‘Superman’ Is Back on Top; Here Are the 14 Other Movies Atop IMDb’s Most-Popular List This Week
It’s a noisy week for big swings—tentpole heroes, long-awaited sequels, prestige adaptations, and a couple of buzzy originals are jostling for your watchlist. Below, we’ve pulled together who’s making them, what they’re about, and where each project sits in its production and release journey so you can keep the context straight.
As always, titles run the gamut from superhero epics and horror franchises to animation, mystery, and biographical drama. Casts are stacked, directors are notable, and several of these films arrive with ambitious world-building or literary roots. Dive in for the quick essentials on plot, cast, crew, and how each one came together.
15. ‘The Housemaid’ (2025)
Paul Feig directs this thriller based on Freida McFadden’s novel, with Sydney Sweeney as Millie Calloway, a live-in employee who discovers dangerous secrets inside the Winchester home. Amanda Seyfried and Brandon Sklenar play Nina and Andrew Winchester, with Michele Morrone among the supporting cast.
The adaptation translates the book’s twisty, diary-like perspective into a sleek studio production, with Feig leaning into suspense mechanics rather than comedy. Casting notices and production listings confirm character breakdowns and the ensemble’s dynamics.
14. ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ (2025)
An animated musical-fantasy from directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, the film follows K-pop idols Rumi, Mira, and Zoey—secret demon hunters who protect fans using music-driven magic rooted in Korean lore. Voice cast includes Arden Cho, Ahn Hyo-seop, May Hong, Ji-young Yoo, Yunjin Kim, Daniel Dae Kim, and others.
Streaming on Netflix after a June rollout, the movie became a breakout cultural hit, topping the service’s viewership charts and spawning a sing-along version and event screenings. Netflix’s official features outline its mythology (the “Honmoon”) and creative process, while coverage has chronicled its record-setting performance.
13. ‘Swiped’ (2025)
Rachel Lee Goldenberg directs and co-writes this biographical drama about Whitney Wolfe Herd’s path to launching Bumble, starring Lily James alongside Dan Stevens, Myha’la, and Jackson White. The project tracks Wolfe Herd’s early career, startup hurdles, and the company’s distinctive approach to women-first design.
The film premiered at Toronto before a Hulu release in the U.S. (and Disney+ internationally). Produced by 20th Century Studios with James among the producers, the production shot in Los Angeles with Doug Emmett as cinematographer and Julia Wong editing.
12. ‘The Thursday Murder Club’ (2025)
Chris Columbus adapts Richard Osman’s bestseller with a veteran ensemble—Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, and Celia Imrie—about a quartet of retirees who meet weekly to tackle cold cases and find themselves wrapped in a live investigation. Don Burgess serves as cinematographer with Thomas Newman composing.
Netflix released the film after a limited U.K. theatrical bow in late August, framing it as a cozy whodunit with franchise potential. The streamer’s materials introduce the club’s members, their dynamic, and the balancing act between gentle humor and classic mystery beats.
11. ‘The Wrong Paris’ (2025)
A high-concept romantic dramedy fronted by Miranda Cosgrove and Pierson Fodé, the film follows a woman who signs onto a dating show believing she’s headed to Paris, France—only to discover it’s set somewhere very different. The premise spins culture-clash comedy into surprises about identity and ambition.
The production blends reality-TV textures with scripted storytelling, using on-location shooting and fish-out-of-water scenarios to drive its set-pieces. Festival and trailer materials spotlight Cosgrove’s lead turn and the format’s wry, self-aware humor.
10. ‘A Big Bold Beautiful Journey’ (2025)
Kogonada directs a romantic fantasy pairing Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell as strangers thrown together by a reality-bending odyssey. Seth Reiss wrote the screenplay, with Benjamin Loeb behind the camera and an original score by legendary composer Joe Hisaishi.
The film opened in September with Sony distributing, positioning it as a visually meticulous, high-concept love story. Kogonada’s production emphasizes in-camera craft, precise framing, and an introspective tone across international and domestic releases.
9. ‘Anaconda’ (2025)
Director Tom Gormican reimagines the ‘Anaconda’ brand as a contemporary comedy-thriller about a group of longtime friends navigating a chaotic mid-life adventure. Headlined by Paul Rudd and Jack Black with Thandiwe Newton and Steve Zahn, the project riffs on creature-feature iconography through character-driven set-pieces.
Production foregrounds practical locations and ensemble chemistry over heavy CG, with the creative angle skewing toward banter and misadventure rather than straight survival horror. The approach marks a tonal shift from earlier entries while keeping the title’s pulpy energy in play.
8. ‘28 Years Later’ (2025)
Danny Boyle reunites with writer Alex Garland to revive the rage-virus saga with a new chapter centered on survivors navigating a changed Britain. The cast features Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jack O’Connell, Alfie Williams, and Ralph Fiennes, with Anthony Dod Mantle returning to shoot in a raw, immediate style.
The film launched a planned trilogy, with subsequent entries already in development. Sony handles distribution as the franchise pivots back to the original creative team’s handheld intensity and moral ambiguity, expanding the world beyond the initial outbreaks.
7. ‘The Conjuring: Last Rites’ (2025)
Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga return as Ed and Lorraine Warren in the ninth entry in the Conjuring Universe, directed by Michael Chaves. This chapter dramatizes a new investigation while tying threads from earlier cases, with Mia Tomlinson and Ben Hardy among the additions to the ensemble.
Warner Bros. and New Line steered a theatrical release with a late-summer marketing push, highlighting franchise hallmarks—period detail, practical scares, and escalating demonic set-pieces—under Chaves’s direction. The studio’s materials confirm the subtitle and theatrical campaign.
6. ‘Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle’ (2025)
The ‘Infinity Castle’ arc launches as a theatrical trilogy adaptation of the manga’s final storyline, moving beyond compilation features to fully cinematic chapters. The film escalates Tanjiro’s war against Muzan Kibutsuji with Hashira-level battles staged for the big screen.
After rolling out internationally, ‘Infinity Castle’ has surged to all-time anime box-office status, buoyed by staggered European releases. Crunchyroll has emphasized the film’s exclusive theatrical window through 2025 as the franchise lines up its concluding installments.
5. ‘Him’ (2025)
Director Justin Tipping steers a grounded horror-thriller about a young athlete whose life spirals after he’s targeted by a malevolent presence. Marlon Wayans co-stars with Tyriq Withers, with supporting turns from Julia Fox and Tim Heidecker. The production frames sports-culture pressures against supernatural dread.
The creative team leans into practical effects and intimate locations, favoring atmospheric set-pieces over spectacle. With Tipping at the helm, the film threads coming-of-age anxieties through a genre lens, positioning its leads for physically demanding performances.
4. ‘One Battle After Another’ (2025)
Paul Thomas Anderson returns with a satirical political thriller loosely inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s ‘Vineland’, led by Leonardo DiCaprio with key roles for Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, and rising talent Chase Infiniti. The story follows former radicals pulled back into conflict when a father tries to protect his daughter, blending absurdist humor with sharp, contemporary bite.
The film opened this weekend and immediately hit the top of the box office charts on Friday, with coverage highlighting a strong ensemble and Anderson’s maximalist staging. Red-carpet premieres and industry Q&As have underscored the movie’s interest in how ideological extremes warp personal relationships.
3. ‘The Long Walk’ (2025)
Francis Lawrence directs this adaptation of Stephen King’s Richard Bachman novel, a dystopian survival tale about teenagers forced into a deadly endurance contest. The film stars Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Charlie Plummer, Ben Wang, and others, with Lawrence producing alongside Roy Lee and Steven Schneider. Cinematography is by frequent Lawrence collaborator Jo Willems.
Lionsgate handles domestic distribution following a mid-September U.S. theatrical release. The production pairs large-scale crowd management with steady-cam intimacy to keep the focus on the walkers’ psychological unraveling—an approach teased in early look features and festival placements.
2. ‘Weapons’ (2025)
Writer-director Zach Cregger follows ‘Barbarian’ with a New Line horror thriller structured as intersecting stories tied together by a mysterious incident. The ensemble has been building out with additions reported across spring 2024, pointing to a multi-thread narrative and a production mounted under the Warner Bros./New Line banner.
Cregger produces with his ‘Barbarian’ team, signaling a similar filmmaker-driven approach and an emphasis on practical shocks. While plot specifics remain deliberately under wraps, the project has been positioned as a scale-up from his breakout, with casting and crew announcements tracked through trades during pre-production.
1. ‘Superman’ (2025)
James Gunn writes and directs a new take on DC’s flagship hero with David Corenswet suiting up as Clark Kent and Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane. The story centers on a reporter balancing his Kryptonian heritage with a grounded Metropolis life, while a broader DC Universe peeks in through supporting characters and cameos. Principal photography ran through locations in Norway, Georgia, and Ohio, with work anchored at Trilith Studios in Atlanta.
Behind the camera, Gunn oversees the first feature in DC Studios’ new slate, with production shepherded by Peter Safran. The creative brief emphasizes a classic, optimistic tone paired with modern, practical-effects staging and large-format photography to reintroduce key DC icons alongside Superman.
Share your thoughts below: which of these titles are you most excited to watch, and why?
