The 33 Best Movies of 2025 So Far (And 44 More We Can't Wait For)

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HERE'S THE THING about movies: they are awesome. Broadly. The good ones are rewarding, yes, but the wild thing is that sometimes melting into a seat and watching a horrible one can be a great time all the same (seriously—watching Madame Web last year was an utter delight). Seeing a great epic on the first day it comes out is a treat, but finding a hidden gem (or even a major hit) that you missed years ago feels like finding buried treasure. Finding something you love that came out before you were even born feels like uncovering something you were always meant to see. There's a DNA and a soul to movies—good and bad—that often times feels like destiny. If you're lucky, sometimes you'll find a movie that makes it hard to remember a list of favorites that didn't include it.

It's been a weird start to the 2020s on the big screen, though. Just when movies seemed to be getting back in a groove after the Covid-related shutdowns that began the decade, the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes caused delayed that deceptively resulted in a lower film output in 2024. You may not have noticed, but while last year still had a ton of good and enjoyable movies, it also had less of them overall.

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That seems to be swinging back the other direction in a big way in 2025. I've been making lists of my most anticipated (and, eventually, favorite) movies of the year for the entire decade so far, and this is by far the longest list I've ever made; there are tons of great movies set to release this year, with everything from romantic comedy, terrifying horror, big-budget spectacle, and auteur-driven mastery expected to hit the screens this year. In short? It should be pretty great.

Chances are, you won't be able to see everything good that comes out this year. But guess what? That's OK. The movie you miss in 2025 could become your new favorite in 2028; that's just the way this works sometimes. For now, though, we're here to help you get an idea of all that is coming—and, again, it's a lot. So sit back, get a drink, get some popcorn, and read through for our list of the movies set for release in 2025 that we're most excited for. It's gonna be a fun year.

Den of Thieves 2

The cult-favorite action heist frenzy from 2018 is back for round 2, but in a totally different (but still super fun) story led by returning players Gerard Butler and O'Shea Jackson, Jr. You're going to have a lot of fun with this one.

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Lionsgate

Presence

Director Steven Soderbergh's resume has proven that he can do quite literally anything (he was behind Ocean's Eleven, Erin Brockovich, Traffic, Magic Mike, and Che, just to name a few), and he really puts that to the test with his spooky and inventive new film Presence. How inventive, you might ask? Well, the entire film is shot from the perspective of a ghost haunting a family in their new home—and it is both expertly-made and thrilling. But the characters are great too; Chris Sullivan is particularly strong as the family's father, while Lucy Liu plays a vapid mother with expertise and Callina Liang is a revelation as the daughter whom the story essentially revolves around.

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NEON

Companion

Companion is a fun thrill ride of a movie that comes from producer Zach Cregger (Barbarian) and is built on the genre strength of stars Sophie Thatcher (Yellowjackets, Heretic) and Jack Quaid (The Boys, Scream (2022)). One tip? Go into this one as blind as possible—there are thrills throughout that you will not see coming. Just know that it's a fun, violent, wild ride.

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Warner Bros.

The Monkey

The Monkey marks an absolute horror dream team: director Oz Perkins (who last year did Longlegs), producer James Wan (who has done about a million great things, including Insidious, Saw, and Malignant), and based on a story by Stephen King. The Monkey, which stars Theo James as a pair of troubled twins, is more of a dark horror comedy than Longlegs, but don't be mistaken: you can expect a lot of scares and a lot of violence to go along with quite a lot of laughs as well. One of the more visceral films of the year so far.

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NEON

Mickey 17

Bong Joon-ho's follow-up to the Oscar-winning Parasite is finally here, and its Mickey 17, the sci-fi dark comedy featuring Robert Pattinson as many, many, different doomed versions of a guy named Mickey. This film is more like Bong's heightened worlds of Snowpiercer and Okja than the grounded mania of Parasite, but nonetheless it's still an expertly-crafted movie with great performances (Pattinson is joined by Steven Yeun, Tilda Swinton, Toni Collette, and Mark Ruffalo, among others) and lots of goofy violence. Fun fact: the movie is based on a novel called Mickey 7, but the title was changed because Bong wanted to kill Mickey 10 more times. A valuable member of the growing genre of Sad Man In Space movies.

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Warner Bros.

Black Bag

The second Steven Soderbergh film of 2025 is Black Bag, which finds the 62-year-old master director returning to a zone he thrives in: the sleek, cool, fun, thriller with an absolutely stacked cast. And surprise surprise: the movie is awesome, an early contender for the year's best and most fun film. Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett play a pair of high-level intelligence agents who find themselves wondering if they can trust each other, their colleagues and friends, or the agencies they work for in the midst of some major international danger. The rest of the cast includes Pierce Brosnan, Naomie Harris, Regé-Jean Page, Industry star Marisa Abela, and more. If you were waiting for a follow-up to Out of Sight or the Ocean's trilogy that felt delightfully set in the modern world of espionage, this is your movie. And as a bonus, everyone is dressed unbelievably well—I don't even wear glasses, but after the movie I was searching for how to wear them exactly the way Fassbender does.

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Focus Features

Novocaine

The second Jack Quaid film of our list finds the young star as a guy with a condition where he can't feel pain on an adventure to save the potential love of his life. Novocaine is filled with bouncing, frenetic action, and Quaid's optimistic energy and charisma seem make him a great fit for the Lethal Weapon, '80s-esque movie that this is going for. It's fun!

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Paramount

A Working Man

Guys. It's Jason Statham kicking ass. Can he keep it up forever? That much we do not know. Can he keep it up now? Yes, yes he can.

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Amazon MGM

Warfare

Alex Garland re-teams with his Civil War military consultant Ray Mendoza for the star-studded Warfare, which they co-directed together. The movie—based on the true story of a 2006 Iraq mission gone awry—stars an array of today's upcoming actors, including Will Poulter, Joseph Quinn, Charles Melton, and Kit Connor. The movie is a down-the-middle depiction of that mission one awry; It is intense, visceral, and will have you in the shoes of these soldiers experiencing the true and utter hell of battle. It's one of the best modern war movies you'll see.

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A24

Drop

One of the most fun horror directors in the last decade or so is Christopher Landon, who was behind the Happy Death Day films and Freaky. Now, he's back for Drop, an escape thriller that stars The White Lotus star Meghann Fahy and 1923's Brendan Sklenar. And folks, Drop is good! It's not reinventing the wheel, but this movie—about a woman on her first date in a long time after a traumatic life event who receives increasingly threatening drop notifications—is full of tension, dread, and even a little humor. It's well made and will keep your attention, and that's all you could really want in a movie like that. It's also filled to the brim with thrills, so that's even better.

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Universal

The Shrouds

I had the chance to see David Cronenberg's The Shrouds at NYFF last year and it's a super interesting late career revelation from one of the great filmmakers of the last 40 years. Cronenberg (who counts The Fly, Crash, and countless other classics to his name) meditates on death, capitalism, and technology in The Shrouds, which is an erotic thriller, a romance, and a conspiracy thriller all in one. Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger, and Guy Pearce are among those leading the cast.

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Screened at NYFF 2024.

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Janus Films

Sinners

One of the year's most exciting and intriguing blockbusters is Sinners, an original period-setting horror adventure film by Ryan Coogler (Black Panther, Creed, Fruitvale Station) that stars Michael B. Jordan as a pair of twins. Vampires are involved! A little wild that Ryan Coogler got to Vampires with Warner Bros. before his old friends at Marvel Studios did with Blade, but what are you going to do? This movie, to put things quite bluntly, rules—it's a talented director getting his vision to the screen in a way that we don't see often. And he pulls it off. MBJ is joined in the cast by Hailee Steinfeld, Delroy Lindo, and Jack O'Connell, among many others.

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Warner Bros.

The Accountant 2

Ben Affleck is back for The Accountant 2. If you know you know, folks. The first movie made over $150 million at the box office, and is a lot of fun—so if you were into that one, here's your treat. Affleck and Jon Bernthal reteam for more very fun, very silly, very outrageous and high-concept action. It's very good stuff.

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Amazon MGM Studios

Havoc

Havoc has been on the shelf for a little while—it was mostly filmed back in 2021—and for a while we were worried it might be a mess. But now that it's finally made its way to Netflix, we're thrilled to say that it's exactly what a badass action movie starring Tom Hardy and directed by Gareth Evans (The Raid movies) should be: badass and filled with kinetic, nonstop action and a wild plot.

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Netflix

Thunderbolts*

Going to be real: Thunderbolts* is not only the best MCU movie we've gotten in years (the only competition since Avengers: Endgame would be Spider-Man: No Way Home and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3), but a genuinely great movie filled with a strong, consistent theme, fantastic performances, and occasionally striking visuals. The team's origin isn't quite the same as the Marvel Comics team of the same name, but seeing Yelena (Florence Pugh), Red Guardian (David Harbour), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Bucky (Sebastian Stan), and Bob (Lewis Pullman) come together on the big screen is a fun experience. And the score by Son Lux (who also worked on Everything Everywhere All At Once) is truly fantastic. Thunderbolts* also manages to have it both ways: The end of the movie (and the credits scenes) genuinely set up major excitement for the Marvel films coming soon, and it also stands alone as a movie for fans who don't want to or need to do additional homework. It's a good one, folks.

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Marvel Studios

Friendship

A twisted, eccentric, weird friendship between Paul Rudd and Tim Robinson? It's one of the best elevator pitches you'll ever hear, and it's also a fantastic movie in and of itself. Imagine 1996's The Cable Guy (directed by Ben Stiller and starring Jim Carrey and Matthew Broderick) but in one of Tim Robinson's weird, weird, slightly off-kilter absurd worlds. The film debuted at TIFF last year to raves, and I'm pleased to report that the movie lives up to the hype—I haven't laughed this much at a movie in theaters in many years.

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A24

Final Destination: Bloodlines

The Rube Goldberg Death Machine horror franchise is finally back—and—while you have to take this with a grain of salt because critics used to be much less kind to horror movies and genre films overall—its newest installment, Bloodlines, has earned the best reviews in the history of the franchise. It should be hard to mess up a Final Destination movie: We just want to see increasingly-creative death scenes strung together by whatever passable plot the screenwriters can come up with (Men's Health has gone ahead and ranked all of those death scenes, if you're so curious). And this movie pulls that off with flying colors.

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Eric Milner

Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning

The Final Reckoning represents the theoretical conclusion to Tom Cruise's iconic Mission: Impossible series, which has been running intermittently since 1996. And while there are some bumpy moments early on (including lots of recap and archival footage), by the time you get into the meat and potatoes of why you're at a Mission: Impossible movie in the first place (great characters, epic stunts, and Tom Cruise), the movie delivers with flying colors. Is it actually the last in the series? Eh, we'll have to see. But for now, this will be a nice neat bow on the series, and a super duper fun one at that.

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Paramount

The Phoenician Scheme

Another Wes Anderson film! This finds the master writer/director telling an espionage story as only he can, centered on an industrialist (played by Benicio del Toro), his nun daughter (Mia Threapleton), and their companion (Michael Cera). What presents as a distinctly Wes Anderson-style caper proves to eventually be a story about fathers and daughters and reckoning with your place in the world. It doesn't pack as dense an emotional punch as Anderson's last film, Asteroid City, but it's fantastic nonetheless. Fans of Anderson's work will have a blast with this one.

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Focus Features

Dogma

OK, so technically Dogma was released in 1999. But Kevin Smith's ambitious, funny, and thrilling darkly comedic fantasy drama (!) has been mostly unavailable to watch for the last 25 years due to Harvey Weinstein-related rights nonsense. So it's 25th anniversary re-release is a big deal, and a great chance to see one of the funniest and most unique movies of the '90s. The fact that it's cast includes Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Linda Fiorentino, Alan Rickman, Chris Rock, and Alanis Morissette is almost a bonus. You'll want to check this one out if you can.

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Dogma will soon be available to stream and buy on physical media. But not yet!

Lionsgate

From the World of John Wick: Ballerina

We're just going to call it Ballerina and leave the SEO-friendly full title for the spot above. But Ballerina is exactly what you'd expect it to be: a John Wick spinoff with masterful action (rumored to have been headed by Wick director Chad Stahelski in reshoots) and a story that gets a little caught in the weeds. But in any event, the movie is a fun, stylish time, and we can't wait to see where the franchise goes from here.

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Lionsgate

The Life of Chuck

Mike Flanagan hasn't put out a feature film since 2019's Doctor Sleep, having been largely at work on his many excellent TV projects in the years since. But he's got a good one in 2025 with The Life of Chuck, a film with an ensemble cast led by Tom Hiddleston that's based on a Stephen King story of the same name (Adapting King is Flanagan's real bread and butter). Hiddleston plays the titular Chuck, but actually isn't even in the film all that much—in a way that makes total sense once you see it. We don't want to spoil too much, but this is a story that looks at life and death in a way that, believe it or not, makes it not so scary by the end.

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NEON

Materialists

Celine Song drew much acclaim (including an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay) for her 2023 film Past Lives, and now she's back with Materialists, a dramedy about a matchmaker (Dakota Johnson) in a love triangle that also includes Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans. And honestly? The movie is exceptional—it develops it's most important characters brilliantly, and, like with Past Lives, treats each and every character with empathy and care. Johnson, Evans, and Pascal all give their best performances in a long, long time—if not ever. There's not a ton of com in this romcom, but it's all super, super worth it. We highly recommend this one.

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A24

28 Years Later

Director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland are back for 28 Years Later, reuniting the original power duo from the beloved horror film 28 Days Later—and folks, this movie is a stone cold banger. It will thrill you, surprise you, compel you, and, yes, maybe even make you cry, Add some of the coolest and most inventive visual tricks of the year—Boyle at his best, pulling off some of the coolest zombie kills you'll ever see!

This time, the cast is led by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer, and Ralph Fiennes, along with newcomer Alfie Williams. The movie is filled with gnarly, high-octane, zombie (but not really zombies, just rage virus-infected) action, but is also super character driven and thoughtful as well. It rules, and you should go see it.

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Sony Pictures

F1

Director Joseph Kosinski has always been a brilliant technical and visual filmmaker, but he leveled-up in just about every way when he stepped behind the camera for 2022's Top Gun: Maverick. In 2025, he takes that same formula—practical stunts, a stacked cast led by an iconic movie star, natural action—and applies it to the world of Formula 1 racing. F1 isn't reinventing the sports movie wheel, but, man, when it hits—it hits. Kosinski has such a great handle on the tension and thrill that comes with this kind of filmmaking, and we can't wait to see what he's doing next. One rumor is that he'll tackle Miami Vice, and while it's going to be tough to match what Michael Mann did in 2006, Kosinski has earned more than a couple of mojitos from us. But I digress—F1 comes packed with thrilling visuals and action, and an all-star cast led byBrad Pitt, Damson Idris, Tobias Menzies, and Javier Bardem. It's among the most fun you'll have in a theater all year.

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AppleAmazon Prime

Superman

James Gunn's DC Universe had already soft launched with his fantastic animated series Creature Commandos on HBO Max, but the writer/director's take on the comic book franchise truly kicked off with Superman—and did so with style, because the movie rules. David Corenswet as Supes, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois, and Nicholas Hoult as Lex all own their roles, and Gunn's tone and grip on the characters is pristine. On top of everything, the movie nailed its supporting characters, as Edi Gathegi (as Mr. Terrific) and Nathan Fillion (as Guy Gardner/Green Lantern) are among those who really shine. Gunn has always been a master of balancing humor, emotion, and sincerity, all of which are very important when it comes to properly telling a Superman story—and it really paid off here.

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Warner Bros.

I Know What You Did Last Summer

I Know What You Did Last Summer makes its grand return to theaters with this legacy sequel/reboot helmed by Do Revenge's Jennifer Kaytin Robinson. It's a lot of fun! If you're the kind of person who enjoyed the original film for what it was—a fun, silly, exciting slasher flick—then you'll enjoy this one. A strong new cast (including The Studio's Chase Sui Wonders, Outer Banks star Madelyn Cline, and Stereophonic Broadway star Sarah Pidgeon) come together with franchise stalwarts Jennifer Love-Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. If you think you'll be in for this, you'll probably have a great time.

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Brook Rushton/Sony Pictures Entertainment

Eddington

Eddington, which stars Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, Austin Butler, and Luke Grimes, among others, is a heightened, surreal, modern-day Western conspiracy thriller (a lot going on!) set during the pandemic-high of 2020. And, folks, I'm here to tell you that it's fantastic. The movie is darkly hilarious and filled with great performances that will make you laugh, push you to the edge of your seat, and, as with every Ari Aster movie, probably make you a little bit sick to your stomach. One of the year's very best.

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A24

Happy Gilmore 2

Is Happy Gilmore 2 be a great movie? Jury's probably out on that one. Is Happy Gilmore 2 a great time? Yes. Adam Sandler brings the whole gang back together for this decades-in-the-making sequel to his iconic golf comedy, and even has roles for people like Travis Kelce and Bad Bunny.

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Netflix

The Fantastic Four: First Steps

There have been three prior attempts at a Fantastic Four movie (in 2005, 2007, and a complete non-starter of a reboot in 2015), all of which have failed at both being a good movie and bringing Marvel's First Family to the big screen. It's fitting, then, that it's the fourth try—in The Fantastic Four: First Steps—that ends up getting it right. While the movie has a very basic plot (as the titular characters take on Galactus), it focuses more on making us love Reed, Sue, Ben, and Johnny, and succeeds at that. Director Matt Shakman shows his skill as well with some exciting sequences filled with stunning visuals and a total knockout '60s production design. It's not the best MCU movie ever, but it's a damn solid one.

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Marvel Studios

Together (7/30)

Did The Substance mark a turning point for body horror in 2024? As a lifelong fan of the subgenre that focuses on the grossest and most transformational of all the horror subgenres (one that also tends to have something insightful to say about the relationships between ourselves, our world, and our bodies), I don't know if I ever expected to see a movie as out there as The Substance come away with five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture (winning for Make-up and hairstyling and damn near winning for Demi Moore's transcendent lead performance).

If any of that meant anything, it may translate into a lot of success for Together, a new body horror film that stars the real-life husband-and-wife duo of Dave Franco and Alsion Brie. If you're anything like me, you probably don't want to know much more than that before seeing the movie, but we'll give you this—it was hailed out of Sundance as a "delightfully queasy body horror." And if you're into this kind of stuff, what more do you really need? We'll be there on opening night.

NEON

The Naked Gun (8/1)

The Naked Gun is being rebooted. And while that might make you initially groan, let us tell you next who is involved: Director Akiva Schaffer (of The Lonely Island fame), and stars Liam Neeson, Pamela Anderson. Yes, now you can see why we're excited—and the first teaser looks very, very funny too. This could be perfect.

Paramount

Weapons (8/8)

Are you ready for some real sicko horror? Weapons, which comes from Barbarian writer/director Zach Cregger, follows a mysterious, disturbing story where a classroom of children totally vanish in the middle of the night. The cast includes Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, Alden Ehrenreich, and Benedict Wong. It also includes Austin Abrams, who in a Men's Health interview last year compared Weapons to a horror version of Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia. We could not be more in!

Warner Bros.

Nobody 2 (8/15)

Bob Odenkirk kicking ass in Nobody was fun. Bob Odenkirk kicking ass in Nobody 2 will probably be fun again.

Universal

Highest 2 Lowest (8/22 in theaters, 9/5 on Apple TV+)

Spike Lee and Denzel Washington are teaming up for the fifth time (the first since 2006's Inside Man) for a remake/new version of Akira Kurasawa's High and Low. And while Lee has had trouble in the past with making his own version of an international classic (we don't need to talk about Oldboy), there's no need to go into this with anything other than the highest of hopes. Washington is joined in the cast by Jeffrey Wright, Ice Spice, and A$AP Rocky.

A24/Apple

Honey Don't! (8/22)

Ethan Coen (of "The Coen Brothers"fame) follows up last year's delightful Drive-Away Dolls with another film, titled Honey Don't!, that he made alongside his wife and longtime collaborator Tricia Cooke. This time, the story revolves around Margaret Qualley (returning from Dolls) as a private investigator in a story that also involves Chris Evans as a cult leader and Aubrey Plaza at her sardonic best. The story will surely be twisty and fun, but let's hope that Plaza is playing the 'femme fatale' of this quasi-noir story, because she was easily the highlight of Megalopolis doing just that.

Courtesy of Focus Features

The Thursday Murder Club (8/28)

Richard Osman's bestselling mystery novel The Thursday Murder Club comes to life with a Netflix-produced film this year, directed by crowd-pleasing industry legend Chris Columbus (who directed Home Alone, Mrs. Doubtfire, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, among other projects; he recently produced Robert Eggers's Nosferatu as well). The cast is wonderfully chosen: Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, and Celia Imrie make up the titular club, while David Tenannt, Naomie Ackie, and Jonathan Pryce are among others in the cast.

Netflix

Caught Stealing (8/29)

Austin Butler leads Darren Aronofsky's latest film, Caught Stealing, which follows a former baseball player caught in a high-tension criminal situation in 1990s New York City. He's joined by a Mohawk-ed Matt Smith, Zoë KravitzRegina King, Bad Bunny, Vincent D'Onofrio and Liev Schreiber. The whole thing feels a little bit like a great grungy crime thriller, mixed with the out-of-control surreal vibe of After Hours—fitting, since Griffin Dunne is in the movie as well. Aronofsky kind of got away from himself a little bit with The Whale, but this feels like a good bet to be a return to exciting form. The movie is written by Charlie Huston, who wrote the novel it's based on.

Sony Pictures

The Long Walk (9/12)

The Stephen King renaissance continues. This film, based on a much-loved novel that King wrote (in his time writing under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman) in 1979, picks up in a dystopian society where a walking contest results in either winning a fantastic prize, or stopping short—and getting executed on the spot. The cast is great, with rising stars Cooper Hoffman (Licorice Pizza, Saturday Night) and David Jonsson (Alien: Romulus, Industry) leading the way alongside Mark Hamill. And if you wanted a director who knows all about dystopian worlds, hard to do better than Francis Lawrence (of several Hunger Games films). JT Mollner (Strange Darling) wrote the script too, so this movie is kind of just stacked from top to bottom.

Lionsgate

The History of Sound (9/12)

Paul Mescal and Josh O'Connor are in love. Maybe not in real life, but definitely in The History of Sound, and that's a compelling enough hook for any movie, right? These two rising stars are the leads in this film based on the short story of the same name, which follows a pair of men recording English folk songs between 1916 and 1919. This is another film premiering at Cannes (and will be distributed by MUBI, who did a great job with The Substance last year) that we're excited to hear more about.

Mubi

Him (9/19)

Jordan Peele's Monkeypaw Productions is behind Him, a sports horror film that revolves around a young football star who goes to train with a soon-to-retire legend (Marlon Wayans) when some crazy, horrific stuff starts to happen. Sounds like ground that hasn't really been tread before, as Peele tends to find. Bonus? Julia Fox and Tim Heidecker are part of the cast, which should be fun.

Universal

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (9/19)

Even after seeing the trailer, very little is known about A Big Bold Beautiful Journey outside of the fact that it's some kind of romantic fantasy, comes from director Kogonada (After Yang), and has a stacked cast that includes Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie. That lone is enough to be intrigued though!

Sony Pictures

One Battle After Another (9/26)

We are always going to be on board for a Paul Thomas Anderson film. But this one—which Warner Bros. has designated as an IMAX release and has a reported budget of upwards of $120 million—might be special. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a wannabe revolutionary, with Regina Hall, Sean Penn, Alana Haim, and Benicio del Toro among those joining him, in a movie that looks like a Lebowski-esque, zany, action/set piece-focused extravaganza, all told through PTA's one-of-a-kind cinematic lens. There are all sorts of rumors out there, including a rampant one that the film is based on (or loosely based on) author Thomas Pynchon's novel Vineland (PTA previously took on Pynchon with Inherent Vice). It looks great, and we're excited.

Warner Bros.

The Smashing Machine (10/3)

Is The Rock about to go legit? Sure seems like it. Dwayne Johnson is teaming up with director Benny Safdie (half of the directing duo of Uncut Gems and a star of Oppenheimer and The Curse) for this biopic about MMA fighter Mark Kerr, who famously struggled with substance abuse. This marks what very possibly might be Johnson's biggest and boldest swing on the big screen since he starred in Michael Bay's Pain and Gain and we're eager to see how it goes.

A24

Roofman (10/10)

Roofman stars Channing Tatum as a former United States Army Reserve Officer who stole from McDonalds restaurants by entering through the roof, and evades capture by hiding in the roof of Toys R Us stores. Sound wild? Even wilder is the fact that this is very much based on a true story. Tatum is joined in the cast by many of our favorites: Kirsten Dunst, Ben Mendelsohn, LaKeith Stanfield, and Peter Dinklage are among many.

Paramount

After the Hunt (10/10)

Does anyone work harder than Luca Guadagnino? After releasing two films last year (in Challengers and Queer), the Italian director once again has a film releasing in 2025 titled After the Hunt. This movie centers on a war of words and the truth at a college when an accusation sends ripples through a community and implicates one professor (Julia Roberts) for something dark from her past. The rest of the stacked cast includes Andrew Garfield, Michael Stuhlbarg, Chloë Sevigny, and Ayo Edebiri. That sounds pretty great.

Amazon MGM Studios

Tron: Ares (10/10)

The Tron story continues for the first time in more than a decade with Ares, which brings on a new director (Joachim Rønning) and a mostly new cast (led by Jared Leto, Evan Peters, Greta Lee, and Jodie Turner-Smith) along with a returning Jeff Bridges for what will probably just be a cameo. The movie will probably be fun enough and have some solid visuals, but what we're really excited about is the fact that a reunited Nine Inch Nails will be providing all of the original music. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have been working together to make some of the best film and television soundtracks for years, but working under the NIN name should mean something particularly special. Hell yeah.

Disney

Ballad of a Small Player (10/15 limited release/10/29 on Netflix)

Colin Farrell plays a high-stakes gambler in Macau in this quick follow-up to Conclave from director Edward Berger. Tilda Swinton also stars. That's a lot of things we like, all that sound very good, in just a handful of words.

Netflix

Good Fortune (10/17)

Good Fortune marks Aziz Ansari's directorial debut; he also stars alongside Keanu Reeves, Seth Rogen, and Keke Palmer. The story is a fun, high-concept one about a guardian angel, life-swaps, and life lessons. Think of this as a spiritual sequel to Kevin Smith's Dogma, and also a strong contender for 2025's most exciting upcoming comedy.

Lionsgate

The Mastermind (10/17)

Lets stick with the theme of Josh O'Connor period piece movies being distributed by MUBI: The Mastermind is a 1970-set art heist film from director Kelly Reichardt, starring O'Connor and also featuring Alana Haim, John Magaro, and The Penguin's Rhenzy Feliz. Sounds great.

Courtesy MUBI

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere (10/24)

Jeremy Allen White plays Bruce Springsteen in this music biopic based on the book of the same name. This follows Springsteen as he makes his classic album Nebraska; if it turns out decent, expect Mr. White to make an Oscar run, just like many stars in this subgenre have in recent years.

20th Century Studios

Frankenstein (November 2025)

Guys. Guillermo Del Toro (!) is doing a Frankenstein movie (!), where the Doctor is played by Oscar Isaac (!), the monster is played. by Jacob Elordi (!), and the bride is played by Mia Goth (!). There is not much more that needs to be said. We potentially have an all-timer on our hands with this one.

NetflixA24

The Running Man (11/7)

The classic Arnold Schwarzenegger film about prisoners who must escape a game in which they're hunted by other men (based on a Stephen King novel) is being remade by director Edgar Wright with superstar Glen Powell looking to keep his hot streak going as the lead. Can he pull it off? Well, that's a great director and Powell has made all great choices of late. So we're going to go with a most likely yes on that one.

Paramount

Sentimental Value (11/7)

2021's The Worst Person in the World is one of the best movies of the decade so far, and so director Joachim Trier's follow-up film, Sentimental Value, is coming with much fanfare. This movie finds Trier reteaming with his Worst Person lead, Renate Reinsve, to tell a story about family and memory. Elle Fanning, Cory Michael Smith, and Stellan Skarsgårdare among those also in the cast. The movie did incredibly well at Cannes, winning the Grand Prix award, and is expected already to be a major player in this year's Oscars race.

NEON

Predator: Badlands (11/7)

Director Dan Trachtenberg returns to the Predator franchise after 2022's hit Prey for Badlands, which will star Elle Fanning... as a Weyland-Yutani android! So we're definitely getting a new Predator movie, and there seems to be a good chance that it'll cross over more and more once again with the Alien world. Fun! Supposedly there will be another Predator film (also directed by Trachtenberg) next year as well, but we know even less about that one.

20th Century Studios

Bugonia (11/7)

Will Emma Stone work with a director not named Yorgos Lanthimos ever again? Well, yes, because she's got Ari Aster's Eddington also coming out in 2025. But it seems like if she can make a movie with Mr. Lanthimos every year, she will do it; she's set to lead Bugonia, marking her fourth feature with the Greek filmmaker. Based on the South Korean film Save the Green Planet!, Bugonia is about a pharma CEO (Stone) who gets kidnapped by a pair of conspiracy theorist men (one played by Jesse Plemons) convinced she's an alien bent on destroying the earth.

Searchlight Pictures

Die, My Love (11/7)

Diretor Lynne Ramsay's first movie since the underrated You Were Never Really Here is Die, My Love, which follows a woman (Jennifer Lawrence) who develops postpartum depression following the birth of her child and enters a state of psychosis. The rest of the cast includes Robert Pattinson, Lakeith Stanfield, Sissy Spacek, and Nick Nolte, and it's based on a novel by Ariana Harwick. This one is going to have some acting, and we're excited to hear more about it after it releases at Cannes.

Courtesy MUBI

Jay Kelly (11/14)

Somehow George Clooney has never worked with Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story, The Squid and the Whale, While We're Young, etc.) before... which just feels like a massive oversight, does it not? Those two just feel like a natural fit. Anyway, it's finally happening this year, and we're thankful for that. We don't know much more about this movie other than the fact that Baumbach is co-writing and directing, and Clooney is playing the titular Jay Kelly, whoever he may be. Also, I've anecdotally heard some early potential Oscar buzz for Adam Sandler here, and wouldn't that just be a fantastic thing? Let's hope. The rest of the absolutely stellar cast includes Laura Dern, Riley Keough, Billy Crudup, and Baumbach's partner and frequent collaborator, Greta Gerwig.

Netflix

Wicked: For Good (11/21)

The Wicked story concludes with Wicked: For Good. The first film was carried by its tremendous performances (particularly by Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, and Jonathan Bailey) and good music and story, and hopefully that continues into the second part of the story.

Universal

Ella McCay (12/12)

Legendary filmmaker James L. Brooks (Broadcast News, As Good As It Gets) returns for Ella McCay, a film that tells the story of a young woman (played by Sex Education and Barbie star Emma Mackey) who becomes governor of her state. Jamie Lee Curtis, Woody Harrelson, Ayo Edebiri, and Rebecca Hall are among those also in the cast.

20th Century Studios

Avatar: Fire and Ash (12/19)

James Cameron's Avatar saga continues this year with the third film in the series, Fire and Ash, which should pick up after The Way of Water and seems likely to introduce a new kind of Na'vi who embrace fire. You can say whatever you want about the Avatar films, but there's a couple things we can be 100% certain about: they're going to be incredibly well made (because Cameron isn't capable of anything else), they're going to make a lot of money, and they're going to be damn entertaining.

Disney

Marty Supreme (12/25)

Timothée Chalamet leads Marty Supreme, where he plays a famous table tennis player in what's said to be a globe-trotting adventure film. It comes from Uncut Gems director Josh Safdie (who recently split from working with his brother, Benny), and with a $70 million budget is the most expensive A24 film to date. Chalamet is joined by Gwyneth Paltrow and Tyler, The Creator (among others) in the cast.

James Devaney - Getty Images

Anaconda (12/25)

The '90s hit horror film Anaconda will return in 2025 with a reboot led by Jack Black and Paul Rudd. Seems goofy but also fun and also maybe just right? We'll have to see.

Columbia Pictures

The Woman in Cabin 10 (2025 TBA)

Based on the nautical, Agatha Christie-esque novel of the same name, The Woman in Cabin 10 seems like the kind of Gone Girl-esque thriller we've seen many times in the last decade or so. But the cast, which features Keira Knightley and Guy Pearce, is particularly catching our attention.

Netflix

Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 2 (2025 TBA)

Kevin Costner's first Horizon film underwhelmed at the box office last year, and so Warner Bros. Discover has been holding Chapter 2 in limbo ever since (it was originally supposed to be released last August). Horizon has since gotten a ton more viewers in its time on PVOD platforms along with Max and Netflix, so perhaps WBD could finally release it to those of us eagerly awaiting what happens next. Horizon isn't a perfect movie, but it does have some exceptionally well-done scenes—and any fan of Westerns will probably have a good time with it.

Warner Bros.

I Love Boosters (2025 TBA)

Boots Riley started his career in hip-hop with The Coup, and as an outspoken activist, but he's quickly proven himself to be one of the most unique, creative, and exciting talents in the modern film and television landscape. His first movie, Sorry To Bother You, was an absurd dark comedy thriller with great performances and an even stronger underlying political message, and his follow-up, the Prime Video series I'm a Virgo was unlike anything else anyone has seen before. Now, his second film, I Love Boosters, will find Demi Moore in her first post-The Substance film leading a cast of shoplifters that also includes LaKeith Stanfield, Keke Palmer, and Will Poulter, among others. We don't know too much else yet, but expect it to be another genre-blending blast.

Mubi

The Drama (2025 TBA)

We don't know too much about The Drama, which marks director Kristoffer Borgli's follow-up to 2023's Dream Scenario, with Ari Aster once again on board to produce. But the cast is led by Robert Pattinson and Zendaya, with Alana Haim also on board; it should be a twisted, fun, exciting movie. And with some of our best movie stars on board, it's one we can feel pretty confident in.

Stephane Cardinale - Corbis - Getty Images

No Other Choice (2025 TBA)

Speaking of Oldboy, that film's director Park Chan-wook—one of the most talented filmmakers alive—is back this year with his next film, No Other Choice, which is about a man (played by Squid Game star Lee Byung-hun) who loses his long-held job and quickly becomes desperate (and goes to drastic measures) to find a new one.

NEON

Wake Up, Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025 TBA)

We're getting another Knives Out movie this year! Writer/director Rian Johnson is giving Daniel Craig's ace detective Benoit Blanc another mystery to solve, this one involving a cast that includes Josh Brolin, Josh O'Connor, Cailee Spaeny, Glenn Close, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, and Mila Kunis. If the past two films are any indication, this should be another fun, twisty-turny romp.

Netflix

Famous (2025 TBA)

One of the most intriguing movies of the year finds Zac Efron in dual roles—as a movie star and his loser doppelgänger—in a thriller about mistaken (and stolen) identities. Based on a to-be-released book by Blake Crouch (who wrote Dark Matter, Wayward Pines, Recursion, and more), the film is in the talented hands of Jody Hill, who is known for his frequent collaborations with Danny McBride on shows like The Righteous Gemstones and Eastbound and Down. Hill has done great work in the dark comedy/thriller genre before, when he directed the Seth Rogen-starring film Observe and Report; this should occupy a similar space and tone.

Joe Scarnici - Getty Images

Faces of Death (2025 TBA)

One of the most inventive and exciting "heist" movies in recent memory was How to Blow Up a Pipeline, which totally turned the idea of a heist on its head and made for some incredibly tense and exciting filmmaking along the way. That movie's director, Daniel Goldhaber, is back here with a remake/reboot of the classic 1978 horror film Faces of Death, this time a violent, online-age meta-take on the original movie's extreme violence. Charli XCX (yes, of Brat fame) stars alongside Stranger Things's Dacre Montgomery and others.

Karwai Tang - Getty Images

Huntington (2025 TBA)

Glen Powell leads Huntington, which is a long-gestating film written and directed by John Patton Ford which, originally, a decade ago was set to star Shia Labeouf and Mel Gibson. The film is about a man (Powell) who gets passed over for his family's massive fortune—and decides to plot a revenge-fueled plan to change that. Powell is joined by Margaret Qualley and Ed Harris among the others in the cast.

Jerod Harris - Getty Images

In The Grey (2025 TBA)

Does anyone work harder than Guy Ritchie these days? Here, the Snatch director reteams with past stars Henry Cavill, Eiza Gonzalez,and Jake Gyllenhaal for what we can only assume is an action bonanza; the film is said to follow a pair of extraction experts who need to come up with a plan to get a woman out of trouble.

Theo Wargo - Getty Images

The Immortal Man (2025 TBA)

Peaky Blinders fans! This is the movie. Everyone you'd expect to return will return, and additions—including Barry Keoghan—will be in the mix as well.

BBC Studios

Polaris (2025 TBA)

Polaris is scheduled to be director Lynne Ramsay's second film of 2025, coming after Die, My Love, which has already made our list. It reteams Ramsaywith her You Were Never Really Here star Joaquin Phoenix, and also stars his wife, Rooney Mara. But we're just going to quote IMDb's description of this one: "Set in Alaska during the 1890s, an ice photographer meets the devil."

Please. Say no more. Take our money.

Taylor Hill - Getty Images

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