It is 2025. Heaven help us. A year that not long ago sounded like science fiction—and well beyond even Stanley Kubrick’s musings for the world of tomorrow—has come. And with it is a film and television industry in a state of upheaval… or perhaps dawning opportunity.
After spending the first half of this decade recovering from one crisis after another, be it COVID, self-inflicted delays in negotiating the 2023 strikes, or just the continued fallout from streaming’s ascent (and more recent bumpy plateauing), many in Hollywood and beyond are hoping 2025 marks a fresh start. “Survive until 2025” was a rallying cry last year among movie theater exhibitors recognizing that 2024 would see a year of diminished output in the cinematic pipeline. But this mantra also could just as easily apply to the streamers who began bundling together and reconfiguring their release strategies. Even Netflix these days is in the midst of spacing out Cobra Kai Season 6 over nearly as many weeks as a network TV show.
The times they are a-changin’, and as they shift we thought it might be fun to muse on a few things we’d like to see in the year to come…
A Wide Release for Rian Johnson’s Next Benoit Blanc Movie
In 2022, early reports suggested Netflix and theater owners were close to releasing Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion, a sequel to 2019’s delightful holiday sleeper hit, Knives Out, in theaters for 45 days ahead of its Christmastime premiere on the streaming service. In the end, Netflix released the movie theatrically for only five days in November at 600 domestic theaters (with sporadic special screenings for the rest of the holiday season). During five days in a less-than-ideal “wide” release, it grossed about $15 million. Which is all to say it probably would have been another holiday hit for Johnson and Daniel Craig’s buoyant Benoit Blanc had Netflix wanted a theatrical hit.
They didn’t. With the 600 screens seen by many in the industry as a nominal courtesy to Johnson, Glass Onion’s muted theatrical release appeared to be yet another casualty from a strategy that Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos has more than once described as thus: “Driving folks to a theater is just not our business. Having big new desirable content drives value for our members and drives value for our business.”
Fair enough, but in addition to keeping auteurs like Rian Johnson happy—or for that matter Guillermo del Toro, Greta Gerwig, and Martin Scorsese—might we suggest evidence is increasingly showing that splashy theatrical releases can drive value to the streaming business? And this applies just as much to theatrical “flops” as hits. Look no further than this past holiday season when Amazon-MGM took a gamble on releasing their new streaming original film starring Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans, Red One, into theaters. The movie suffered a rather infamously weak opening weekend, and was quickly swallowed up by Wicked and Moana 2 shortly thereafter.
Nonetheless, by virtue of being a theatrical release with the marketing push that goes with it, the film got a lot of attention ahead of its limited theatrical window of 27 exclusive days in cinemas. It still grossed $185 million globally and provided major value to Amazon’s Prime Video service. So much so it became Amazon’s biggest streaming debut ever, with the company crowing more than 50 million people watched the film in its first four days on the service, beginning on Dec. 12.
Even a streaming film that few people liked (at least among critics) can become a global event on the service if it has a decent theatrical debut. Now imagine if you did the same thing with a film audiences were actually excited about. Say, for example, the next Benoit Blanc movie from Johnson and Craig, which is a sequel to both a movie that was already a theatrical smash in 2019 as well as one of Netflix’s biggest hits in 2022.
Or, for that matter, the next horror movie from an auteur as beloved as Guillermo del Toro, who is making for Netflix a film based on one of the greatest horror stories of all time: Frankenstein. Suddenly, Netflix is more than just paying lip-service to the talent’s perceived vanity—or giving cinephiles the chance to see these films the way they were intended; streamers are also adding value to their brand. Isn’t that a win-win?
A Full Return to Gothic Horror
While on the subject of Guillermo del Toro and Frankenstein, let’s return to the one genre that has proven reliably dependable for more than a century: horror. While some prognosticators strangely think the sky could finally fall on horror simply because it is one of the few genres that dependably still work as original stories in the theatrical space, the truth is 2024 was a banner year for frights. Plenty of originals and indies hit it big, be it Longlegs, potential awards darling The Substance, and even the unrated bloodbath that was Terrifier 3. But while horror remains healthy, trends and tastes ebb and flow, change and cycle through.
And we think we’re on the cusp of a renaissance for Gothic horror. In fact, it might have already begun as seen in the runaway success of Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu over the past holiday season. More than doubling its long Christmas opening projections, the vampire throwback is another critical and audience favorite despite it being a tale many had heard before. It was even the third Dracula movie released under the Comcast umbrella in the last 18 months alone! Luckily, it was also the first Dracula movie in a long time to really go for it and treat the subject matter with the grandeur and conviction its Gothic source material warrants. Not since Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula has a major artist attempted to seriously tackle the concept with vigor… and like that Coppola movie of 32 years ago, audiences showed up.
Similar to the 1990s, which also saw Gothic-infused hits like Interview with the Vampire and Sleepy Hollow, among others, 2025 could prove a sumptuous turning point where horror returns to its roots. The biggest 2025 example of this is again del Toro’s Frankenstein, which like Eggers doing Nosferatu/Dracula, sees a beloved auteur with marquee panache tackling one of the cornerstones of the genre. But Maggie Gyllenhaal is doing her own riff on Frankenstein via The Bride! with Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale. And beyond the literary classics, Ryan Coogler is seeking to keep vampires in their spooky, moldering roots with an original undead chiller, Sinners. Given it is from the director-and-star team of Coogler and Michael B. Jordan—the same duo who gave us Fruitvale Station, Creed, and the best villain in the MCU—there is every reason to suspect their latest film will have strong creative and commercial bite.
Further down the road in 2026, another Gothic masterpiece is getting reimagined for Gen-Z with Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman, Saltburn) putting her own spin on Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights with Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi in the lead roles. If the horror genre plays its cards right, we’ll be returning to the moors and crumbling castles of yore for years to come.
The Definition of What an ‘IMAX Movie’ Is Expands
In 2023, Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise’s wildly entertaining Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning (back when it still had a “Part 1” in the title) attempted to open in July without any IMAX screens. Those cavernous auditoriums were at the time being saved for Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, a talky, three-hour, R-rated drama about apocalyptic weapons of mass destruction. So the choice was made that an action movie could debut without the premium IMAX format.
Let’s just say in 2025 there’s a reason Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is making sure to release for Memorial Day weekend in the U.S. with weeks and weeks worth of IMAX exclusivity. These larger screen formats have proven to be more than just a “gimmick” like the 3D fad that came and went in the 2010s. It is a genuinely innovative and immersive way to experience going to the movies that gets audiences out of the house. Better still in the case of films like Oppenheimer, it provides new tools to filmmakers who want to paint on a larger canvas.
So it’s exciting to hear that as Nolan gears up to shoot his next epic, an adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey, he and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema are pioneering new ways and enhancements to existing IMAX cameras in order to take them to sea. However, it’s just as exciting to hear that the New Year will see the Canadian IMAX company debut four more IMAX cameras. For context, there are currently only eight 65mm film IMAX cameras in use around the world. This means the number of film productions that can shoot in IMAX will increase from from one to two at any given time, potentially doubling the number of celluloid IMAX movies released in a calendar year.
In a modern film industry where audiences are more inclined to show up in a theater for an IMAX release, this is good news. And more IMAX cameras (hopefully) also means our definition of what an IMAX movie can expand. It already began a few years ago when Nolan became the first director to shoot a pensive, character-driven adult drama in the format usually associated with big studio blockbusters. And just as Nolan being the first Hollywood director to tackle using this technology in the realm of superheroes and action movies via The Dark Knight in 2008, we’d love to see 2025 have more filmmakers following in Nolan’s footsteps by telling sweeping adult-oriented stories in the IMAX format, complete with 65mm lenses.
We admit this could be woefully naive since the IMAX company ultimately decides which films get to use their cameras—and the safer bet for them as well as studios is on blockbusters. But Oppenheimer proves the definition of what a blockbuster is might be expanding in the decade after COVID, and there are other directors outside of Nolan who could have the cache to eventize a film. Imagine Greta Gerwig’s next film after Narnia being marketed as a movie shot in IMAX; or Coogler; or Eggers; or Jordan Peele. Brady Corbet’s brooding drama The Brutalist is a vision and Oscar contender in 70mm. Maybe his next three-hour epic could play on IMAX screens for longer than a handful of days if it was shot in the format?
It Is Confirmed James Bond Will Return… Solo
It’s been more than three years since Daniel Craig hung up the tuxedo in fiery fashion during No Time to Die. Yet there is still no new Bond movie in development, announced, or even cast. There were almost four years exactly between Pierce Brosnan’s last outing as 007 in 2002 and Craig’s debut in 2006, but at this rate, that much time will likely pass without audiences even getting to speculate about the next guy in the suit.
Recently, we seemed to learn why. According to The Wall Street Journal, big tech behemoth and the new owner of MGM, Amazon, has been pushing the rightsholders of the James Bond character, Eon Productions heads Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, into expanding 007 into a bonafide cinematic universe. Reportedly pitches included a Moneypenny streaming series on Prime Video and spinoff movies about other 00 agents. One wonders why not a return of children’s cartoon James Bond Jr. while they’re at it?
Apparently, Broccoli has so far said absolutely not and allegedly called Amazon execs pushing for supersizing 007 “fucking idiots.”
Good for her. While things have certainly dragged into the longer side at this point between No Time to Die and announcements regarding what could be called James Bond 26, we’ve mostly enjoyed the pause, even writing there is something refreshingly retro about having to wait years instead of months or weeks for the next installment in a franchise. There is a quasi-bespoke, handcrafted quality to Eon’s Bond films, whether perceived or real. They certainly remain a family business which in the world of modern streaming services and tech mergers feels as antiquated as an artisanal shop where James might pick up his suits or caviar.
It’s also fair to note the James Bond movies are among the oldest of modern movie franchises, one which has shamelessly recycled plots and concepts time and again. But the relative rarity with which they do so makes each return charming and like a visit from an old friend. The thought of that occasional fondness being ground to powder by ceaseless corporate exploitation—as with what happened to Star Wars’ vanished splendor after five movies and 10 TV shows inside of a decade—is frankly distasteful.
… And the thing about James is his taste is impeccable.
A Superman Movie That Sticks the Landing in This Century
Finally, we cannot look forward to 2025 and not think about the caped elephant in the room. This year indeed feels like a make or break one for superhero movies. Two years ago proved that the genre’s popularity has limits after a string of flops were released between the now defunct DCEU and the MCU (with the lion’s share on the DC side of the street). But 2024 showed its popularity is still strong if you make a movie folks dig, a la Deadpool & Wolverine.
2025 is thus a chance to see how Marvel and the newly rechristened DC Studios will transition into the next 10 years, beginning perhaps most crucially with a new Superman actor and continuity being launched in James Gunn’s Superman reboot due out in July. We could bore you here by repeating how much financially and creatively is riding on a film that is supposed to introduce Gunn’s vision for the new DC Universe going forward.
… But we really just want to take a breath and say all we hope for is a great Superman movie. Even a good one would be a nice change of pace, because in spite of the guy in the red cape being one of the most recognizable and beloved superheroes ever created, Kal-El has proven remarkably challenging to translate to the big screen in this century. It is yet another testament to Christopher Reeve and Richard Donner that they made it look effortless in 1978, as we were happily reminded of last year in the excellent Super/Man documentary about Reeve’s life.
Yet while every Superman-adjacent movie released since 2006’s Superman Returns had at least one standout sequence, casting, or Hans Zimmer score to recommend it, none of them have made the character fly back into our hearts. And the thing about Superman is he should soar there. Judging by all the goodwill generated from the Superman trailer, it seems a lot of other people out there are ready to believe a man can fly again. Let this be the year that he does.
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