Despite modestly budgeted successes like Sony's "The Woman King" and Warner Bros.' "Don't Worry Darling," this September's box office has sunk to the lowest levels in a quarter-century.

The overall total for the month is set to sink to 25-year lows, not counting 2020, when Christopher Nolan's "Tenet" accounted for nearly half the $86 million box office as most theaters remained shut down at the height of the pandemic.

With just $275 million grossed in North America to date, this will be the first September since 1997 with a monthly total of less than $350 million. To date, the running total for September 2022 is 20% behind last year's pace and 52% behind the pace set this month in 2019.

Even last year, when theaters were still in a relatively early stage of their pandemic reopening process, September grosses reached $367.1 million.

And with Warner Bros. reporting a final opening weekend total of $19.3 million for "Don't Worry Darling," this month will be the first September since 2001 — when the September 11 attacks crippled interest in moviegoing — that has failed to produce a film with an opening weekend of over $20 million.

Last year, Disney/Marvel's "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" earned a Labor Day record $94 million four-day weekend opening. Before the pandemic, Warner Bros. and New Line set a September record with $123 million opening for "It," with a sequel opening to $92 million two years later.

But the $19 million openings for "The Woman King" and "Don't Worry Darling" this month are also below the rather pedestrian openings for September releases in the early-to-mid-2000s, even before inflation. Films with higher openings include Tim Story's cult comedy "Barbershop" ($20.6 million in 2002), Robert Rodriguez's "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" ($23.4 million in 2003) and Paul W.S. Anderson's "Resident Evil: Apocalypse" ($23 million in 2004).