Another year of movies another mixed bag result that proves that we are still in the age where a bad movie can’t get by on hype alone while good movies are not guaranteed to be money makers, either. But in the age of streaming, does box office even matter?

That said, the box office was down a bit overall compared to 2024 but we saw a more even spread amongst the top 10. Everything in the top 10 this year made $250M+ up from $190M for #10 last year. But this year Minecraft topped the list at $424M compared to Inside Out 2’s $600M+ haul last year. Neck and neck with Minecraft was the live action Lilo & Stitch remake at $423M. I am still not sure why Disney decided to redo all of these movies as live action instead of something more inventive (cough: $) but here is a quick open letter to Disney: You have all this Disney IP, you have The Muppets you are not using, do Muppet remakes of everything. I’d throw money at a Muppets’ Alice In Wonderland or Star Wars.

The rest of the top 5 were some predictable crowd-pleasers: Superman, Jurassic World: Rebirth, and Zootopia 2. Surprisingly, Wicked: For Good failed to crack the top 5 after being thought a probable shoe-in for highest grossing film of the year.

This year, we saw a lot of great things including Weapons, Keeper, Sinners, Together, Predator: Badlands, The Naked Gun, The Monkey, Toxic Avenger, One Battle After Another, The Long Walk, and more. Overall, a really strong year for movies. Like we have been asking for the last several years, we are finally seeing a lot of movies hit that feel like the filmmakers actually have control of their films, for better or worse. Great to break from superheroes.

Streaming had some gems again this year including some things that didn’t make a huge splash in the theater but got good reviews on Letterboxd, like: Frankenstein (2025), Mickey 17, K-Pop Demon Hunters, Bugonia, and Marty Supreme.

For best theater experiences this year, it had to be Tron: Ares and Predator: Badlands in the Dolby Cinema. Predator is a better movie but Tron was a better audio visual blast to the face, thx NIИ.

Overall, our consensus for favorite movie of 2025 was Weapons. Just a great movie that does what it intends to do. We talked about it to everyone and almost everybody had great things to say.

2026 is looking to be another stacked year as well. Prediction: Nolan’s Odyssey will be the one to beat.

Psst! Down here! If you are reading still, shout out to Cereal Offenders. You didn’t hear it from me but we are having pre-production meetings on Cereal Offenders 2… but don’t tell anyone yet, shhhhh!

This year saw Inside Out 2 and Wolverine & Deadpool duke it out for the top spot, followed by Wicked, Moana 2, and Despicable Me 4 to round out the top 5. Otherwise, there were several other films that, while they didn’t crack into the top spots, still made a decent amount versus their expectations. The most notable of these was Terrifier 3 which made waves by burying Joker 2 during its second weekend and wildly outperforming its expectations overall.

2024 continued to be the mixed bag for Hollywood that we have seen the last few years but we also saw signs that audiences still turn out for quality movies. Hopefully things like Terrifier 3, The Substance, Oddity, Nosferatu, Longlegs, etc will start to give more momentum to appropriately sized budgets and projects that stay true to artists’ vision instead of blowing up budgets on safe mediocre things we have seen 100 times.

Overall, 2024 was a decent year for movies in the theater and definitely had a better “average” experience than other recent years where we saw huge flops and stretches of nothing interesting enough to invest in seeing at the theater.

Streaming delivered another good year of hidden gems, foreign oddities, and low budget chances taken on quality projects. Over on Letterboxd, we were able to look at the best reviewed movies from 2024 that didn’t make a splash at the box office. In this list, we have some great films like Oddity, I Saw the TV Glow, Anora, The Wild Robot, and VHS: Beyond.

For best theater experiences this year, it has to be Dune 2 in the Dolby Cinema. It is hard to beat the feeling of the seats and your entire existence rumbling as Paul Atreides climbs his way up to set the reigns on that sandworm. As for streaming/home experiences, Oddity was a great surprise that we were talking about for weeks afterwards.

Overall, our favorite movie of 2024 was The Substance. Unhinged from start to finish, it was amazing to see an over-the-top gore-filled arthouse character study while it was new and in the theater. Sure, the movie isn’t for everyone but it is great to see what will be a cult classic when it is new instead of finding it decades later.

So, as we look forward to 2025, we have another year that looks to be stacking up about the same. There are a few big sequels, several smaller things to get excited about, and plenty of questionable things getting a green light. Keeping an eye on Jurassic World, Avatar, and several smaller horror movies. Follow along here as we see how it unfolds. Happy New Year!