From Disney’s mega-budgetSnow Whiteremake to Lionsgate’s sure-to-be-controversial Michael Jackson biopic, the 2025 release schedule is full of box office risks. Following the rise of COVID and streaming, movies of all kinds are becoming increasingly risky bets at the box office. Even Hollywood’s most reliable franchises, likeStar Warsand the Marvel Cinematic Universe, have delivered flops in recent years. FromInside Out 2becoming the highest-grossing Pixar movietoDeadpool & Wolverinebecoming the highest-grossing R-rated movie, 2024 has brought some incredible box office success stories. But there have been just as many historic bombs.
The Crow,Borderlands,Madame Web, andMegalopolisall tanked in their theatrical runs.Furiosa: A Mad Max Sagaunderperformed at the box office, despite receiving near-universal acclaim from critics, andJoker: Folie à Deuxdidn’t come close to recapturing the billion-dollar success of its predecessor. Clearly, the box office is still a long way away from getting back to the state it was in pre-COVID. Some upcoming 2025 movies are guaranteed hits —Jurassic World Rebirth,Saw XI,Zootopia 2— but Hollywood is taking plenty of big financial risks in the coming year.
10Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
Paramount is set to releasethe newly titledMission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning— touted as the final outing for Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt — on July 02, 2025. Usually, a newMission: Impossiblemovie would be a sure-fire hit. But the last one,Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, disappointed at the box office, and this one is the second part of that story. Paramount is clearly worried about the movie’s commercial prospects, given that it dropped “Part Two” from the title afterPart Oneunderperformed.
The Hollywood Reporterhas revealed that the budget forThe Final Reckoningis approaching $400 million amid unexpected production delays. This would mean thatThe Final Reckoningwould have to make around $1 billion to break even, and even the highest-grossingMission: Impossiblemovie didn’t come close to that. The finale aspect might giveThe Final Reckoninga financial boost, but it’s unlikely to be that much of a boost.
9Snow White
Next year, Disney will continue its relentless quest to create a soulless live-action remake of every single one of its animated classics. A live-action version ofSnow Whiteis set to be released on July 18, 2025.Forbesrecently reported thatSnow White’s budget had ballooned to $269.4 million by the end of 2023.
From its reimagining of the Seven Dwarfs to its stars’ conflicting opinions on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, theSnow Whiteremake has been marred by all kinds of controversies for years before its release. Whether these controversies and calls for boycotts will actually have an effect on ticket sales remains to be seen. But given its budget,Snow Whiteneeds to make a lot of money to turn a profit, and Disney’s live-action remakes have already been struggling at the box office for a couple of years.
8Mickey 17
Bong Joon-ho’s long-awaited follow-up to his groundbreaking 2019 Best Picture winnerParasitewill finally arrive in theaters on April 18, after being delayed from its original release date by more than a year.Mickey 17is a science fiction epic exhibiting Bong’s signature pitch-black comedic sensibility.Varietyreports thatMickey 17’s budget has skyrocketed to $150 million, making it Bong’s most expensive film to date by far.
Warner Bros. might have a tough time turning a profit onMickey 17. Even ifMickey 17can replicateParasite’s international box office run, which was massively helped by its awards buzz, it still won’t be enough to break even with that budget. Robert Pattinson has a lot of pull with theTwilightcrowd, but mainstream audiences might be turned off by the film’s dark humor and weird sci-fi premise.
7Captain America: Brave New World
On February 14, Marvel Studios will finally releaseCaptain America: Brave New Worldafter months of delays. This will be the firstCaptain Americamovie not to feature the original Cap, Steve Rogers, with Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson taking on the mantle. The box office returns forBrave New Worldwill determine whether or not the moviegoing public will accept a new Cap. If it turns out to be really great, then it could be a hit, likeGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. But there’s also a chance it’ll be the nextMarvels.
Brave New Worldhas reportedly been through months and months of reshoots, which is usually a dubious sign that a movie is a mess or it just isn’t working. Sometimes, great movies emerge from endless reshoots, likeRogue One, but those movies are miracles — they’re the exception, not the rule.TheCaptain America 4trailerslook really promising, so hopefully it’ll be another exception.
6The Bride!
After scoring widespread critical acclaim and an Oscar nomination for her directorial debutThe Lost Daughter, Maggie Gyllenhaal is doing something very different with her second feature.The Bride!is a 1930s-set reimagining ofBride of FrankensteinstarringChristian Bale as Frankenstein’s monsterand Jessie Buckley as Frankenstein’s bride. AlthoughThe Lost Daughterwas a Netflix release,The Bride!is getting a theatrical release on August 23, 2025, courtesy of Warner Bros.
Based on its Zucker-style title and the offbeat steampunk aesthetic of its first-look images, it seems as thoughThe Bride!will have a very niche appeal. But according toThe Wall Street Journal, it’s carrying a daunting price-tag of $100 million. This means the movie will have to make around $250 million to get into the black. Even with Bale’s star power, that seems unlikely for a quirky monster movie.
5Wicked Part Two
After the recent box office failures ofHorizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1andMission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, Universal has dropped “Part One” from the title of its firstWickedmovie, which is set to be released imminently on November 22. Since that first film has a runtime longer than the actual Broadway musical, some audiences might be tricked into thinking they’re getting the whole story in one movie. All the musical’s best songs and plot developments are in the first half, too, which doesn’t help the second film’s prospects.
Universal will releaseWicked Part Twoon July 16, 2025, almost exactly a year after the first one.Wicked Part Two’s box office performance will depend on how people feel about the cliffhanger ending of the first part.The box office tracking forWicked Part Onehas been so strong that it could make a profit on both movies with just the first half, meaning the second one wouldn’t really have to gross anything.
4Sinners
After making twoBlack Panthermovies back-to-back, Ryan Coogler is returning to original storytelling with his ambitious horror movieSinners. Coogler’s lucky charm, Michael B. Jordan, will once again star, this time playing dual roles as twin brothers.Sinnersis a vampire-infested thriller set in the Jim Crow-era South of the 1930s. To bring that era to life in deeply cinematic fashion, Warner Bros. has entrusted Coogler with a $90 million budget (viaDeadline).
Thetrailer forSinnerslooks great, promising eye-popping production values, powerful acting by Jordan, and a uniquely thrilling take on the vampire genre. Horror movies have been mostly immune to Hollywood’s recent box office troubles, because they demand to be seen with an audience, and theCreedseries has proven Jordan is a draw for moviegoing crowds. But with a budget of $90 million,Sinnersstill might struggle to find success at the box office.
3Michael
Lionsgate will releaseMichael, a biopic of Michael Jackson, on October 3 next year.Varietyreports thatMichaelis carrying a hefty budget of $155 million, so it would need to be one ofthe highest-grossing musician biopics ever madejust to break even.Michaelcould break out as another blockbuster success the size ofElvisorBohemian Rhapsody, but given the enormity of its budget, it could just as easily underperform at the box office.
Bohemian Rhapsodybecame a huge hit because people wanted to hear Queen’s iconic songs blasted from the giant speakers at a movie theater. Jackson’s music remains wildly popular, so it could have the same appeal. But Jackson’s public image has been tarnished by very disturbing allegations, which could hurtMichael’s commercial prospects; Freddie Mercury’s blockbuster biopic didn’t come with that baggage.
2The Battle Of Baktan Cross
The plot details of Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest movie, an epic crime thriller tentatively titledThe Battle of Baktan Cross, are being kept under wraps. But what is known about the film is that it’s far more expensive than the average P.T.A. production.The Wall Street Journalis reporting a whopping budget of $140 million, making it Anderson’s most expensive movie by far. The budget is almost twice what Anderson’s highest-grossing film made.
The Battle of Baktan Crossis being described as Anderson’s most mainstream film to date. It’s reportedly an action movie with lots of stunts, explosions, and car chases. But it’s also rumored to be a contemporary adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’sVineland, so it could have polarizing political themes. Warner Bros. is banking on Leonardo DiCaprio’s star power to carry the film to success, but that wasn’t enough to getKillers of the Flower Moonout of the red.
1Superman
Way back in October 2022, Warner Bros. hired James Gunn and Peter Safran as the co-chairs and co-CEOs of the newly formed DC Studios. The existing DCEU would be dissolved and the franchise would be completely rebooted and rebranded as the DC Universe. The DCU is set to finally launch next year when Warner Bros. releasesa newSupermanreboot, written and directed by Gunn, on June 08, 2025.
There’s a lot riding onSuperman. It doesn’t just have to be a big enough hit at the box office to make back its production and marketing costs and turn a profit; it has to be a big enough hit to kickstart a brand-new cinematic universe.Supermanhas never been a huge box office draw like Batman or Spider-Man, and the DC brand has been tarnished by years of DCEU flops, so Gunn’sSupermanis far from a guaranteed success.
