Sci Fi and Fantasy Films Saw Some Winners and Losers at the Box Office in 2025

After several years of struggling since COVID, the Box Office saw some gains in 2025, and several sci fi, fantasy, and horror films managed to have success during the year. Looking at the Top 50 for films that were released in 2025, 25 count as genre entries. Now I should note that is somewhat subjective because I am excluding some of the family films like Zootopia 2 and the Mufasa: The Lion King reboot, but I am including others like the live action remakes of Lilo & Stitch and Snow White because they have notable sci fi and fantasy elements and A Minecraft Movie because of its appeal to gamers. If you consider those more kids movies, feel free to ignore them.

As for the Box Office Returns for these films, they have to have made around three times their budget in domestic receipts or four times in worldwide ticket sales to count as a success by my reckoning. I consider them break even if they made around two times their budget in domestic receipts or three times globally. If they fell below twice their budget in domestic sales or below three times globally, I consider them as losing money. And if the fell below their budget in both domestic and global receipts, those count as flops based on their time in the theaters.

Note that this is subjective as well, especially with several of the films targeting a quicker arrival on streaming. Superman may show as break even and Captain America: Brave New World may show as losing money, but they can still potentially turn a profit from streaming and/or home video sales. That represents the shift in the market with streaming becoming more prominent, and it will certainly be interesting to see how things change further if Netflix does impose a 17 day window on its theatrical releases if the Warner Bros. Discovery sale goes through.  Also note that Hollywood accounting is quite nebulous, and if they don’t want a film to count as a success (in order to avoid paying royalties or incentives), they will make sure it is not.

All that said, let’s take a look at how things played out last year for genre films. When you review through the mega-budget entries that cost $200 million and more, almost all of those only got to break even at best, with most of them losing money or counting as flops. The one exception to that may be Avatar: Fire and Ash, which cost $400 million but that will almost certainly count as a success by the time it finishes its theatrical run (I currently have it at break even through the end of the year).

On the other end of the scale, the medium to low budget films ($60 million or less) almost all count as successes with the exception of 28 Years Later, and that one will likely turn a profit from streaming and home video. Hollywood still wants to pour a lot of money into its films thinking that the CGI rush will bring more people into the theaters, but as the landscape continues to change and there is more shift to streaming, they may want to rethink that.  And the fact is that they can still make some pretty darn good films on those lower budgets, and they tend to be more profitable.

Another thing to note from these results is that superhero movies continue to fall short of success at the Box Office. Superman did hit break even and will likely eventually turn a profit. But the Marvel films all lost money in the theaters as that franchise continues to struggle. And take note that all of those were close to a budget of $200 million if not more.  Also note that there are not many full science fiction films on the list, with Jurassic World: Rebirth just breaking even, and the other four (Predator: Badlands, TRON: Ares, Mickey 17, and The Running Man) all losing money or counting as flops.

Below are the results for all of the sci fi and fantasy films in the Top 50 for 2025, and I also included The Running Man which fell just outside of the Top 50 and counted as a flop:

Sci Fi and Fantasy Film Box Office Results for 2025

(Source: Box Office Mojo)