The movies of the 80s are remembered through a filter. The greatest movies, such as “The Terminator,” “Die Hard” and “Aliens” are remembered, while movies like “Howard the Duck,” “Supergirl” and “Iron Eagle” are forgotten. Far too many movies come out all the time to remember them all, so let’s look at the wide releases of 2025 so far and see which ones will be remembered long into the future.
January: January is typically a slow month for movies. Theaters tend to be showing rereleases of Oscar movies, with new releases taking a back seat. Movies that studios have little faith in release in January. This seemed to be the case of “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera,” a sequel to the 2018 film “Den of Thieves.”
Returning director Christian Gudegast began working on the sequel after the release of the original “Den of Thieves.” On release, Gudegast confirmed a third movie was in the works, with plans for a fourth and a fifth movie as well.
The movie was released to mixed reactions, with an average rating of 60 out of 100 according to Metacritic. The film was a financial flop, only grossing $57 million on a budget of $40 million.
A week later, two more significant movies were released, “One of Them Days” and “Wolf Man.”
“One of Them Days” marked the acting debut of musical artist SZA, as well as the first theatrical female Black comedy since 2017’s “Girls Trip.” It was released to generally favorable reviews, with many reviews citing the chemistry between SZA and the other lead, Keke Palmer.
“Wolf Man” was released the same week, and is the second Universal Monsters movie directed by Leigh Whannell, after “The Invisible Man.” Universal Studios started work on the movie in 2014, with Ryan Gosling originally set to star.
After the financial failure of 2017’s “The Mummy,” plans for “Wolf Man” were shelved until 2020 with the release of “The Invisible Man.” The success of the film brought back “Wolf Man,” though Ryan Gosling dropped out of the starring role in 2023, around the time Leigh Whannell was brought on as director. Christopher Abbott was hired to star in place of Gosling, and filming began in 2024.
The film opened far below projections, grossing less than “One of Them Days” and “Mufasa: The Lion King” in its opening weekend. A 70% drop-off in its second weekend doomed the movie to financial failure, with it missing out on the top 10 box office for its third week. The movie ended its gross at $35 million, losing around $8 million on its $25 million budget.
Capping off the January slate was the animated adaptation of the children’s book “Dog Man,” released by DreamWorks. “Dog Man” was announced in 2020, after DreamWorks worked on film and TV adaptations of Dav Pilkey’s “Captain Underpants.”
The film, directed by Peter Hastings, was reviewed favorably by critics, with a 66 out of 100 on Metacritic. It was also a financial success, grossing $137 million for a theatrical profit.
February: February generally consists of more successful releases than January, though it is not known for producing hits. 2025 was no different, starting off the month with the critically and financially unsuccessful action film “Love Hurts.”
“Love Hurts” dates back to 2024, two years after lead Ke Huy Quan made his acting return in “Everything Everywhere All At Once.” Despite this Oscar-winning performance, Quan had not been able to score a leading role in a movie until “Love Hurts.”
His leading role seems to have come at the wrong time, as “Love Hurts” received none from critics and audiences, landing it a C+ on the F to A+ scale of CinemaScore. This implies that the people who saw the movie opening night found it disappointing and bad.
The film opened third in its opening weekend and went on to bomb at the box office, grossing $17 million on a budget of $18 million.
The next week of February looked to ignite the box office, as the blockbuster “Captain America: Brave New World” released.
“Captain America: Brave New World” marked the return of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) after its hiatus through nearly all of 2024. Following the end of Steve Rogers’ storyline and Chris Evans’ exit from the MCU in 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame,” “Brave New World” follows the new Captain America, Sam Wilson. Wilson is played by Anthony Mackie, with Harrison Ford as Thaddeus Ross and Giancarlo Esposito as Sidewinder filling out supporting roles.
The marketing revealed that Ford’s character would transform into Red Hulk and fight Mackie’s Captain America. The plot revolved around the fictional metal adamantium being found within the Fallen Titan statue created at the end of 2022’s “Eternals.” These plot points tied the movie to “The Incredible Hulk,” “Falcon and the Winter Soldier” and “Eternals,” some of the more poorly received MCU projects.
The film, the 35th in the MCU, received mixed reviews on release due to its connections to other projects. Many claimed that the film felt disconnected and scattered, blaming a troubled production process and an excess of reshoots for the movie.
The film made a profit, grossing $400 million on a budget of $180 million, though when factoring in marketing costs, it’s possible the film did not break even. Publication Deadline Hollywood, for example, reported the break-even point of the film to be closer to $425 million. The film barely overcame “Captain America: The First Avenger” to become the second-lowest grossing MCU Captain America movie, as well as the 28th highest-grossing MCU movie overall.
The final major release of February came through in the horror genre, with Osgood Perkins’ “The Monkey” releasing. The movie, based on a Stephen King story of the same name, starred Theo James in dual roles, a trend that would dominate the following two months of film releases.
“The Monkey” follows twin brothers, played by James, reconciling with a toy monkey that kills a random person every time it’s activated. It received some mixed reactions due to the script’s blending of horror and comedy, with many gruesome deaths interspersed with lighthearted jokes.
Despite the mixed reactions, the movie went on to make a profit at the box office, grossing nearly $70 million on a $10 million production budget. The film received the ultimate approval from Stephen King, who did not work on the movie but praised it for its insanity.
March: March kicked off with an original film from Bong Joon-Ho, the director of 2019’s Best Picture winner “Parasite.” The film, titled “Mickey 17,” starred Robert Pattinson and Mark Ruffalo in a sci-fi story revolving around a soldier who is “expendable,” meaning he’s sent into dangerous situations to die and get revived. Things go wrong when a copy of him is created despite him still being alive, resulting in two versions of him being alive.
Much of the pre-release for the movie centered around the fact that Bong Joon-Ho previously directed “Parasite,” with Warner Bros. presumably hoping that “Parasite” was popular enough to get people back into theaters. They were wrong, as the film grossed $131 million on a budget of $118 million, losing Warner around $80 million.
After the disappointing numbers of “Mickey 17,” the box office needed a jolt. Many hoped that it would come with the release of the low-budget action movie “Novocaine,” starring Jack Quaid.
“Novocaine” was made on a budget of only $18 million, relatively low on the scale of Hollywood budgets. The film released to mixed reviews, and debuted to $9 million in the lowest-grossing weekend of 2025. The two movies that opened alongside it, “Black Bag” and “Opus,” were both box office bombs.
This box office slump would only get worse, as the next major release was Disney’s live-action remake of “Snow White.” The film had been in development since 2016 as part of Disney’s initiative to remake their old animated properties in live action. It stars Rachel Zegler as the titular Snow White, with Gal Gadot taking the role of the Evil Queen.
The movie was a PR disaster from the start, with the initial teaser becoming the most disliked movie trailer on YouTube. The negative buzz, mostly about the visual stylings of the seven dwarves in the movie, might have majorly impacted the gross of the movie, with it barely cracking $200 million on a budget of around $240 million, losing $140 million in the process.
The last week of April brought with it three major releases, being “Death of a Unicorn,” “A Working Man” and “The Woman in the Yard.”
“Death of a Unicorn,” despite being the lowest-grossing of the three, was the best reviewed. It’s the directorial debut of Alex Scharfmann, and it starred Paul Rudd, Jenna Ortega and Will Poulter.
The film, a satirical non-serious take on a horror revenge movie, was met with mixed reviews, earning a 54% on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite these mixed reviews, the two films that released alongside it had worse.
“The Woman in the Yard,” a Blumhouse horror film, received a 43%, and “A Working Man,” an action movie starring Jason Statham, received a 49%.
April: April is typically when the box office earnings start ramping up, with some high box office statistics being recorded in the month. This was evident as early as the fourth day of the month, with the release of “A Minecraft Movie.”
“A Minecraft Movie” was projected to open to just under $70 million, a needed jolt for the slow season. The actual opening blew these projections out of the water, grossing $313 million worldwide, making a profit on its $150 million budget in only one weekend. In its second weekend, it became the highest-grossing American movie of the year, surpassing “Captain America: Brave New World.”
Despite the low reviews from critics, the film was kept afloat by word of mouth, mostly circulating through memes online. Memes such as “Chicken Jockey,” “I am Steve,” “Flint and Steel” and “Steve’s Lava Chicken,” all based on scenes from the movie, garnered a lot of attention on social media, drawing people to the theater to “meme-along” with the movie.
The film surpassed “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” to become the second highest-grossing video game film adaptation, sitting below only “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.” Despite opening higher than “Super Mario Bros.” did, “A Minecraft Movie’s” dropoff in the second weekend suggested that it would not surpass that milestone.
The gross of “A Minecraft Movie” was so monumental that the four films released the week after couldn’t hope to live up to it. Even in its second weekend, it beat new releases “King of Kings,” “Drop,” “The Amateur” and “Warfare.
“King of Kings” is an animated adaptation of the Christian Bible, starring Oscar Isaac as Jesus Christ. It is one of only 128 movies to earn a perfect A+ on CinemaScore, and the fifth animated movie not released by Disney or Pixar to achieve the score. It also broke the record set by DreamWorks’ “Prince of Egypt” for the highest opening weekend for an animated biblical film.
“Drop,” a thriller based on the airdropping feature of iPhones, debuted low, scoring fifth in its opening weekend. The film, directed by Christopher Landon, was reviewed mostly positively, with an 84% on Rotten Tomatoes.
“Warfare” fared slightly better, landing at fourth in its opening weekend. The movie, a thriller about the Iraq War detailing the experiences of a platoon of soldiers, was received much more positively, with an A- on CinemaScore and a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes.
“The Amateur,” an action movie starring Rami Malek as the title character, opened third, behind “King of Kings” and “A Minecraft Movie.” It got a 60% on Rotten Tomatoes and a B+ CinemaScore.
Going into the third weekend, the big question was whether Minecraft would continue to reign supreme at the box office. Its competition was Ryan Coogler’s original vampire horror movie “Sinners.”
Projections were split as to which movie would take the first spot. Many cited the fact that “Sinners” was an original movie as the reason why it could not overcome Minecraft. While both movies were projected to gross around $40 million, the record for highest opening of an original film this decade was set by “Nope” at $44 million.
“Sinners” would go on to break that record, grossing $48 million and taking the top spot in the box office, considered an upset at the time. “Sinners” received high praise from critics, debuting with a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, one of the best reviewed movies of the decade.
The second weekend for “Sinners” would be even more impressive, with it falling only six percent from its opening gross. This is one of, if not the smallest drop-off for a major widely released film. This, combined with the continued success of Minecraft, stepped on the opening of new release “The Accountant 2,” which fell over $7 million below projections.
The first week of May ushers in the summer season, which is when big blockbusters tend to release. However, the months before bring with them stories of success and failure outside the typical release schedule. Analyzing the outcomes of these movies is vital to understanding the industry of movie making.
