It seems like we’re all increasingly obsessed with how much movies make at the box office these days. Obviously, money is not the defining factor to separate good films from bad ones. In fact, some truly amazing films have financially bombed, including Citizen Kane, Fight Club, and The Shawshank Redemption.
COVID-19 and the subsequent global lockdown led to a rise in straight-to-streaming releases and a significant change in the longevity of theatrical movies. Gross box office numbers have plummeted over the last five years, with over $11 billion generated every year from 2015 to 2019. Since an obvious low of $2.1 billion in 2020, this figure has still only risen as high as $8.9 billion in 2023, and dipped again last year to $8.5 billion.
It figures, then, that box office results can make or break a filmmaker’s career and have movie studios second-guessing every decision they make. Ultimately, it feels like no one quite has the magic solution to getting bums in seats at the cinema. Warner Bros. are clearly doing something right, however, as the moviemaking giant has enjoyed hit after hit at the box office in 2025. Let’s discuss how this has happened and why it’s not all cause for celebration just yet.
Warner Bros.’ Hot Streak Is Thanks to Minecraft, Superman, and Other Hits These Properties
As per a report from Variety, Warner Bros. has done something no studio has ever achieved before: having seven consecutive releases with openings of $40 million or more.
Horror hit The Conjuring: Last Rites was the latest in that line of successful drops for Warner Bros. The Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga-led flick racked up a whopping $87 million weekend domestically and $187 million globally in its opening weekend. Perhaps that was always to be expected given it’s the fourth instalment in this highly popular series, but this success rounded out a summer filled with smart releases and creative risks for the studio.
It all began in April, when A Minecraft Movie dominated cinemas and popular culture with its silly catchphrases and Jack Black tomfoolery. That $162 million opening remains the biggest win for Warner Bros. in 2025. Obviously, A Minecraft Movie benefited from the immense built-in audience that comes with the territory of a video game adaptation, and it’s exactly the kind of bankable film a studio needs to offset its losses throughout the year.
Elsewhere, Final Destination Bloodlines and Superman continued the trend, bringing in $51.6 million and $125 million, respectively. Both have the advantage of being part of franchises with devoted fanbases. In the case of Superman, perhaps it’s actually more like two fanbases, with James Gunn bringing his MCU admirers over to DC.
One of the more interesting successes, though, is F1: The Movie. While the Joseph Kosinski film was produced by Apple, Warner Bros. won the theatrical rights and bagged itself a sure fire hit that brought in a $57 million opening. With Kosinski at the helm, A-list titan Brad Pitt in the lead, and an exhilarating, fast-paced plot, F1 followed the Top Gun: Maverick blueprint to a tee, and Warner Bros. was wise to get behind such a crowd-pleasing project.
The five movies listed above present calculated pushes from the studio; films that were always likely to deliver box office wins. But what about the other two?
What We Can Learn From the Success of Weapons & Sinners
Ryan Coogler’s Sinners and Zach Cregger’s Weapons could easily have failed. But the horror-thriller hybrids brought in $48 million and $43.5 million respectively in their opening weekends, and they prove that Warner Bros. was more than willing to take big risks this year.
Hiring two of the most exciting filmmakers in Hollywood is always a good foundation for a successful project, but how often do we see that formula fail? You only have to look at films like Damien Chazelle’s First Man or Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 to see that acclaimed directors don’t always deliver guaranteed box office returns.
In allowing Coogler and Cregger to bring fresh spins to classic horror tropes like vampires and witches, Warner Bros. captured the imagination of moviegoers and provided something no other studio could. Let’s not forget, Weapons was such a hotly anticipated movie that Jordan Peele was furious when his company, Monkeypaw Productions, failed to acquire the rights for the film.
Franchise follow-ups, popular adaptations, and huge movie stars are easy wins. But as these numbers prove, putting out original stories is clearly still something audiences crave. That’s great news for the film industry in general, and Warner Bros. will be delighted that its risks paid off. But it may still count for very little in the long run for the studio.
Why Warner Bros.’ Future Is Still Uncertain
The company may have put out an incredible string of cinematic successes and been at the heart of some of 2025’s most brilliant movie characters, but Warner Bros. is still struggling financially. So much so, in fact, that the studio is up for sale.
As per the BBC in October, CEO David Zaslav was considering offers from numerous parties for Warner Bros. He is said to be looking for a way to “unlock the full value” of his and the board’s assets, while a bid from rival studio Paramount has already been rejected.
This comes just three years after Warner Bros. merged with Discovery, but it seems all this success in 2025 has not put the studio any closer to stable ground. We could yet see the company split up its assets to facilitate a sale, but what does that mean for the many iconic titles in the Warner Bros. library?
That repertoire includes the likes of Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings, two properties that are already being played around with in various adaptations. We know that whatever hands the studio falls into, those franchises will still live and breathe in some way, shape or form. It’s unclear what the future holds for Warner Bros.. One thing is for sure, though: the highly creative, original stories – Sinners and Weapons – that the studio has brought to life in 2025 underpin the kind of bold, winning formula we want and need to see more of in the movie industry.
