The big screen took us everywhere from the Emerald City of Oz to the sparkling stage of a HUNTR/X concert this year. Here’s a look at the films that defined 2025:
It was the romantic comedy-drama film Anora that took many of the top prizes at the Oscars this year. The independent film that was directed, edited, produced and written by Sean Baker won five statues at the 97th Academy Awards, including best picture. Brady Corbet‘s epic period drama The Brutalist won three awards, including best actor for Adrien Brody.
As for the movies that topped the domestic box office chart this year, they were led by the Jack Black-starring A Minecraft Movie. That video game adaptation is followed by the live-action remake of Lilo & Stitch, which landed in second place. James Gunn‘s fresh take on Superman flies onto the list at #3, while Jurassic World Rebirth and Wicked: For Good became the fourth and fifth highest-grossing domestic films, respectively.
Pedro Pascal established himself as a bona fide movie star this year as he had three feature films in vastly different genres release theatrically in two months. First it was the A24 romantic drama film Materialists, where he played a millionaire bachelor looking for love. Then it was the neo-Western thriller Eddington in which he played a small-town mayor. Finally, he took on the role of Mister Fantastic in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
There were many films that captured the cultural zeitgeist in 2025, but perhaps none more than KPop Demon Hunters. The animated movie musical became Netflix’s most popular film of all time, taking over the top spot on the Most Popular English Films list with over 236 million total views. Other movies that started conversations were Ryan Coogler‘s epic vampire film Sinners, Paul Thomas Anderson‘s newest drama One Battle After Another and the surprise horror hit Weapons from director Zach Cregger.