The 10 Biggest Box Office Hits And Flops Of Summer 2025

Ever since the release of “Jaws” in 1975, summer has become the biggest moviegoing season of the year, a trend enduring even after COVID-19 shut down theaters in March 2020. Summer 2023, for instance, exceeded $4 billion at the domestic box office. Summer 2025 wasn’t that lucrative, thanks to this being the first summer (excluding 2020 and 2021) to lack a domestic blockbuster grossing $450 million or more since 2017. Still, even without a Barbenheimer event, this season hit some pretty notable financial highs, including bringing classic cinema icons Stitch and Superman roaring back to life as significant box office draws.

Even with those lucrative releases, there were still several worrisome underperformers and even outright bombs scattered throughout the season. Many of these duds were connected to long-running franchises that Hollywood can’t seem to realize have overstayed their welcome with general audiences. Exploring the 10 biggest hits and flops of the summer 2025 box office landscape underscores how this was truly the best of times and worst of times for theatrical exhibition. For every surprise original hit, there was a spin-off or sequel that lost tens of millions of dollars. 

Generally, though, summer 2025 reaffirmed the public’s love for the big screen, particularly when they provide escape from the grueling heat. So grab your Krypto popcorn buckets and be on the lookout for kids running around in strange poses — it’s time to examine summer 2025’s box office peaks and valleys.

After 23 years, the world of “Lilo and Stitch” returned to the summertime theatrical landscape with a live-action remake of the same name. Though numerous story elements from the original feature were changed in this update, Stitch’s enduring popularity very clearly informed the new version’s massive box office success in summer 2025. As long as this little blue alien was causing mischief and speaking fractured English, audiences were satisfied. Not even the stench of recent live-action Disney remake misfires like “Mulan” and “Snow White” could keep “Lilo and Stitch” from achieving box office superstardom. 

The biggest movie of summer 2025 by a massive margin, “Lilo and Stitch” grossed a whopping $1.03 billion worldwide. It did more than four times its $100 million budget in North America alone, while also leaving the domestic totals of past live-action Disney remakes like “Alice in Wonderland,” “The Jungle Book,” and “Aladdin” in the dust. There was no end to the box office achievements of this cultural phenomenon, which included “Lilo and Stitch” taking home the biggest Memorial Day opening weekend in history. It was also the 28th Disney feature in history to crack $400 million+ in North America, another sign of how this update of a 2002 classic struck a profound chord with audiences.

Even though summer 2025 lacked a “Barbie” or “Top Gun: Maverick”-sized success, the staggeringly lucrative “Lilo and Stitch” was a massive financial win for this season of moviegoing.

It used to be that a Pixar movie in June was an immediate box office hit. Even critically-challenged titles like the two “Cars” sequels could gross $150 million+ in North America without breaking a sweat. However, thanks to Disney shifting original Pixar properties like “Soul” and “Turning Red” to streaming-exclusive releases in the wake of COVID, that status quo has forever changed. Now, Pixar films, unless they’re sequels to pre-pandemic hits like “Inside Out,” just aren’t perceived as must-see movies in theaters. In a rush to help Disney+, the Mouse House obliterated all the goodwill of the Pixar brand. “Elio” becoming one of 2025’s biggest box office bombs in its summer 2025 theatrical run made this all too apparent.

After opening to a disastrous $20.8 million, “Elio” only grossed $72.9 million domestically. That’s lower than the domestic bow of “Inside Out” from 10 years ago and roughly equal to what “Coco” grossed in its first five days of release over Thanksgiving 2017. There was no salvation for “Elio” overseas either, where it only grossed $77.7 million for a worldwide haul of $150.6 million. Costing at least $150 million to produce, “Elio” was a catastrophe for Disney, making $7 million more domestically (and substantially less worldwide) than the massively cheaper 2023 animated film “Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie.”

If it wasn’t clear before summer 2025, “Elio” sure made it obvious: Pixar’s days of producing reliable summertime hits are over.  Who knows if original Pixar moneymakers will ever come back.

Warner Bros. released four DC Comics-based bombs in 2023 that suggested audiences might have finally grown weary of superheroes. While March 2022’s “The Batman” was a smash, “Black Adam,” “The Flash,” and “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” all slipped into the Phantom Zone. Leave it to the Man of Steel to revive DC on the big screen: James Gunn’s “Superman” was the second biggest movie of the summer, with a domestic haul surpassing $345 million. While other long-running franchises hit new domestic lows in summer 2025, Gunn’s reboot surpassed all other “Superman” titles in North America, including 2016’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.”

“Superman” reached such tremendous North American box office heights thanks to a marketing campaign that promised moviegoers plenty of elements they’d never seen in a Superman movie before. That included Krypto, Mister Terrific, a gigantic kaiju, a cocky Guy Gardner/Green Lantern, Gunn’s singular (and acclaimed) touch with comic book movies, and so much more. Combining all that with an infectiously upbeat atmosphere turned it into the must-see PG-13 action film of the season. “Superman” even surpassed the domestic totals of all but two Marvel Cinematic Universe features released between 2023 and 2025.

Although its worldwide gross of $605 million (at press time) was less impressive, that’s still not too shabby for a reboot of a franchise dating back to 1978. It turns out rescuing DC cinema from its 2023 financial doldrums was the perfect job for “Superman.”

While the first “John Wick” topped out at $43 million domestically, the second installment in the saga reached $92 million. From there, “John Wick” became so iconic that the next two installments would both reach more than $171 million in North America alone. “John Wick” distributor Lionsgate was eager to keep this gravy train going, which is how the spin-off “From the World of John Wick: Ballerina” starring Ana de Armas came about. Despite securing a $90 million budget that exceeded the costs of all but one of the initial “John Wick” movies, “Ballerina” ended up being the lowest-grossing entry in the series in over a decade.

Released over the first weekend of June 2025, “Ballerina” grossed $58 million domestically, only slightly higher than the $56.8 million three-day domestic bow of “John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum” from six years earlier. It was also only up 12% from the $51.7 million domestic cume of summer 2017’s “Atomic Blonde,” a Charlize Theron star vehicle that didn’t have the benefit of a familiar brand name to lean on. With “John Wick: Chapter 4” bringing the saga to a seemingly firm conclusion, audiences just weren’t craving more from this universe. 

The book had been closed on “John Wick,” which just made “Ballerina” ads emphasizing the return of Keanu Reeves as Wick feel desperate, not exciting. Though on paper a surefire hit, “Ballerina” turned into one of summer 2025’s biggest box office boondoggles.

The critical reviews for “Jurassic World Rebirth” were incredibly tepid, but that was pretty much a non-issue for this Gareth Edwards directorial effort. Even without any pre-existing “Jurassic Park” or “World” characters in its cast, “Rebirth” proved a box office beast in its theatrical run. After getting off to a rollicking start over this summer’s July 4th weekend, “Rebirth” went on to secure $336 million domestically, down just 12% from the North American haul of “Jurassic World Dominion” three years earlier. Even better, “Rebirth” proved that prehistoric beasts are still massive draws for overseas moviegoers, earning over $840 million worldwide. 

Summer 2025 saw several franchises, like “Karate Kid,” “John Wick,” and “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” struggle to capture the box office highs of the past. That just makes the success of “Jurassic World Rebirth,” the seventh entry in the saga, all the more astonishing. Rather than being exhausted with these films, audiences were as hungry as ever for more dinosaur carnage. Throwing in well-liked star Scarlett Johansson as a new lead certainly didn’t hurt either. Even more impressively, “Rebirth” scored such gigantic numbers without the aid (or higher ticket price) of IMAX auditoriums. Dinosaurs were alluring enough even without that large-screen format.

Perhaps in time the “meh” critical response to “Rebirth” will come back to haunt later “Jurassic World” adventures, but for now, “Jurassic World Rebirth” is unquestionably one of the season’s strongest box office performers.

There was a time not so long ago when a new Marvel Cinematic Universe movie opening over the first weekend of May would automatically become the biggest film of the year. The days of “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Captain America: Civil War,” however, are long gone. Post-2022, the MCU has a mixed box office track record as general audiences won’t just show up for any installment in this series. That includes titles like “Thunderbolts*” that got positive marks from critics and audiences. But praise for the movie’s weightier themes and more entertaining character interplay wasn’t enough to give it much of a boost at the box office.

Despite having a prime release date that’s served Marvel Studios so well in the past, “Thunderbolts*” only opened to $74 million. It failed to recover in subsequent weeks, thanks to a darker tone that limited people’s desire to rewatch it in a theater and marketing tactics (like renaming the film “The New Avengers” after its opening weekend) that suggested it was a “fans-only” endeavor. Even more troubling was how the $180 million-budgeted “Thunderbolts*” flamed out overseas. After making $190.3 million in North America, it only procured $192.2 million internationally. That $382.4 million global haul wasn’t nearly enough to make it profitable. 

Casual viewers just assumed the film was incomprehensible to folks who didn’t watch every Disney+ MCU show. Thus “Thunderbolts*” fizzled out financially in the same early May weekend that Marvel Studios used to rule.

Unless it stars Vin Diesel or Lightning McQueen, car racing movies have a mixed box office track record. Hits like “Talladega Nights” and “Ford v Ferrari” do exist, but there have also been plenty of bombs like “Speed Racer,” “Turbo,” and “Days of Thunder.” Done wrong, these features don’t promise much to prospective moviegoers beyond a lot of noise and roaring engines. Summer 2025 brought a notable exception with “F1,” which delivered the potent combination of Brad Pitt’s star power, the familiarity of the F1 brand name, and fast cars going zoom in IMAX to create one of the big sleeper hits of the season.

Domestically, “F1” grossed over $183 million, a mighty haul that far surpassed pre-release expectations. Even better, it drummed up those numbers despite opening just five days before “Jurassic World Rebirth.” The July 4th weekend of 2025 clearly had room for mutliple tentpoles at once. Thanks to how beloved F1 racing is around the globe, “F1” was also a powerhouse at the international box office and will crack $600 million+ worldwide before the summer moviegoing season officially ends. 

Though Pitt’s been appearing in movies since 1991, “F1” was massive enough to become his biggest star vehicle ever worldwide, surpassing “World War Z” for that honor. With that achievement in the tank, “F1” solidified its moneymaker status and zoomed far past normal box office standards for car racing features.

People love The Weeknd aka Abel Tesfaye, as his sold-out concerts and ubiquitous presence in pop culture make apparent. When it comes to acting, though, Tesfaye’s reputation is way more negative. After he scored tons of mocking memes for his performance in the terrible, overhyped 2023 HBO flop “The Idol,” Tesfaye returned in front of the camera in summer 2025 with the movie “Hurry Up Tomorrow,” which he also co-wrote with Reza Fahim and director Trey Edward Shults. The thriller (tied into a 2025 album also named “Hurry Up Tomorrow”) also starred Jenna Ortega and recent Oscar nominee Barry Keoghan.

To say the film didn’t go over well is an understatement. Critics absolutely savaged “Hurry Up Tomorrow,” lambasting everything from its imagery to Tesfaye’s performance. Not even The Weeknd’s fanbase could help “Tomorrow” overcome such a dismal reception. This box office calamity only grossed $5.2 million in its domestic run despite launching in over 2,000 theaters and having tons of star power to its name. Neither the opaque marketing campaign, The Weeknd’s track record as a musician, or Ortega being fresh off the box office hit “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” was enough to get general audiences to take a chance on “Hurry Up Tomorrow.”

Costing $15 million to make, “Hurry Up Tomorrow” lost a good chunk of change and became summer 2025’s first major flop. After everything that went wrong on both “The Idol” and “Hurry Up Tomorrow,”  Abel Tesfaye should pause further acting exploits. 

August tends to produce at least one big sleeper hit that, to everyone’s surprise, becomes one of the season’s most lucrative moneymakers. Past examples of this phenomenon include “The Help,” “It Ends with Us,” “Crazy Rich Asians,” and “Straight Outta Compton,” among many others. In summer 2025, it was the horror film “Weapons.” The second major solo directorial effort from Zach Cregger, the movie was preceded by a clever marketing campaign imploring audiences to wonder what happened to a bunch of kids who suddenly went missing one morning at 2:17 a.m. Eye-catching posters and striking trailers turned “Weapons” into a must-see, while so many summer 2025 sequels were deemed by audiences as inessential.

At press time, “Weapons” has already cleared $100 million despite playing in theaters for only a few weeks. Its opening weekend exceeded the lifetime domestic gross of Cregger’s previous genre film, 2022’s “Barbarian.” On a $38 million budget, it’s already profitable for Warner Bros. and has left many other 2020s horror films tied into pre-existing brand names (like “I Know What You Did Last Summer” and “The Forever Purge”) in the dust. Not only is “Weapons” set to become one of Josh Brolin’s biggest non-Marvel movies ever,with a projected domestic total of at least $140 million, but “Weapons” is on course to be one of the biggest original movies at the domestic box office since 2010. Once again, August delivered an unexpected summer smash.

There’s no other way to describe the box office for “M3GAN 2.0” as anything but catastrophic. The original “M3GAN” grossed a fantastic $95.1 million in North America alone on a $12 million budget. But its sequel couldn’t even secure a total domestic haul on par with its predecessor’s $30.4 million opening frame, despite arriving over the July 4th weekend after a massive promotional campaign. Audiences utterly rejected reuniting with this killer robot, ensuring that “M3GAN 2.0” only grossed $24.1 million in North America. Overseas grosses couldn’t salvage the movie either, as it earned just $17 million internationally for a $39 million worldwide take.

“M3GAN 2.0” traded the horror movie vibes of the first movie for a marketing campaign emphasizing action sequences, duels between robots, and “campy” material intended to go viral on social media. Even Blumhouse head honcho Jason Blum later admitted this was all a mistake, since it separated “M3GAN 2.0” from everything that people liked about the original feature. It didn’t help that the “M3GAN 2.0” marketing campaign was clearly chasing after what audiences liked back in January 2023 (such as the titular robot dancing), which just wasn’t as fresh as non-sequel 2025 horror fare like “Sinners,” “The Monkey,” and “Weapons.”

Given that it cost only $25 million, the losses for “M3GAN 2.0” will at least be minimal in the long run. However, it was still a massive box office failure that proved you sometimes can’t rewire the same hit twice.