From Disney’s mega-budget Snow White remake of Lionsgate’s certainly controversial Michael Jackson biopic, the 2025 release schedule is fraught with box office risks. Following the rise of COVID and streaming, films of all types are becoming increasingly risky bets at the box office. Even Hollywood’s most trusted franchises like Star Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe have had failures in recent years. Of Inside Out 2 becoming the highest-grossing Pixar film Deadpool and Wolverine Becoming the highest-grossing R-rated film, 2024 has brought some incredible box office success stories. But there were so many historic bombs.
The crow, Borders, Lady Teiaand Megalopolis all sunk in their theatrical performances. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga underperformed at the box office despite receiving near-universal critical acclaim, and Joker: Folie à Deux it didn’t come close to recapturing the billion-dollar success of its predecessor. Clearly, the box office is still a long way from returning to the state it was in pre-COVID. Some of the upcoming 2025 films are guaranteed hits – Jurassic World Rebirth, Saw XI, Zootopia 2 – but Hollywood is taking a lot of big financial risks next year.
10
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
Paramount is ready to launch the new title Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning – touted as the final release of Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt – on May 23, 2025. Typically, a new Mission: Impossible the film would be a surefire hit. But the last one, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Onedisappointed with the box office, and this is the second part of that story. Paramount is clearly concerned about the film’s commercial prospects, given that it has fallen “Part Two” from the title after Part One lower performance.
The Hollywood Reporter revealed that the budget for The final reckoning is approaching $400 million amid unexpected production delays. This would mean that The final reckoning would have to earn around US$1 billion to break even, and even the highest revenue Mission: Impossible the film didn’t come close to that. The final appearance can give The final reckoning a financial boost, but it’s unlikely to be a big boost.
9
Snow White
Next year, Disney will continue its relentless quest to create a soulless live-action remake of each of its animated classics. A live-action version of Snow White is scheduled to be released on March 21, 2025. Forbes recently reported that Snow Whitethe government budget increased to US$269.4 million at the end of 2023.
From its reimagining of the Seven Dwarfs to its stars’ conflicting views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Snow White The remake was marred by all kinds of controversies for years before its release. It remains to be seen whether these controversies and calls for boycotts will actually have an effect on ticket sales. But given your budget, Snow White it needs to make a lot of money to turn a profit, and Disney’s live-action remakes have already struggled at the box office for a few years now.
8
Mickey 17
Bong Joon-ho’s long-awaited follow-up to the groundbreaking 2019 Best Picture winner Parasite will finally hit theaters on April 18 after being delayed by over a year from its original release date. Mickey 17 is a science fiction epic that displays Bong’s signature dark comic sensibility. Variety reports that Mickey 17Bong’s budget ballooned to $150 million, making it by far Bong’s most expensive film to date.
may have difficulty making a profit Mickey 17. Even though Mickey 17 can replicate ParasiteThe film’s international box office haul, which was helped enormously by awards buzz, still won’t be enough to break even on that budget. Robert Pattinson has a lot of influence with the Dusk crowd, but mainstream audiences may be turned off by the film’s dark humor and strange sci-fi premise.
7
Captain America: Brave New World
On February 14th, Marvel Studios will finally release Captain America: Brave New World after months of delays. This will be the first Captain America film that will not feature the original Captain, Steve Rogers, with Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson taking on the role. The box office returns to Brave new world will determine whether or not movie audiences will accept a new cap. If it’s really great, then it could be a success, like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. But there’s also a chance it could be next Wonders.
Brave new world reportedly went through months and months of reshoots, which is usually a dubious sign that a movie is a mess or just not working. Sometimes great movies come from endless reshoots, like Rogue Onebut these films are miracles – they are the exception, not the rule. THE Captain America 4 the trailers look really promising, so I hope this is another exception.
6
The Bride!
After receiving widespread critical acclaim and an Oscar nomination for his directorial debut, The lost daughterMaggie Gyllenhaal is doing something very different with her second feature film. The Bride! is a reimagining set in the 1930s of Bride of Frankenstein starring Christian Bale as Frankenstein’s monster and Jessie Buckley as Frankenstein’s bride. Although The lost daughter it was a Netflix release, The Bride! will be released in theaters on September 26, 2025, courtesy of Warner Bros.
Based on its Zucker-esque title and the whimsical steampunk aesthetic of its opening images, it looks like The Bride! will have a very specific appeal. But according to The Wall Street Journalit has a staggering price tag of $100 million. This means the film will have to gross around $250 million to break into the black. Even with Bale’s star power, this seems unlikely for a quirky monster movie.
5
Wicked Part Two
After the recent box office failures of Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part OneUniversal fell “Part One” from the title of his first Evil film, which is scheduled to be released on November 22. Because the first film is longer in length than the actual Broadway musical, some audiences may be fooled into thinking they are telling the entire story in one film. All of the musical’s best songs and plot developments are also in the first half, which doesn’t help the second film’s prospects.
Universal will release Wicked Part Two on November 21, 2025, almost exactly one year after the first. Wicked Part TwoBox office performance will depend on how people feel about the ending of the first part. Box office tracking for Wicked Part One has been so strong that it could have profited from both films in just the first half, meaning the second wouldn’t have actually grossed anything.
4
Sinners
After making two Black Panther back-to-back films, Ryan Coogler is returning to the original narrative with his ambitious horror film Sinners. Coogler’s lucky charm Michael B. Jordan will star once again, this time playing dual roles as twin brothers. Sinners is a vampire-infested thriller set in the Jim Crow era of the 1930s South. To bring that era to life in a deeply cinematic way, Warner Bros. entrusted Coogler with a budget of US$90 million (via Deadline).
The trailer for Sinners looks great, promising production values, powerful acting from Jordan, and an exceptionally exciting take on the vampire genre. Horror films have been largely immune to Hollywood’s recent box office woes because they demand to be seen with audiences, and the Belief the series proved that Jordan appeals to movie audiences. But with a budget of $90 million, Sinners may still struggle to succeed at the box office.
3
Miguel
Lionsgate will release Miguela Michael Jackson biopic, on October 3 next year. Variety reports that Miguel is on a hefty budget of $155 million, so it would need to be one of the highest-grossing musician biopics ever made just to break even. Miguel could become another blockbuster-sized blockbuster Elvis or Bohemian Rhapsodybut given the enormity of its budget, it could easily underperform at the box office.
Bohemian Rhapsody became a huge hit because people wanted to hear Queen’s iconic songs played on the movie theater’s giant speakers. Jackson’s music remains extremely popular, so it could have the same appeal. But Jackson’s public image has been tarnished by very disturbing allegations that could harm Miguelcommercial prospects; The highly successful Freddie Mercury biopic didn’t come with that baggage.
2
The Battle of Baktan Cross
Plot details on Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film, an epic crime thriller tentatively titled The Battle of Baktan Crossare being kept secret. But what is known about the film is that it is much more expensive than the average PTA production. The Wall Street Journal is reporting a whopping budget of $140 million, making it Anderson’s most expensive film by far. The budget is almost double that of Anderson’s highest-grossing film.
The Battle of Baktan Cross is being described as Anderson’s most popular film to date. It’s supposedly an action movie with lots of stunts, explosions and car chases. But it’s also rumored to be a contemporary adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s book. Vinlandthen it could have polarizing political themes. is banking on Leonardo DiCaprio’s star power to bring the film to success, but that wasn’t enough to pull it off Flower Moon Assassins out of the red.
1
Superman
In October 2022, Warner Bros. hired James Gunn and Peter Safran as co-presidents and co-CEOs of the newly formed DC Studios. The existing DCEU would be disbanded and the franchise would be completely rebooted and rebranded as DC Universe. The DCU is set to finally release next year when Warner Bros. Superman reboot, written and directed by Gunn, on July 11, 2025.
There’s a lot going on Superman. It doesn’t just have to be a box office hit big enough to recoup its production and marketing costs and turn a profit; it has to be a big enough hit to kick off an entirely new cinematic universe. Superman was never as big a box office draw as Batman or Spider-Man, and the DC brand has been tarnished by years of DCEU flops, so Gunn’s Superman is far from a guaranteed success.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter, Forbes, Variety, Wall Street Journal, Deadline