Hollywood is known for delivering top-notch, mind-blending content but this year didn’t go well in terms of box office collection. Do you know why so many high-profile Hollywood films failed at the box office this year?
There were number of hit films this year, but there was a raft of high-profile releases that fared far worse than expected. So where did they all go wrong? Below are 5 of the most infamous of 2025’s box-office duds – and they all help to explain in different ways why Hollywood is struggling to get people out of their homes and into cinemas.
Marvel Studios1. Thunderbolts*
Thunderbolts* made close to $400m (£299m) worldwide, which is not exactly small change, but it’s less than half of what Avengers: Endgame made in 2019. Another of this year’s Marvel offerings, Captain America: Brave New World, did slightly better, but the two films still rank way down at numbers 29 and 30 in the studio’s rankings. It seems unfair to lump them together, as Thunderbolts* was an exciting romp, while Brave New World was a shambles. But both films were victims of the same issue: they felt like leftovers, reheated scraps of a Marvel Cinematic Universe saga that concluded years ago. Another Marvel release, Fantastic Four: First Steps, was a bigger hit, which suggests that if the studio starts afresh with its most iconic characters, then it could recover. But it’s notable that there was only one superhero film in the international top 10 this year, and that was Warner/ DC’s Superman. Has superhero fatigue arrived at last?
Disney2. Snow White
Lilo & Stitch was a billion-dollar smash this year, and How to Train Your Dragon wasn’t far behind, so audiences are obviously happy to show up for live-action/ CGI remakes of cartoons they’ve already seen. The exception that proved the rule was Disney’s Snow White, which didn’t make back its budget. The film was undeniably flawed: it kept pulling in two different directions, so that half of it was a reverential recreation of the original 1937 cartoon, and half of it was a subversive spin on the same source material. But a bigger problem was that Snow White was mired in controversy for months before it was released. Some people objected to the casting of Rachel Zegler; others objected to cast members’ political views. As the BBC’s Caryn James put it, Snow White became “the victim of its moment, a fairy-tale princess covered in mud”. It would have taken a truly magical film to overcome all the bad publicity. And this, as it turned out, wasn’t a truly magical film.
Warner Bros Entertainment Inc3. Mickey 17
Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite was a phenomenon – a universally acclaimed South Korean thriller that, in 2020, became the first film not in the English language to win the Oscar for best picture. Cinephiles everywhere waited with bated breath for Bong’s follow-up. And waited. And waited. Finally, after its release date had been pushed back and back, Mickey 17 came out this February. But by then people had stopped talking about Parasite, and started talking about why the new film had taken so long. Was there something wrong with Mickey 17? The BBC’s Hugh Montgomery certainly thought so. In his two-star review he called Mickey 17 “a serious disappointment”, “completely toothless”, and “a film with a major identity crisis”. Audiences agreed. After the triumph of Parasite, it made perfect sense for Warner Bros to give Bong more than $100m (£75m) to make a science-fiction epic, but even with Batman (Robert Pattinson) in the lead role – or roles – Mickey 17 wasn’t what the studio had hoped for.
Yannis Drakoulidi/ Amazon MGM Studios4. After the Hunt
After the Hunt stars the queen of Hollywood, Julia Roberts, and it’s directed by Luca Guadagnino, the maker of the awards-tastic Call My by Your Name. This contentious MeToo drama could have been a hit, then, but it’s reported to have made less than $10m (£7.5m) globally – half of Roberts’s salary, apparently, and around one-eighth of the overall budget. Maybe that’s simply because Guadagnino’s rambling film wasn’t good enough, but it could be that it wasn’t good enough in certain specific ways. It’s got some hefty talking points, it’s got a well-dressed, big-name cast, it’s got a classy, rarefied setting – Yale University’s Philosophy faculty – and it’s got a mystery: what went on between Andrew Garfield’s academic and Ayo Edebiri’s student? It’s also got too many subplots, too much silliness, and a running time that is far too long. Does that ring any bells? Yes, After the Hunt resembles the expensive television series that are currently unavoidable on every single streaming service – so why should anyone pay to see it at the cinema?
Black Bear Pictures5. Christy
Christy, Americana and Eden have two things in common. The first is that they all feature Sydney Sweeney in a major role. The other is that they all flopped. Christy, a biopic of the boxer Christy Martin, is especially notorious, having had one of the worst opening weekends ever in the US of any film with a wide cinema release. What makes this so remarkable is that Sweeney is currently one of the world’s most popular celebrities, so the lesson could be that fame on social media isn’t the same as film stardom. Another factor is that controversy over Sweeney’s appearance in an American Eagle advertisement may have put off some potential cinemagoers. But what can get lost in the discourse is that she keeps making worthwhile independent films that don’t exploit her pin-up looks. Anyone But You may have been sold on the sight of her and Glen Powell in their swimming costumes, but Immaculate (2024) and Reality (2023) were unglamorous, risk-taking projects, and this year’s flops were hardly mainstream Hollywood blockbusters. “We don’t always just make art for numbers; we make it for impact,” said Sweeney on Instagram when Christy hit the canvas. She may have had a point.
