It has been a middling year so far for Fantasy cinema, but that is certainly going to change in the last two months of 2025. Due to characteristically large budgets, fantasy in particular has struggled to produce original hits in today’s entertainment economy, and many of the movies responsible for this lackluster year are just doing their best to capitalize on existing IP.

2025 has seen the live-action remake of Lilo & Sтιтch become a mᴀssive box office success, despite controversy surrounding the changed ending. The live-action Snow White was an unmitigated disaster, while How to Train Your Dragon‘s remake, like Lilo & Sтιтch, earned generally good reviews and a widespread turnout. Yet they all lack a certain spark of originality.

Sinners is the best we’ve seen in a long time, though it is not a strict fantasy, blending this with the horror and historical genres as well. This year has also included the release of A Minecraft Movie, another goofier hit marked with the asterisk of being dependent upon the Minecraft IP.

Otherwise, Wolf Man and In the Lost Lands both came out relatively recently, movies which might have hoped to be new fantasy classics, based on more obscure film or untapped literary sources. Yet both were critically panned and have since disappeared from public consciousness; most of the discussion of the fantasy genre still surrounds the remakes.

And moviegoers who aren’t huge fans of these projects are always hoping for something more. While we could always see another surprise hit like Sinners, perhaps this time more definitively rooted in the fantasy genre, we at least know that there will be two huge fantasy blockbusters at the end of the year.

Wicked 2 & Avatar 3 Will Give The Fantasy Genre A Huge End To 2025

The Return Of Two Award-Winning, Box Office-Smashing Fantasy Franchises

Moviegoers can expect the box office turnout at the end of 2025 to be huge when Wicked: For Good arrives in theaters on Nov. 21, and Avatar: Fire and Ash is set for Dec. 19. Though very different in tone and storytelling technique, the two are both major fantasy properties, with Avatar being more of a sci-fi-fantasy.

But first, Wicked 2 is practically guaranteed to be a smash hit. Elphaba and Glinda were already beloved characters before the 2024 adaptation, but their becoming more accessible via the big screen took them to another level. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande delivered perfect performances in a movie that captures the magical and musical nature of the Broadway show.

Wicked made an astounding amount of money and even secured a Best Picture nomination, now cemented as one of the modern masterpieces that managed to appeal to widespread audiences and break through into the highest circle of critical acclaim. The Avatar series has been doing something similar since the beginning, and we can expect Fire and Ash to carry on this tradition.

I am personally not the biggest Avatar fan, and others certainly have their complaints about it, but the franchise is two for two with Best Picture nominations and box office success stories. 2009’s Avatar and 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water are currently the first and third highest-grossing movies of all time.

With Wicked: For Good and Avatar: Fire and Ash both likely to continue their respective franchises’ streaks of mᴀssive box office numbers and a few Oscar nominations, the last months of 2025 will be all about these hit fantasy movies. And when they offer very different takes on fantasy, there is reason for people to even go see both of them.