Story of the Year
That’s All, Folks: Warner Bros. Is for Sale
Theatrical exhibition ended 2025 on a cliffhanger amid news that Netflix had won the bidding war to acquire Warner Bros. The deal promises to have far-reaching, if not revolutionary, implications for the entire entertainment industry and is likely to face regulatory scrutiny in 2026. Not to be outdone, Paramount Skydance, the other top contender to acquire the iconic studio, has hinted it could go directly to Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders with a better offer, effectively toppling the Netflix deal in favor of its own. It’s too early to tell when, or even if, either of these scenarios will come to fruition. Netflix anticipates it will take 12 to 18 months to complete its acquisition, delaying any outside control of Warner Bros. until 2027 at the earliest. Exhibitors worldwide are highly concerned about any further studio consolidations, particularly on the heels of the steep drop in theatrical output stemming from Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox. Even if the number of theatricals stays the same—or, by some miracle, goes up—questions remain about the length of their exclusivity windows, support for theatrical marketing campaigns, and access to repertory titles. These questions won’t be answered anytime soon, and exhibitors have no choice but to start forging their own solutions for the tumultuous road ahead.
Movie of the Year
Ne Zha II (CNC Pictures, A24)
While A Minecraft Movie was the top-grossing film of 2025 in North America, the year’s international box office tells a different story, one that reaffirms the dominant position China has come to hold in the global cinema economy.
A sequel to 2019’s Ne Zha, Ne Zha II—which picks up the story of its titular character, a Demon Orb reincarnated as human boy who wrestles with his tendency towards wickedness and mischief—came out in China on the first day of the Lunar New Year, one of the most important periods on the cinema exhibition calendar in that country. Virtually on the strength of the Chinese market alone, Ne Zha II catapulted past the $2 billion mark by early March, becoming the first animated film, first non-Hollywood film, and only the second film since 2020 to do so.
Industry Figure of the Year
Sean Baker
We considered several names for the Industry Figure of the Year in 2025. David Ellison, chairman and CEO of Paramount Skydance, is the most consequential figure, having both completed his acquisition of Paramount and acted as a catalyst for the bidding and eventual sale of Warner Bros. We also considered Pamela Abdy and Michael DeLuca, Warner Bros. Motion Pictures chairs, who were the architects behind the studio’s exceptional 2025 slate. Ultimately, however, as a publication focused on the theatrical exhibition business, there is no more fitting industry figure to grant this designation to than director Sean Baker. In a year marked by studio consolidation, when questions were raised about which films “deserve” a theatrical release, Baker emerged as an unwavering proponent of the moviegoing experience in a way few filmmakers dared to be. His rousing speech in support of movie theaters at the Academy Awards in March, where the director picked up four Oscars (Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, and Editing) for Anora, was enthusiastically echoed by theater owners worldwide. Upon news of the Warner Bros. sale, Baker spoke out in support of longer, not shorter, theatrical exclusivity windows, going so far as to say he expected a 100-day window for his next film. It’s one thing to make these statements as a director of massive studio tentpoles. It means so much more coming from an independent filmmaker who appreciates the value of a full-fledged theatrical release while many of his contemporaries concede to the shorter windows and limited marketing support from streamers.
Exhibition Trend of the Year
Event Cinema Releases and Anime
This year had its share of fallow periods at the box office, a characteristic that 2026 is likely to share. While there’s no substitute for a robust slate of Hollywood content, event cinema, roughly defined as niche or fan-oriented programming released in theaters for a set number of screenings, has increasingly stepped up to fill some of the gaps left by a light schedule.
Take October 2025, the worst October in nearly 30 years, when the total domestic box office amounted to only $425 million. (An asterisk: Box office was much lower in October 2020, when much of the industry was shut down due to the Covid-19 pandemic.) Things would have been worse—approximately $34 million worse—were it not for the eleventh-hour addition of Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl to the schedule, put in theaters by AMC Theatres Distribution for a three-day run tied to Swift’s latest album release. A similarly brief theatrical run for a sing-along version of the Netflix phenomenon Kpop Demon Hunters shored up domestic box office during slow weeks in August and November.
Elsewhere on the calendar, other event cinema releases—ranging in subject matter from sports (the FIFA World Cup Final), to music (like André Rieu’s annual Christmas concert, released on domestic screens by Fathom Entertainmen), to children’s entertainment (Peppa Meets the Baby Cinema Experience, released by Trafalgar Releasing in partnership with Hasbro to more than $10 million in 20 countries)—have helped keep the cinema experience vital and relevant to varied fan communities, while throwing some much-needed millions exhibitors’ way.
Distributor of the Year
Warner Bros.
Pamela Abdy and Michael DeLuca, Warner Bros. Motion Pictures co-chairs, delivered an all-time-great slate in 2025 despite industry murmurs in Q1 that their jobs were at risk. The studio got its misfires out of the way early, with a pair of busted bets in March on filmmaker-star combinations in Barry Levinson’s The Alto Knights, starring Robert DeNiro, and Bong Joon Ho’s Mickey 17, starring Robert Pattinson. But once we hit April, Warner Bros. was off to the races. A Minecraft Movie surpassed every expectation and delivered the best domestic opening weekend of the year with $162.7 million. It finished 2025 as the highest-grossing title of the calendar year in North America, with $423.9 million.
Undeterred by its Q1 slipup in proposing a filmmaker-driven slate, the rest of the year was filled with critical darlings and box-office hits from movies that unabashedly reflected their directors’ personal vision. Ryan Coogler’s Sinners and Zach Cregger’s Weapons emerged as the most exciting original horror movies of the year, while established fright franchises like Final Destination Bloodlines and The Conjuring: Last Rites delivered series highs at the box office. The studio also successfully relaunched a franchise with James Gunn’s Superman, the year’s most unique tentpole.
The only strike against the studio was its decision to sit out Q4 entirely, a consequence of bumping Mortal Kombat II from October to May 2026. That meant the studio finished the year on a high note in September with the release of P.T. Anderson’s One Battle After Another, the most critically acclaimed movie of the year.
Cinema Merchandise Collectible of the Year
Greg Marcus Blanket (Marcus Theatres)
Whether it’s marketing a movie or the moviegoing experience, Greg Marcus, CEO of Marcus Corporation, has never been shy of putting himself out there when it comes to promoting the cinema circuit bearing his family’s name. Marcus has been a mainstay of the Marcus Theatres preshow for years and has more recently become an eager, or at least willing, participant in creative marketing antics on the chain’s social media channels. We’d gladly welcome an end-of-year compilation of top moments from Marcus’s social media side gig, in the vein of Spotify’s “Wrapped” or YouTube’s “Recap.” Until then, we’ll have to settle for the next-best thing: cozying up in a Marcus Theatres DreamLounger recliner with a winter blanket adorned with a series of curated pictures of the executive himself.
Theatrical Marketing Campaign of the Year
Final Destination: Bloodlines (Warner Bros.)
Two words: log truck. It’s a core nightmare for most millennials who were permanently scarred at a tender age by the horrifying highway accident in 2003’s Final Destination 2. Warner Bros. slyly tapped into the fear meme with a brilliant viral marketing campaign that turned log trucks and look-alike wrapped box trucks into driving adverts for this year’s Final Destination Bloodlines. Sightings on major highways were reported across the globe, with clips from passersby going viral immediately. One of the vehicles driving around Canada, where the iconic pileup was filmed, was blood-spattered and decorated with unidentifiable entrails. The logging vehicles all sported a clever “How’s my driving?” bumper sticker and a QR code inviting brave drivers to “come face-to-face with death” at free Final Destination Bloodlines experiences. In markets such as NYC, Atlanta, L.A., and Dallas, the Final Destination Bloodlines experience bus gave moviegoers the chance to tackle death-defying challenges, including playing tug-of-war with a chain as it was pulled into an industrial fan. The experience also included multiple photo ops inspired by the Final Destination franchise. Other marketing tactics included a billboard made to look half completed after a worker fell to their death and cracked their cranium on the white portion of the sign. This all combined to help make Final Destination: Bloodlines the franchise’s biggest opening weekend.
Honorable Mention: Wicked: For Good
From “Wonderfullest Woods”–scented laundry detergent to embossed dutch ovens, Wicked: For Good continued a marketing blitz for the record books, retaining the saturation established for the first film while launching a seemingly endless parade of new partnerships and collabs. Any brand that missed the boat to Shiz last go around seems to have had the opportunity to cast a spell over consumers for Wicked’s conclusion. From singing toothbrushes to cat toys, Wicked was a true marketing marvel.
Viral Cinema Moment of the Year
Chicken Jockey (A Minecraft Movie, Warner Bros.)
If you didn’t know what a chicken jockey was going into A Minecraft Movie’s April 4 release, you sure do now… or maybe you’re still not quite sure. Regardless, members of A Minecraft Movie’s Gen Z-skewing audience, many of who grew up playing Minecraft, spotted the Easter egg right away—and reacted with cheers, popcorn throwing, and (in one screening at Cinemark’s Provo Towne Centre in Provo, Utah) a live chicken in the theater. Though undoubtedly disruptive, the chicken jockey trend speaks to many younger moviegoers’ enthusiasm for the communal nature of the moviegoing experience, a desire for active engagement that the industry would be wise not to overlook.
Box Office Surprise of the Year
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle (Sony)
Gone are the days when anime fans in North America had to keep up with their favorites by buying VHS tapes at conventions and hoping fan-created subtitle tracks kinda got the point across. The internet introduced millions to the genre, and the rise of streaming set anime on the fast track to become, per the Association of Japanese Animations’ Anime Industry Report 2025, a $25 billion global industry.
In the past, anime was largely relegated to event cinema runs comprising a mere handful of screenings per title, so domestic cinemas accounted for a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the lucrative anime market. In the early 2020s, the industry’s desperate need for fresh content opened the door to wider releases for select anime titles. The R-rated Demon Slayer franchise emerged as a standout with the April 2021 release of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train, and in September 2025, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: Infinity Castle, released by Sony’s Crunchyroll division, opened to a staggering $70.6 million, 19 percent of that on IMAX screens. It trounced the week’s new Hollywood titles (Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale and The Long Walk) and took the number one spot, a feat it would repeat the following week despite a sophomore week slump of -75.5 percent, typical of anime titles in North America. With a $664.3 million global gross, it earned a spot in 2025’s top 10, a feat that only one anime title—Mugen Train, the number one global earner in 2020—has accomplished.
Box Office Disappointment of the Year
Elio (Disney)
This year was far from providing the rebound exhibition had hoped for, in part due to declining interest across a series of established franchises and superhero sequels. Great opening weekends rarely sustained their momentum in subsequent weeks, and tried-and-true release calendar mainstays failed to keep up their end of the bargain with paltry grosses. Disney had a topsy-turvy year, delivering the only two billion-dollar studio movies of the calendar year in Lilo & Stitch and Zootopia 2 and also releasing a pair of 2025’s biggest misfires: Pixar’s Elio and the live-action reimagining of Snow White. Of the two, Elio fell furthest from expectations and was the lowest-grossing Pixar wide release since the pandemic. For perspective, Elio’s $72.9 million domestic run amounted to less than half of the opening weekend of Pixar’s Inside Out 2, released over the same weekend the prior year.
Dishonorable Mention: M3gan 2.0 (Universal)
Blumhouse had a terrifying year at the box office in 2025; no release produced more chills than the financial performance of its killer-doll sequel, M3gan 2.0. The first M3gan was an unexpected January horror hit back in 2022, and the production house was quick to work on a follow-up for Universal that would lean more heavily into the original’s campy vibes. Moviegoers roundly rejected the result. M3gan 2.0 had the impossible task of standing out in a late June release slate saturated with competing studio tentpoles, opening against Apple’s F1: The Movie before being decimated by its own studio’s launch of Jurassic World Rebirth over the Fourth of July holiday weekend. The movie’s domestic run failed to match the original’s $30.4 million opening weekend, finishing its play in theaters with a disappointing $24.1 million.
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