2025 Poised to Become One of the Biggest Box Office Years with 3 Major Records Already Smashed
The year 2025 is quickly becoming one of the biggest for the movie box office, with some huge records already broken. Three big films have made a major impact so far, showing that movie theaters are coming back strong after the challenges of COVID.
One of the biggest hits is Jurassic World: Rebirth, directed by Gareth Edwards. It opened on a Wednesday and earned $147.3 million in North America during its first five days. Of that, $91.5 million came from the traditional long weekend that includes Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The movie secured the spot of having the biggest July 4th weekend opening ever.
The film also did great overseas, opening in 82 countries and adding $171 million to its total. China was a big part of this success, where the movie made $41.5 million playing on 65,000 screens, including 760 IMAX locations. According to Jim Orr from Universal, “It’s just a tremendous result. ‘Jurassic World Rebirth’ is exactly what audiences crave during the summer: a very big, fun, extraordinarily well-done adventure.”
Disney also had a strong showing with their live-action Lilo & Stitch. It teamed up with Mission: Impossible to deliver the biggest Memorial Day weekend ever, bringing in $182.6 million in the U.S. alone. This helped Lilo & Stitch become the highest-grossing movie worldwide so far this year, beating A Minecraft Movie.
Another big winner is the animated film Ne Zha 2 from China. It has become the highest-grossing animated movie ever with nearly $2 billion in global earnings, mostly from outside North America. The movie smashed box office records in China during the Chinese New Year holiday. It made 1.1 billion yuan (about $137 million) in just three days, becoming the first film to pass 1 billion yuan during this period in 2025. It quickly hit 2 billion yuan on day four, then 4 billion yuan by day six, breaking the previous speed record.
By the eighth day, it earned over 5 billion yuan (about $684 million), beating the record set by The Battle at Lake Changjin and becoming China’s highest-earning animated film. The Ne Zha series also became only the second Chinese film series to earn more than 10 billion yuan (about $1.37 billion) with just two movies. By day nine, the film crossed 6 billion yuan.
In the U.S., Ne Zha 2 premiered on February 12 and quickly sold out tickets, earning $7.2 million in its opening weekend, which is a big jump from the $1.2 million made by the first Ne Zha film.
All these numbers show that even though we’re only halfway through 2025, the box office is having a huge year. It’s a clear sign that people are returning to theaters and that the film industry is bouncing back after the struggles of the pandemic.
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