The Top 2025 Movie Releases on Our Radar
See the most exciting movies coming in the new year, starring favorites from Timothée Chalamet to Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande.
Every winter, the biggest names in the film industry gather at awards shows, from the Golden Globes to the Oscars, to celebrate best in movies and television of the past year. As we enter award season, we may be spending time thinking about the best films we saw this year, whether it be Luca Guadagnino's Challengers or Sean Baker's Anora. But with the new year just around the corner, it's also time to start looking forward to what to add to your 2025 watchlist.
Some of today's best directors like Paul Thomas Anderson and the Safdie brothers are bringing newness to the silver screen, which will all be sure to impress. Keep scrolling to see some of the top movies to look forward to in 2025, who's in them, and what they're about.
Wicked Part Two will hit theaters 364 days following the release of the Part One film, which was released on November 22, 2024. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande will continue their roles as the witches Elphaba and Glinda, respectively, in the already highly anticipated movie directed by Jon M. Chu.
Marty Supreme has New Yorkers excited to witness Manhattan's Lower East Side neighborhood get converted into a mid-century scape. It has also been a chance to spot Timothée Chalamet and Gwenyth Paltrow around town for their latest project. Josh Safdie—of the directing duo, the Safdie brothers, who directed Uncut Gems in 2019—is behind the film centered around the life of the American ping pong pro Marty Reisman played by Chalamet. No release date is confirmed just yet.
Korean director Bong Joon-ho, who directed Parasite (which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2020), is making his return with Mickey 17. The sci-fi thriller movie is based on the book Mickey7. The lead character Mickey, played by Robert Pattinson, is sent to colonize an ice world. Each time the character dies, his body regenerates with most of his prior memories intact. Its release date is April 18, 2025.
After a 13-year gap between the release of Avatar in 2009 and its sequel Avatar: The Way of Water in 2022, director James Cameron is bringing the third movie of this series in late 2025. The cast will feature familiar favorites from the prior films, such as Zoe Saldaña, Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, and Kate Winslet. The movie is set to release on December 19, 2025.
Eddington is the latest film directed by Ari Aster who is behind eerie movies Midsommar and Hereditary. The movie is set in a small New Mexico town during the early days of COVID-19. Aside from the pandemic, something sinister happens in the town at nightfall. The movie boasts a star-studded cast including Joaquin Phoenix (who recently starred in Aster's 2023 film Beau Is Afraid), Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, Luke Grimes, and Austin Butler. There is no confirmed release date yet, but Eddington is expected to hit theaters early 2025.
Paul Thomas Anderson, the director behind classics like Boogie Nights and There Will Be Blood, is bringing The Battle of Baktan Cross to theaters on August 8, 2025. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Benicio del Toro, Sean Penn, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, and Alana Haim is loosely based on the 1990 novel Vineland by Thomas Pynchon, set in a fictional California town after Ronald Regan's reelection in 1984.
Sinners, starring Michael B. Jordan and Hailee Steinfeld, is a horror film centered around a pair of twin brothers returning to their hometown where there are rumors of vampires. This is the latest film from Ryan Coogler, who directed The Black Panther, Judas and the Black Messiah, and the Creed movies. The film is set to release on March 7, 2025.
Caught Stealing is the latest film from Darren Aronofsky, the director who brought us Black Swan, Requiem for a Dream, and The Whale. The cast features Austin Butler, Zoë Kravitz, and Bad Bunny, a buzzy trio sure to spark internet conversation. The plot is characterized as a thriller, centered around an ex-baseball star who finds himself in the world of underground crime set in '90s New York.
