Summer 2025 was a great season for movie lovers across the globe! Many box office hits were released both in theaters and on streaming platforms.
According to Box Office Mojo by IMDbPro, the highest-grossing movie of the summer was the live-action Lilo & Stitch, coming in at about $423 million dollars! Some other popular releases for theater lovers include David Corenswet’s Superman, the new live-action How to Train Your Dragon, and F1: The Movie. In addition, Marvel fans got a win with Disney’s Thunderbolts*. Although there were some mixed opinions on whether or not the band of 6 vigilante heroes should be referred to as the “new Avengers,” the feedback was generally positive.
Not all the hits were theater releases! Netflix released Adam Sandler’s Happy Gilmore 2 this past summer as a sequel to the 1996 hit, Happy Gilmore. According to critics on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie was a decent sequel to the beloved original, but overall, nothing special. Despite these reviews, the movie has become Netflix’s biggest U.S. opening movie with 46.7 million views within 3 days! However, Happy Gilmore 2 was not Netflix’s biggest release of the summer. That spot was taken by K-Pop Demon Hunters, which also took the spot for most-watched Netflix movie of all time with 236 million views as of August 23rd! The record-breaking movie was loved all across the world, even having its song, Golden, reach #1 on Billboard Hot 100.
Hopefully, this train of great releases will continue into the current fall and upcoming winter/holiday season. Movie lovers can get excited for big releases like Wicked: For Good, Zootopia 2, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, and Avatar: Fire and Ash!