the solitude of streaming.

That convenience came at a cultural cost. As viewing shifted to private screens, we lost the sense of everyone talking about the same film at the same time – the shared cultural space that once formed the backdrop of social life.

And yet, something has shifted. In 2025, audiences have been returning not just in numbers, but in spirit. The studios have taken note, and few demonstrated this more clearly than Warner Bros., who quietly had one of the most culturally engaged years in recent memory. They released a slate that wasn’t merely successful – it sparked conversation.

Sinners

There was Sinners, with its heightened exploration of vampires amidst Jim Crow, which became a sensation; Companion, a smart and timely sci-fi about AI; and Superman, a bright and hopeful reimagining that brought sincerity back into mainstream superhero storytelling. Then there was Weapons, an unsettling and entertaining horror, and finally Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another – a bruising, ambitious work interrogating racism, inequality, the architecture of wealth and the violence of power.

These were films that didn’t just earn money; they demanded responses. They were discussed in cafés, pubs and queues – and that, more than anything, signalled cinema’s revival as culture rather than content.

And audiences are responding. The UK and Irish box offices are in rude health, with receipts up 15 percent on last year and admissions rising nine per cent to 80 million by the end of July – the strongest July in two years. The Irish Film Classification Office’s report confirmed the recovery, with €102.5 million in box office revenue in 2024, the highest since before the pandemic.

Homegrown films such as Small Things Like These and Kneecap didn’t just earn fine reviews – they filled seats. They proved that when cinema offers stories with local texture and emotional heft, people will still gather to experience films together.

Small Things Like These

This revival isn’t just economic; it’s cultural. Over the past two years, cinema reclaimed something it had been losing: its status as a shared reference point. Barbie and Oppenheimer didn’t just succeed – they created conversation. People styled outfits, made memes, debated ideas, and dragged their friends along “just to see what the fuss was about.”

Wicked became an event in its own right, with audiences returning multiple times, attending singalongs and screenings that felt closer to theatre than film. They were nights out, not just nights in front of a screen.

The coming months promise more moments made to be experienced shoulder to shoulder. Edgar Wright’s Running Man (November 7), a reinvention of the satirical sci-fi thriller, is expected to draw crowds eager for big spectacle with bite. Now You See Me: Now You Don’t brings back ensemble, sleight-of-hand swagger.

Elsewhere, Predator: Badlands promises slow-burn terror on a grand scale, while Wicked Part 2 (November 21) looks set to become another box office sensation, and Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet, featuring Irish stars Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal as the leads, is enjoying major Oscar buzz.

Hamnet

December moves into high gear with The Shining 2, Avatar: Fire and Ash, and an eclectic set of Christmas Day releases. There’s Josh Safdie’s chaotic sports dramedy Marty Supreme, the high-concept psychological horror The Housemaid, and a revived Anaconda firing up pure creature-feature fun.

And early next year, Saipan is expected to become a national talking point, revisiting the Roy Keane–Mick McCarthy fallout at the 2002 World Cup – a story many remember, but few agree on. Two weeks later, Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple lands, poised to be the year’s first big British breakout.

Saipan

What feels significant is that audiences aren’t just watching films again – they’re sharing them. The laughter, the gasps, the stunned silence – these land differently when felt together. They remind us that despite all the forces isolating us – screens, feeds, algorithms, culture tailored down to the individual – we still crave the company of others. We still want to react with people, not just near them.

The cinema, unexpectedly, has become one of the few remaining spaces where strangers gather to feel the same thing at the same time. And it turns out we missed that more than we realised.