2025 is slated to be one of the most exciting years for movies in a very long time. The next twelve months will see many highly anticipated movies hit theaters, from interesting standalone projects to major franchise tentpoles. As Hollywood finally reaches a full recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic of the early 2020s, the box office is following suit, with more and more big earners each year.
However, not every upcoming movie is destined for success. While many 2025 releases may rake in the big bucks, others will be left to lick their wounds in the wake of defeat. Whether they be intriguing concepts that just don’t land with audiences or big-budget franchise films that fail to appease the fanbase, these 2025 releases may be destined to bomb the box office.
10Better Man Is Failing to Capture Americans’ Interest
Release Date: January 17
Better Man is an unusual biopic depicting the life and career of British musician Robbie Williams. This particular biopic, however, stands out in that its protagonist is represented by a CGI monkey. It may sound like a parody, but Better Man plays its simian main character straight, banking on the idea that audiences may sympathize better with an animal made to suffer abuse than they would a human.
Better Man was taking a risk with its premise, but it may not pay off in the long run. Although Robbie Williams is a massive public figure in the United Kingdom and many other places in the world, his star was never as big in the United States, the biggest moviegoing market in the world. As such, U.S. moviegoers may not be interested in a biopic about a musician with whom they aren’t familiar. Meanwhile, British audiences may be turned off by the movie’s decision to swap Williams out with a CGI monkey. Despite mostly positive reviews from early screenings, it doesn’t seem that Better Man‘s massive risk will pay off financially.
Better Man
Biography
Music
DirectorMichael Gracey
Release DateDecember 25, 2024
9Love Hurts Could Be a Major Hit or a Major Flop
Release Date: February 7
Love Hurts is an action-thriller starring Academy Award winner Ke Huy Quan, who plays Marvin Gable, a realtor who hides his violent past as a hitman. When his old partner Rose, played by fellow Oscar winner Ariana DeBose, surprisingly pops back into his life, Marvin is thrust back into the violent world of assassins and gunfights. Together, Marvin and Rose fight to reach the top of an organization out to get them–which happens to be run by Marvin’s brother.
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Although Love Hurts may draw crowds for its popular leads, the film may fail to capture the interest of general audiences. The 2025 film is one of many with a similar premise, where a retired hitman is drawn back into his old life and forced to fight leagues of assassins. With such an oversaturated market, Love Hurts may follow movies like The Killer’s Game down a path to financial disgrace, rather than achieve the success of John Wick.
Love Hurts
Action
Comedy
DirectorJoJo Eusebio
Release DateFebruary 7, 2025
8Snow White Is a Major Source of Controversy For Disney
Release Date: March 21
Snow White is the latest in Disney’s long line of live-action remakes of their popular animated films. The 2025 remake stars Rachel Zegler as Snow White and Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen, who find themselves locked in a mortal struggle to be the “fairest of them all.” The film is based on the 1937 film Snow White and the Seven Dwarves but with updated themes and an expanded story that fleshes out its characters and setting.
Snow White has been the subject of heavy criticism online, especially after comments made by Zegler which were perceived as insults aimed at the original film. Other controversies have ensued, including the film’s decision to digitally animate the seven dwarves rather than casting actors of appropriate size to play the roles. The boisterous discussion around Disney’s Snow White remake may doom the upcoming film to a dismal box office performance.
Disney’s Snow White
Adventure
Drama
Family
Snow White is a live-action adaptation of the 1937 classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Directed by Marc Webb, this newest iteration of the iconic character stars Rachel Zegler as Snow White alongside Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen. Originally slated to release in 2024, Snow White was delayed a year to 2025 partly due to the 2023 Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes.
Release DateMarch 21, 2025
Studio(s)Disney , Marc Platt Productions
7A Minecraft Movie Isn’t Popular With Fans
Release Date: April 4
A Minecraft Movie is the long-awaited film adaptation of the classic Microsoft game Minecraft, which puts viewers in a vast world of blocks and cubes–and monsters. The movie stars Jack Black as Steve, the protagonist of the original game who finds himself trapped in the Overworld, where he can build anything his imagination can conjure. When a group of humans arrive years later, Steve vows to help them learn to navigate this strange new world and survive the mobs of monsters that want to kill them.
The upcoming Minecraft movie immediately captured fans’ attention with its first trailer–and not in a good way. Fans of the original game were quick to call the movie out for its lazy character design and cringey lines. While the promotional material that followed has gotten a better reception so far, A Minecraft Movie may not be able to free itself from the bad taste created by the original trailer.
Minecraft
TBD
Adventure
Action
The malevolent Ender Dragon sets out on a path of destruction, prompting a young girl and her group of unlikely adventurers to set out to save the Overworld.
Release DateApril 4, 2025
6Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning Needs to Make a Lot to Be Profitable
Release Date: May 23
Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning is the highly anticipated and long-delayed eighth installment of Tom Cruise’s epic spy-thriller franchise. The film picks up after the events of Dead Reckoning as Ethan Hunt and his team of IMF agents make their final stand against the villainous AI known as the Entity. The film is expected to be the last of Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible movies, closing out the franchise with one final mission.
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Allow enthusiasm for the Mission: Impossible franchise remains high, the films have not performed well financially in recent years. Dead Reckoning fell victim to the Barbenheimer cultural phenomenon, which cornered the movie market for several weeks in 2023, and ultimately lost money. Although The Final Reckoning may perform better, it still needs to make a massive sum to cover the heavy expenses incurred by its many delays and strong adherence to COVID-19 safety protocols. The Final Reckoning‘s reported $400 million budget makes it the most expensive Mission: Impossible movie yet, making it almost impossible for the film to break even at the box office.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
PG-13
Action
Adventure
Crime
Mission: Impossible 8 is the direct sequel to Dead Reckoning – Part One and is the eighth film in the Mission: Impossible franchise. Said to be the final film, Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, and more will reprise their roles in Ethan Hunt’s IMF team as they face off against a dangerous foe from their past.
Release DateMay 23, 2025
Studio(s)Paramount Pictures , Skydance
5Lilo & Stitch May Not Have the Audience Disney Is Hoping For
Release Date: May 23
Lilo & Stitch is another live-action remake of an animated Disney classic coming in 2025. Based on the 2002 film of the same name, Lilo & Stitch chronicles the unlikely friendship between a young Hawaiian girl and a boisterous alien who crashlands on Earth. Together, Lilo and Stitch run away from enemies on their trail, all while learning the true meaning of family.
Although Disney fans still love the original Lilo & Stitch, the enthusiasm does not seem to carry over to the upcoming remake. Disney’s live-action remakes have not been as successful at the box office in recent years, with 2023’s The Little Mermaid and last year’s Mufasa: The Lion King making significantly less than the earlier films of their ilk. As Disney begins to run out of animated properties to remake, audiences seem to be getting tired of the same schtick.
Lilo & Stitch (2025)
Adventure
Comedy
Family
Lilo & Stitch is a live-action remake of the 2002 animated sci-fi adventure comedy directed by Dean Fleischer Camp. Based closely on the original, this remake follows a young girl who lives with her sister and has trouble fitting in at school. Her fortunes change when she meets a mysterious alien experiment named Stitch, who she claims is her pet dog, setting the stage for an intergalactic adventure in Hawaii.
Studio(s)Disney+
4Ballerina May Not Inspire John Wick Fans to Head to the Theater
Release Date: June 6
Ballerina is a John Wick spinoff starring Ana de Armas as Eva Macarro, a ballerina who steps into the world of assassins after her father is murdered. The film takes place between the events of John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum and Chapter 4 and will include a cameo from Keanu Reeves as the iconic assassin John Wick. Ballerina will also feature Anjelica Huston as the Director, Gabriel Byrne as the Chancellor, Norman Reedus as Daniel Pine, and Lance Reddick in his final appearance as Charon.
Ballerina is an experiment for Lionsgate as the studio dips its toe in the waters of potential John Wick spinoffs. The television spinoff, The Continental was not met with the same enthusiasm as the main films in the franchise, leaving Ballerina as the deciding factor to see if audiences really want more projects set in the world of John Wick. If Ballerina performs poorly, it could mark the slow decline of the John Wick franchise, barring a fifth installment in the main saga.
Ballerina
PG
Action
Thriller
A young female assassin seeks revenge against the people who killed her family.
Release DateJune 6, 2025
Runtime89 minutes
Studio(s)Summit Entertainment , Thunder Road Films , 87Eleven Productions
3Elio May Continue Pixar’s Disappointing Trend With Original Movies
Release Date: June 13
Elio is an upcoming original film from Pixar Animation Studios. The film follows a young boy named Elio who looks to the stars and wonders if there could be life beyond the planet Earth. One day, all of Elio’s dreams come true when he is abducted by an alien spaceship and taken to a massive conference of different extraterrestrial species. Mistaken for the leader of Earth, Elio comes to represent his people as a crisis threatens the galaxy.
Pixar has had a difficult few years as the studio continues to find its place in a post-COVID marketplace. Since the pandemic, many of the company’s original films have struggled at the box office or have gone directly to Disney+ without a theatrical release. Sequels like Inside Out 2, on the other hand, have performed remarkably well. As an original concept without a tie to any existing IP, Elio may not capture the interest of general audiences. If Elio performs poorly, it may mark a lasting change in Pixar’s release strategy, causing the studio to focus more on sequels and spinoffs rather than original ideas.
Elio
Not Yet Rated
Animation
Adventure
Family
Comedy
Elio struggles to fit in until he is transported by aliens and becomes the chosen one to be Earth’s galactic ambassador while his mother Olga works on the top secret project to decode alien messages.
Release DateJune 13, 2025
Production CompanyPixar Animation Studios
2Jurassic World Rebirth May Make Its Franchise Go Extinct
Release Date: July 2
Jurassic World Rebirth is a soft reboot of the Jurassic World franchise, paving the way for a new era of dinosaur-centered stories. The upcoming film stars a new cast of characters, which includes Scarlett Johansson as Zora Bennett, Mahershala Ali as Duncan Kincaid, and Jonathan Bailey as Dr. Henry Loomis. The film follows a team sent to retrieve genetic samples from three of the largest dinosaurs in the world but eventually discovers a much darker force at play with nefarious plans for the prehistoric beasts.
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Jurassic World Rebirth could make or break the Jurassic franchise. While all three Jurassic World movies cracked $1 billion at the box office, each had smaller returns than the last. As the franchise looks to extend its lifespan, it may find that audiences simply aren’t interested in the films anymore. Moreover, Rebirth will be released just weeks before Superman and The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which may knock the legs out from under it and bury the film like the fossils of old.
Jurassic World Rebirth
Action
Adventure
Sci-Fi
Thriller
Release DateJuly 2, 2025
Distributor(s)Universal Pictures
1Tron: Ares Needs to Revitalize a Dead Franchise
Release Date: October 10
Tron: Ares is the long-awaited third installment of the sci-fi franchise that began over forty years ago with Jeff Bridges’ 1982 movie. Ares will star Jared Leto as Ares, an advanced program that jumps to the real world. Upon escaping the digital realm, Ares discovers that mankind may not be as open to the idea of artificial intelligence as he had hoped.
Fans still know little about Tron: Ares, but the film has an uphill battle regardless of its plot and cast. It has been fifteen years since the last Tron film, suggesting that the excitement for the franchise may not be as big as Disney may be hoping for. While the film seems to be reinventing the promise of the original Tron movies, this may not please fans of the franchise, causing them to stay away from theaters when it is released later this year.
