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- Chinese animated movie Ne Zha 2 is the highest grossing movie of 2025 so far, bringing in USD$1.9 billion since it launched in January.
- Other than Sinners, the rest of the films on the list are big-budget continuations of franchises, remakes, or part of a well-established IP.
- Collectively, the top ten films of the year so far have made USD$6,702,339,487 so far.
We’re about halfway through the year, and some of 2025’s biggest movies have already dropped. While there’s still a bunch of fantastic flicks to come in the second half, we want to take a look at what people are watching so far, and take stock of the big winners of 2025 so far.
The results are simultaneously surprising and exactly as you’d expect: big franchises and well-known IP largely crowd the top 10, but with a few new ideas sprinkled throughout. All following data comes from IMDb’s Box Office Mojo, and is up to date at the time of publishing—though we’ll definitely update the rankings as things change.
We don’t want to waste any more of your time, so here are the 10 highest grossing movies of 2025 so far.
1. Ne Zha 2
Release Date: January 29, 2025
Budget: USD$80,000,000
Domestic Earnings: USD$20,858,156
International Earnings: USD$1,878,905,722
Worldwide Earnings: USD$1,899,763,878
IMDb Rating: 8.1
Simultaneously the cheapest film to produce on this list, as well as the most profitable, Ne Zha 2 is one of the biggest movies you’ve likely never heard of. While it had a paltry showing in most countries around the world, the movie absolutely killed in China—which makes sense: it’s made in China, for Chinese audiences, and is based on a famous Chinese novel.
In the six-ish months since release, the film has gone on to break basically every record it can, and is now listed as the highest-grossing animated film of all time, beating out fan favourites like Inside Out 2, The Lion King (the new one), Frozen 2, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
The film follows the titular Ne Zha, and his frenemy Ao Bing, after the conclusion of the original film. Both have lost their bodies after absorbing the destructive heavenly lightning that was fated to obliterate Ne Zha, and after more sacrifices are forced to share a single body for seven days until the pair can complete a set of trials that will return them to individuality. Things are never so simple, of course, and the pair once again get dragged into a fight to save the world.
2. Lilo & Stitch
Release Date: May 21, 2025
Budget: USD$100,000,000
Domestic Earnings: USD$408,520,147
International Earnings: USD$565,790,620
Worldwide Earnings: USD$974,310,767
IMDb Rating: 6.9
If you’re wondering why Disney keeps remaking their classic animated films into quasi-live-action abominations, it’s because they’re making bank doing it. After a bit more than a month in cinemas, the remade Lilo & Stitch has made back its budget nine times over. I mean, it’s no Ne Zha 2, but few things are.
The movie follows the same basic premise as the 2002 original: Stitch escapes the clutches of The Intergalactic Federation after being sentenced to exile. He crash lands on Hawaiian island Kaua’i and is taken in by a little girl, Lilo, and her older sister Nani. Unfortunately for all involved, the Federation has sent Stitch’s creator Dr. Jumba Jookiba and agent Pleakley to track the missing creature down, and all hell breaks loose.
It’s a nice little story about found family, and was successful enough (again) that a sequel is already being worked on, so look forward to more Lilo & Stitch in your future.
3. A Minecraft Movie
Release Date: April 4, 2025
Budget: USD$150,000,000
Domestic Earnings: USD$423,949,195
International Earnings: USD$530,979,507
Worldwide Earnings: USD$954,928,702
IMDb Rating: 5.7
A movie that by all accounts was pretty bad, A Minecraft Movie still managed to do incredibly well at the cinemas—though some part of that is likely due to the fact it managed to become part of a TikTok trend where people collectively lost their shit at Jack Black’s “chicken jockey” exclamation: throwing popcorn, setting off fire extinguishers, throwing smoke bombs, screaming into the Nether, and even unleashing real-world chickens into the theatre – all filmed for viral attention.
While the filmmakers didn’t see much issue with the trend (of course not, it was getting people into the cinema to watch their film), theatre-owners, locals, and police tended to think differently, and some of these outbursts led to people being seriously injured. No movie is worth hurting other people, especially one as average as this.
Still, we’ll be seeing Another Minecraft Movie soon enough, as a sequel is reportedly in early production.
4. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
Release Date: May 21, 2025
Budget: USD$400,000,000
Domestic Earnings: USD$191,180,943
International Earnings: USD$385,000,000
Worldwide Earnings: USD$576,180,943
IMDb Rating: 7.4
While a solid movie overall, the latest entry in the storied Mission: Impossible franchise faced an uphill battle from the beginning due to the absolutely astronomical budget. The Final Reckoning cost approximately USD$400 million to make, which puts it firmly in the list of ‘the most expensive films to make of all time’ at a time where great movies are struggling at the box office.
While the movie did make back its budget, it didn’t earn a sizeable profit on top of that, which is likely to be viewed by Paramount as a bit of a fail. That’s not to say it’s a bad movie—we liked it quite a bit, in fact—but money talks.
If you don’t particularly care about the money side of the equation, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is a banger of an action movie, and does bring quite a bit full circle for Ethan Hunt’s story, dating all the way back to the 1996 original.
5. How to Train your Dragon
Release Date: June 9, 2025
Budget: USD$150,000,000
Domestic Earnings: USD$224,249,380
International Earnings: USD$294,916,000
Worldwide Earnings: USD$519,165,380
IMDb Rating: 8.1
Another live-action remake? You bet – but this one is actually pretty good! When Hiccup Haddock III spares the life of a young dragon (a big no no in his dragon-hating Viking culture), he befriends the beast and names him Toothless. The pair set about ending the war between Viking and Dragon after learning that there is an alpha dragon, the Red Death, forcing the two cultures into clashing.
While it’s tempting to write off every modern remake of a childhood favourite, How to Train your Dragon manages to recapture some of the magic of the 2010 original, though also doesn’t innovate in any real way. If you’ve seen the original, you’ll know exactly what you’re getting here: a coming of age story, mixing with a fantastical tale of acceptance. Plus, dragons.
6. Captain America: Brave New World
Release Date: February 14, 2025
Budget: USD$180,000,000
Domestic Earnings: USD$200,500,001
International Earnings: USD$214,601,576
Worldwide Earnings: USD$415,101,577
IMDb Rating: 5.7
Another one for the pile of aggressively average Marvel movies, Captain America: Brave New World unfortunately squandered a pretty interesting idea: what happens if theres another Hulk, and another Captain America—both without the years of mental and physical training it takes to hold either of those titles.
Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson doesn’t have the super powers of the original – instead, he’s just a guy with a suit, a shield, and some wings. U.S. President Thaddeus Ross, played by Harrison Ford, hasn’t spent years learning to control the innate strength and anger afforded to those blasted with Gamma radiation and who can turn into a Hulk. In fact (spoilers), he doesn’t even know he’s being infused with radiation—it’s all part of some strange revenge scheme.
Anyway, Brave New World doesn’t really set up the next phase of Marvels Cinematic Universe with any particularly interesting or lingering questions. Rather, it’s a vehicle to get to the point where Marvel can make another Avengers movie, and it does that just fine.
7. Thunderbolts*
Release Date: May 2, 2025
Budget: USD$180,000,000
Domestic Earnings: USD$189,909,286
International Earnings: USD$192,088,083
Worldwide Earnings: USD$381,997,369
IMDb Rating: 7.4
Speaking of Avengers movies, Marvel actually managed to do something pretty interesting with Thunderbolts* in that it’s technically titled Thunderbolts* The New Avengers. The big M left that part out of the marketing, which was probably a good choice.
Driven on by some A24-style trailers, Thunderbolts* is widely regarded as one of the better Marvel movies in recent years – bringing a fresh, uncharacteristically brave take on the MCU. Rather than follow yet more superheroes doing good, Thunderbolts* follows a group of lesser known, more deranged members of Marvel’s roster, and is better for it. Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova is a stand out, as is Sebastian Stan’s Winter Soldier.
Despite being a solid outing, the film is still considered to be a bit of a flop off its USD$180 million budget. Making USD$200m just ain’t enough these days.
8. Sinners
Release Date: April 18, 2025
Budget: USD$90,000,000
Domestic Earnings: USD$278,387,623
International Earnings: USD$86,500,000
Worldwide Earnings: USD$364,887,623
IMDb Rating: 7.7
How do you make a fresh and interesting take on the United States’ history of suppression and repression of Black Americans? Add vampires and occult blues music, obviously. Director Ryan Coogler comes out swinging with Sinners, a story centred on the Smokestack twins, Elijah and Elias (both played by the very talented Michael B. Jordan), who return to their home town to provide a place for the Black community to have a safe place—a converted sawmill, turned into a music hall.
Unfortunately, it seems rock music is actually evil after all, and the joint’s blues guitarist accidentally summons a gang of fledgling vampires. A tense stand off begins, with vampires unable to enter without permission, but those inside trapped within the walls of the sawmill.
It’s Tarantino-meets-Peele in the best way, and further cements Coogler as one of the most exciting directors working today.
9. Jurassic World: Rebirth
Release Date: July 2, 2025
Budget: USD$180,000,000
Domestic Earnings: USD$147,820,695
International Earnings: USD$174,794,000
Worldwide Earnings: USD$322,614,695
IMDb Rating: 6.3
We’ve pretty much seen it all in the Jurassic Park-World universe at this point, right? Dinosaurs on an island, corporate greed, dinosaurs on the mainland, war profiteering, wild and domesticated dinosaurs, and, now, genetically-mutated dinosaurs. It just can’t get any worse for the people that live in this franchise, can it?
At the end of Jurassic World Dominion, revived dinosaurs have escaped any form of captivity and are beginning a new existence as free-range apex predators. Well, the makers of Rebirth released this had all but ensured the eradication of human civilisation, and so added in a clause that the newly freed dinos could only survive along the equator, where climate conditions are close enough to the Mesozoic period to allow them to thrive. This allows people to live on either side of the equator without much fear of death by raptor, but also splits the world by a nice big no-fly-zone.
It’s a really interesting idea that the movie does nothing with, instead focusing on a group of mercenaries protecting a paleontologist as he attempts to retrieve samples from dinosaur eggs which will be key to a new treatment for heart disease. Along the way, the group encounter dinos that were mutated for financial gain and are now far more deadly – as if they needed more advantages.
If you’re after a thrill ride, Rebirth is absolutely going to deliver – it just doesn’t do a lot to change the formula or add to what we already know about this dino-infested world.
10. F1: The Movie
Release Date: June 25, 2025
Budget: USD$200,000,000
Domestic Earnings: USD$109,288,553
International Earnings: USD$184,100,000
Worldwide Earnings: USD$293,388,553
IMDb Rating: 7.9
Perhaps the biggest surprise of 2025 is the fact that Apple’s F1: The Movie actually turned out to be pretty good – taking everything director Joseph Kosinski learned making Top Gun: Maverick to bear on the race track, and delivering us in the audience a legitimate spectacle. Whether you’re one of the people more-recently drawn into the F1 sport by the success of Drive to Survive, or are a bolted-on die-hard, the film will deliver on the highs, lows, twists, and turns that you’re expecting.
Brad Pitt plays Sonny Hayes, an aging former racer who takes up a gig at APXGP – a fading F1 team struggling to get any grip on the grid. While he brings experience to the pit, his much younger teammate, Damson Idris’ Joshua Pearce, isn’t so keen on doing things Hayes’ way. What follows is a fairly rote story of learning to work together for the benefit of the team, yadda yadda – but be honest, we’re all here for the racing, right?
Thankfully, this is where F1: The Movie shines. Filmed on track at famous races like Silverstone, Monza, Las Vegas and Sazuka, and produced by Sir Lewis Hamilton, the film delivers as authentic an experience as you can without literally putting you in the cockpit.
So far, that’d be Ne Zha 2, which made a massive USD$1.9 billion off a budget of just USD$80 million. Since it launched in January, it’s gone on to become the highest-grossing animated film of all time.
Scarlett Johansson recently overtook former-Avengers-teammate Robert Downey Jr. to become the highest paid actor in Hollywood, after Jurassic World: Rebirth catapulted her past Iron Man himself.
While we’re halfway through the year, we’re still looking forward to The Fantastic Four: First Steps (July 25), The Naked Gun (August 1), Weapons (August 8), Spinal Tap II: The End Continues (September 12), Him (September 19), Frankenstein (November), Predators (November 7), Wicked: For Good (November 21), and Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (December 12).
Will any of them top Ne Zha 2 at the top? Our money’s on Wicked having the best chance, but you never know.