What does it take to get people back to the movies?
So far, the answer seems to be blues-loving vampires, a cuddly alien and a life-sized block world. With crowd-pleasers like “Sinners,” “Lilo & Stitch” and “A Minecraft Movie,” the box office is showing signs of life after a moribund start to the year. Revenues are up 15% from 2024, when “Inside Out 2” and “Dune: Part Two” were packing multiplexes.
But before Hollywood starts patting itself on the back, there’s a catch. That figure is still down 26% from 2019, the last pre-pandemic year, an indication of the devastating toll that COVID has taken on the movie business. Instead of trimming costs, studios are producing blockbusters that have grown exponentially more expensive, with budgets routinely nearing or eclipsing the $200 million mark. That means that films like “Thunderbolts” and “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning” can earn massive amounts of money yet still struggle to break even. When one of these films hits, it can be a money-minting machine, earning billions in ticket sales, merchandising and licensing fees. However, the financial risks have never been greater, leaving entertainment companies with no margin for error.
As 2025 hits the halfway point, here are five takeaways from a year that’s already been filled with blockbusters and busts.
All Hail the PG Rating
What’s sanitized is cool again? Family- friendly films have been all the rage, with video game adaptation “A Minecraft Movie” ($954 million) and live-action remakes of “Lilo & Stitch” ($948 million) and “How to Train Your Dragon” ($519 million and counting) propping up the box office. PG films have grossed $1.72 billion since January, accounting for 41.5% of year-to-date revenue, according to Comscore. That’s a big deal because films with the (slightly) edgier PG-13 rating usually generate the most money. Familiarity has been key to these successes; Pixar’s intergalactic adventure “Elio” ($73 million) massively flopped without the help of brand recognition. However, studios and filmmakers can be assured that forgoing profanity won’t limit a film’s blockbuster potential.
Comic-Book Movies on the Fritz
Have superheroes officially fallen out of vogue? Hollywood is hoping — no, praying — that’s not the case, since “Superman” and “Fantastic Four: The First Steps” arrive this month, while “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and two “Avengers” sequels are landing in 2026 and 2027. But already in 2025, two Marvel installments — “Captain America: Brave New World” and “Thunderbolts” — crashed at the box office. The latter’s failure was particularly telling about the moldering state of the genre because “Thunderbolts” received the strongest critical reception for a Marvel joint in some time, and yet will end its theatrical run as one of the franchise’s lowest-grossing movies. It’s clear that comic- book movies now have to be watchable to get audiences into theaters (believe it or not, that wasn’t a total dealbreaker during the zenith of superhero adventures). But the poor turnout for “Thunderbolts” also suggests there’s a new ceiling for comic-book adaptations that aren’t based on marquee characters like Batman or Spider-Man.
Mission Not Accomplished
It might be time for Ethan Hunt to retire from the Impossible Missions Force. “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning” is tapping out with $576 million globally — a decent tally for cinema operators who gets to keep half of those returns, but a poor result for the studio behind the $300 million-budgeted film. Any sequel, especially the eighth installment in a 30-year-old franchise, is susceptible to diminishing returns. But Tom Cruise’s dare-devilish stunts as the globe-trotting spy have gotten astronomically more expensive, and that’s a problem since Gen Z doesn’t seem to be invested in the action series. There’s little value in continuing the property without new legions of fans to get hyped about Cruise’s death-defying antics.
Indie Film Woes
A24 scored with “Materialists,” a rom-com from “Past Lives” director Celine Song that broke out of art houses with more than $45million globally. After that, the success stories were hard to come by. Focus drove Wes Anderson’s “The Phoenician Scheme” to $34.9 million worldwide, which isn’t bad until you consider that the director’s previous film, 2023’s “Asteroid City,” banked $20 million more in ticket sales. And while A24 had a modest $16 million hit with the cringe comedy “Friendship,” it struck out with “The Legend of Ochi” ($4.7 million) and “Opus” ($2.2 million). Other recent indies like “On Swift Horses,” “The Shrouds,” “Hell of a Summer” and “The Wedding Banquet” opened, bombed and left theaters with startling efficiency.
Budget Busters
Blockbusters have always been expensive to produce, but a pandemic and two labor strikes left studios with an even steeper climb to profitability. The latest “Mission: Impossible” cost upwards of $300 million on production alone, which meant the tentpole needed to sell tickets like “Titanic” to get out of the red (spoiler alert: it didn’t). It was joined by “Snow White,” which didn’t earn anywhere near its $270 million production budget, as well as “Captain America: Brave New World” and “Thunderbolts,” both of which would have been financially successful if they hadn’t cost $180 million to make and many millions more to market. “F1” has started strong out of the gate, but the racing drama will need to maintain its pace to justify the $250 million that Apple spent to get Brad Pitt behind the wheel. With China rejecting Hollywood fare and Russia still closed to U.S. films, the global marketplace has constricted even as the price tags have increased. It’s time for some blockbuster belt tightening.
