Top 10 Hollywood’s biggest box-office flops of 2025

While 2025 saw several blockbuster hits, many high-profile films failed to meet expectations at the box office, leaving industry insiders and audiences wondering why. Below is a roundup of 10 of the most infamous flops of the year, which highlight the challenges Hollywood faces in drawing people to cinemas. The following list is not ranked but presented for clarity.
 

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• Thunderbolts
  Thunderbolts earned close to $400 million (£299m) worldwide, but that’s less than half of what Avengers: Endgame made in 2019. Another Marvel release, Captain America: Brave New World, did slightly better, yet both ranked low in the studio’s performance charts. While Thunderbolts was an exciting romp, Brave New World was considered a shambles. Both films suffered from feeling like reheated scraps of a concluded Marvel saga. By contrast, Fantastic Four: First Steps performed better, suggesting Marvel could recover by starting fresh with iconic characters. Notably, only one superhero film, Warner/DC’s Superman, made the international top 10 this year, raising questions of whether superhero fatigue has arrived.
   

  

• Snow White
  Despite the success of Lilo & Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon, Disney’s Snow White failed to recoup its budget. The film’s inconsistent tone—half a faithful recreation of the 1937 cartoon, half a subversive take—was compounded by months of pre-release controversy over casting and political objections. As BBC’s Caryn James put it, Snow White became “the victim of its moment, a fairy-tale princess covered in mud.” Ultimately, the film wasn’t magical enough to overcome the negative publicity.

  

• Mickey 17
  Following the global acclaim of Parasite, expectations were high for Bong Joon Ho’s next film. Mickey 17, delayed multiple times, disappointed both critics and audiences. BBC’s Hugh Montgomery described it as “a serious disappointment,” “completely toothless,” and “a film with a major identity crisis.” Even with Robert Pattinson in the lead, the science-fiction epic did not meet Warner Bros’ hopes.

  

• After the Hunt
  Julia Roberts starred in this MeToo drama directed by Luca Guadagnino, known for Call Me by Your Name. Despite its star power and high-profile director, the film reportedly earned less than $10 million (£7.5m) globally—half of Roberts’ salary and roughly one-eighth of the budget. Critics cited excessive subplots, a rambling narrative, and overlong runtime as reasons the film felt more like an expensive streaming series than a cinema experience.

  

• Christy
  The biopic of boxer Christy Martin, starring Sydney Sweeney, suffered one of the worst wide-release openings in US cinema history. Despite Sweeney’s social media fame, audiences did not turn out. Controversy surrounding her American Eagle advertisement may have also contributed. Sweeney noted on Instagram: “We don’t always just make art for numbers, we make it for impact.”

  

• I Know What You Did Last Summer
  This revival of the 1997 teen horror film underperformed, despite recent successful revivals of franchises like Scream and Final Destination. Audiences were apparently less invested in I Know What You Did Last Summer, raising questions about the franchise’s lasting appeal.

  

• Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere
  The biopic aimed to capture a segment of Bruce Springsteen’s career but failed to attract audiences. Jeremy Allen White’s performance and Scott Cooper’s direction could not compensate for the lack of the energy and drama expected from a rock-star story. 

  

• Elio
  Pixar’s Elio, a sci-fi coming-of-age adventure, struggled after co-director Adrian Molina left the project, leading to a disjointed final product. While other Disney films like Lilo & Stitch succeeded, Elio lacked a clear narrative purpose and audience appeal.  

  

• M3GAN 2.0
  The sequel to the viral hit M3GAN changed from suburban horror to a geopolitical action thriller. While creatively ambitious, it failed to give audiences what they expected from the original. Producer Jason Blum noted on The Town podcast: “We all thought M3GAN was like Superman. We could do anything to her. We could change genres. We could put her in the summer. We could make her look different. We could turn her from a bad guy into a good guy. And we classically over-thought how powerful people‍‍`s engagement really was with her.”  

  

• The Smashing Machine
  Dwayne Johnson starred in this Oscar-aimed sports biopic alongside Emily Blunt, directed by Benny Safdie. Despite a compelling true story and high-profile cast, audiences stayed away. Johnson’s performance mirrored his usual charismatic persona, and the film’s depressing tone contrasted with the uplifting experience people expect from him. Meanwhile, another sports biopic, Marty Supreme, starring Timothée Chalamet, received praise that eluded The Smashing Machine.

Source: BBC