After a 2024 movie slate stuffed to the collar with sequels, prequels, reboots, and remakes, 2025 will look even more familiar as anywhere from 50 to 70 percent of releases will be franchise movies.
“Looking at the current 2025 calendar, between 50% and 70% of the movies from the six major studios … will be related to existing IP,” reports CNBC. “Of course, the 2025 slate is not totally set in stone and studios could add more non-franchise titles in the coming months and into next year.”
And why not when every one of this year’s top ten domestic grossed (thus far) is a sequel:
- Inside Out 2 — $652.9 million
- Deadpool & Wolverine — $631.3 million
- Despicable Me 4 — $360.7 million
- Dune: Part Two — $282.1 million
- Twisters — $267.5 million
- Beetlejuice Beetlejuice — $250.3 million
- Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire — $196.3 million
- Kung Fu Panda 4 — $193.59 million
- Bad Boys: Ride or Die — $193.57 million
- Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes — $171.1 million
And look at what’s yet to come this year…
- Smile 2
- Venom 3
- Gladiator 2
- Moana 2
- Sonic the Hedgehog 3
- Mufasa: The Lion King
Next year, once again, it’s all familiar IP, sequels, prequels, reboots, and remakes…
- Wolf Man
- Bridge Jones 3
- MEGAN 2.0
- Jurassic World 7
- Downton Abbey 3
- Black Phone 2
- Captain America 4
- Avatar 3
- 28 Years Later
- Saw 11
- Now you See Me 3
- Mission: Impossible 8
Past that horizon, get ready for Toy Story 5, Shrek 5, more Hunger Games, more Batman, more Superman…
People complain about a lack of original content, but no one goes to see original content.
This baffles me. When I was growing up, it was all about the NEW… The new bands, the new TV season, the new car styles, the new movies, the Next Big Thing…. We always looked over the shoulder of the Now to get a look at what was coming. Today, it seems like everyone only wants the warmth of nostalgia and the artificial comfort of nothing ever changing. As long as Eddie Murphy is still playing Axel Foley, that means I’m still young and I’ll never die…
I’m so sick of it that I’ve lost all desire to see mainstream movies. It’s just the same stuff rehashed. It’s all spectacle and a carnival ride that says absolutely nothing about anything. What can a seventh Jurassic Park possibly offer that you haven’t already seen? Another Batman? As much as I admired the most recent Mission: Impossible, I can hardly tell those movies apart anymore. Who asked for a third Now You See Me? Or…
Maybe I’m just getting old.
John Nolte’s first and last novel, Borrowed Time, is winning five-star raves from everyday readers. You can read an excerpt here and an in-depth review here. Also available in hardcover and on Kindle and Audiobook.