2025 has brought a lot of big winners at the box office so far. Families turned out in droves to see live-action remakes in Lilo & Sтιтch and How To Train Your Dragon. Gen Alpha reinvigorated the theatrical model with A Minecraft Movie‘s mᴀssive success. Even Jurᴀssic World Rebirth showed there is still life in this decades-old IP.

If you take a look at the top 10 box office, there’s a good amount of variety. China’s animated phenomenon sits at the top with a record $2.2+ billion gross for an animated feature. Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise headlined different types of action blockbusters. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie – Infinity Castle is climbing rapidly, another sign of anime’s wide appeal.

With three months left to go in this year, there are some big movies with huge box office potential still to come. A few of the biggest are certainly Avatar: Fire and Ash, Wicked: For Good, and Zootopia 2. If they all perform as expected, 2025 will be the end of a streak that signals a new age for Hollywood.

2025’s Top 10 Box Office Could Finish With No Superhero Movies Thanks To Zootopia 2, Wicked 2, & Avatar 3

Zootopia 2, Wicked: For Good, and Avatar: Fire and Ash are expected to perform like some of the biggest movies of the year over this final stretch. Two of the previous installments are $1 billion hits, and the other predecessor, Wicked, still made over $750 million.

All three sequels project to perform similarly to the prior entry, even if some drop happens. The question hanging over these films is more so what spot they will occupy in the yearly top 10 box office chart, rather than a question of if they will.

If this happens, then 2025 will go down as the rare year in the 21st Century to not have a single superhero movie in the top 10 worldwide box office. The last time this happened — excluding 2020 due to COVID’s impact — was in 2011; Thor finished the year as the highest-grossing superhero movie but ended at 15th on the year.

Currently, Superman is holding onto the seventh spot in the chart, but it will be pᴀssed by the new Demon Slayer before long, knocking it down to eighth place. Despite how much interest James Gunn’s movie brought to the DC Universe, the $605 million haul is quite pᴀssable for Zootopia 2, Wicked 2, and Avatar 3.

There’s no chance Avatar 3 doesn’t make more thanks to the mᴀss appeal of James Cameron’s franchise, especially internationally. Wicked 2 should also have little trouble flying past this mark as audiences turn out to see Elphaba and Glinda’s story continue and hear all the new songs.

Zootopia 2 could struggle to reach the same $1 billion heights as its predecessor, but it can still endure a nearly 40% drop overall and pᴀss Superman. The premium Thanksgiving weekend release date from Disney should help it play well with families as long as reviews are favorable.

So long as these three films pᴀss Superman, 2025’s top 10 box office chart with superhero free. Marvel Studios and DC Studios combined to release four superhero movies this year, so them going 0 for 4 with delivering a top-tier performer really speaks to how audience interests are shifting, allowing Wicked, Avatar, and other franchises to replace them.

2025’s Superhero-Less Top 10 Box Office Is Good For Hollywood

The 2025 box office is a great reminder of how many different types of films can find success when audiences aren’t overly concentrated on superheroes. Sinners carved out its lane in the spring, as did A Minecraft Movie. Even Jurᴀssic World Rebirth outshone Superman and The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

This will show Hollywood that there are plenty of other paths to getting huge hits. Many of the top performers of the year still carry mᴀssive budgets, as most comic book films do, but they’re packaged and sold differently, allowing them to feel a bit fresher than another superpowered story.

Even in the midst of the superhero movie boom, there were obvious concerns about how reliant Hollywood was becoming on the success of these films. Instead of getting just a few of these movies every year, Marvel and DC were aiming for increased production output to meet the apparent demand. But that would only mean less time, resources, and attention on other types of films.

Viewing habits post-pandemic and major studio/franchise resets have forced the industry to take a step back and reᴀssess how to utilize the comic book adaptations. Now, Marvel and DC will combine to release six movies a year, at most, with both aiming to release three or fewer тιтles going forward.

It’s healthier for the industry to have more variance in the types of movies, especially blockbusters, that are being made. Audiences appear to have become a bit more fatigued with superhero movies, only really driving big, ensemble films to mᴀss success levels.

A studio making one less superhero movie and one (or more) original film or alternate franchise release instead could help everyone. Viewers can have the sense of a wider variety of offerings, theaters can experience more people visiting, and studios could receive greater profits if budgets are kept in check.

To be clear, superhero movies won’t be absent from the top 10 box office forever going forward. Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Avengers: Doomsday will both be huge hits next year, and Supergirl and Clayface could be strong plays too. Man of Tomorrow, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, The Batman Part II, and Avengers: Secret Wars in 2027 could shatter records.

But there have been 20 years this century with a superhero movie in the top 10, so far, with six times having one finish at #1 in the world. They might not be the cream of the crop any longer, though. 2025’s box office will hopefully teach Hollywood to take more chances on original stories, use other genres for bold swings, and capitalize on other franchises for future success.