Box office news: The top-10 highest-grossing films worldwide in 2025
2025 was another year of discovery in cinema’s post-COVID era with flops and surprises aplenty.
Fallow periods at the box office were bookended by smash-hits that gave folks in the industry hope of cinema's continued survival.
From superheroes to animated epics, Film News Blitz’s Dan Lawrence takes a look at the 10 highest-grossing films of 2025.
The method
This list, at the time of publication, represents the top-10 highest-grossing films released in cinemas during 2025, using data from Box Office Mojo.
10 - ‘Superman’
Superman is the only superhero entry in this list, perhaps signifying a bit of a shift in audience habits. This flick, starring David Corenswet as the Man of Steel, was the first in DC Studios’ rebooted franchise of connected films and TV shows, spearheaded by James Gunn.
Gunn served as writer/director on this colourful camp tale that earned $616.8 million worldwide, falling just over $50 million short of the far grittier Man of Steel from 2013.
‘Superman’ review: Heart, hope and humanity delivered by James Gunn
9 - ‘F1: The Movie’
F1: The Movie was a massive marketing swing for a sport that has been rapidly growing in global popularity over the last half a decade. Top Gun: Maverick director Joe Kosinski led a massive technical achievement spinning this film together, which relied on all-too-familiar story beats and Brad Pitt’s star power to become a success.
Audiences enjoyed the recipe, and $631.6 million worldwide at the box office meant that F1 is bar far the highest-grossing movie that Apple has ever produced (Warner Bros. distributed the film in cinemas).
8 - ‘How to Train Your Dragon’
Hang on, didn’t How to Train Your Dragon come out 15 years ago? Well, Dreamworks decided to follow Disney’s formula of live-action remakes and chose this property as its first. Original director Dean DeBlois returned to present a film that’s exactly the same as its animated predecessor.
Luckily, the original How to Train Your Dragon is an animated classic, so the live-action remake was well-received, raking in $636.4 million worldwide at the box office. Let’s hope we don’t get a live-action Shrek film…
‘How to Train Your Dragon’ review: DreamWorks produces brilliantly faithful live-action remake
7 - ‘Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle’
Anime has been hugely popular in its origin country, Japan, for some time, but its impact worldwide has been steadily growing to the point it's now a global phenomenon. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle, directed by Hikaru Kondô and Haruo Sotozaki, proved how successful anime has become as an international genre.
Demon Slayer conjured up $718.5 million worldwide at the box office, making it both the highest-grossing anime film of all time and the highest-grossing Japanese film ever.
6 - ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’
Still in cinemas, Avatar: Fire and Ash, the third film in director James Cameron’s science-fiction saga, has a lot to live up to at the box office. Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water are number one and three on the all-time highest-grossing films list, each earning over $2 billion worldwide.
Reactions have been mixed for this third instalment, with critiques mainly focused on familiarity, but the technical mastery continues to shine. As it stands, Fire and Ash has earned $794.1 million worldwide at the box office, and you can count on that figure rising as the film remains in theatres in the New Year.
Film news: James Cameron prepared to end ‘Avatar’ franchise after ‘Fire and Ash’
5 - ‘Jurassic World: Rebirth’
Sigh. Jurassic World: Rebirth, directed by Gareth Edwards and written by Jurassic Park screenwriter David Koepp, is the seventh film in Universal’s dinosaur franchise. Sadly, only the Steven Spielberg-directed original is great, with the rest ranging from good to garbage. This entry is towards the negative end of that scale.
Despite being one of Film News Blitz’s biggest letdowns of 2025, audiences flocked to the latest Jurassic movie in the summer, with the combined star power of Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey and mutated dinosaurs generating $869.1 million worldwide at the box office.
Box office news: ‘Jurassic World Rebirth’ packs potent global bite in opening weekend
4 - ‘A Minecraft Movie’
One of several box office triumphs for Warner Bros. in 2025 and continuing a trend of kid-friendly video-game adaptations performing well in cinemas, A Minecraft Movie dominated theatres earlier in 2025.
Based on one of the most successful games ever, A Minecraft Movie leveraged the star power of Jack Black and Jason Momoa and delivered a film directly serving gamers. The gamers flocked en masse to cinemas, and A Minecraft Movie grossed $958.1 million worldwide at the box office.
3 - ‘Lilo & Stitch’
The latest in a long line of Disney live-action remakes, Lilo & Stitch proved a hit in cinemas. Directed by Dean Fleischer Camp, this remake of the 2002 animated original was considered to be one of the better Disney do-overs, earning a 72% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Audiences agreed with critics in a big way, and a multi-generational draw helped Lilo & Stitch cross the billion barrier at the box office, grossing $1.038 billion worldwide.
Disney news: How smash-hit live-action ‘Lilo & Stitch’ divides opinion
2 - ‘Zootropolis 2’
Releasing nine years after the original Zootropolis (Zootopia in the U.S.), Zootropolis 2 continues to perform well in cinemas, after opening towards the end of November. Film News Blitz rated this animated flick four stars out of five, and it is certainly a solid follow-up to the original.
Audiences must have been keen to see the return of Officers Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) as Zootroplis 2 opened to over half a billion in its first five days of release. As it stands, Zootroplis 2 has grossed $1.42 billion worldwide at the box office.
‘Zootropolis 2’ review - A strong follow-up to a modern Disney animated classic
1 - ‘Ne Zha 2’
Directed by Yu Yang, Ne Zha 2 is a Chinese animated sequel drawing on mythological tales and centres on a young boy with god-like powers who must save the world.
The film only grossed $23.3 million in the North American market with a dubbed English version distributed by A24. Moreover, most international markets made little contribution to the overall tally at the box office. However, upon its release in China on January 29, Ne Zha 2 went on to gross $1.86 billion in its native market.
Overall, Ne Zha 2’s worldwide gross of $2.15 billion means it is the most successful film of 2025.
