Moviegoers were changed for good this year.
Several blockbuster sequels cast a spell on theater audiences in 2025, and you won’t be surprised to learn that the top 15 money-making films of the year include Zootopia 2, Jurassic World: Rebirth, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, The Conjuring: Last Rites, Captain America: Brave New World and Wicked: For Good—which each earned over $440 million worldwide.
And live action adaptations of popular franchises also came in hot, with Disney’s Lilo & Stitch and Warner Bros.’ A Minecraft Movie becoming the third- and fourth-highest grossing movies of the year, as they each took in about $1 billion at the box office.
But the sequel that claimed the No. 1 global spot is a flick that many Americans haven’t yet seen, considering it made just $23 million in the U.S.
So, which one took the crown as the highest-grossing movie of 2025? That would be Ne Zha 2, a Chinese animated film that raked about $2.2 billion worldwide (that’s nearly double the runner-up, Zootopia 2, which banked about $1.3 billion).
