Hollywood 2025 Winners and Losers: Disney Crushed It While Everyone Else Scrambled
The year-end Hollywood report cards are in and honestly? It was a pretty wild ride. Disney somehow pulled together a nearly $6 billion global box office haul while half the industry figured out what streaming even means anymore.
Lets break down who won, who lost, and who probably needs to update their resumes.
The Clear Winners
Hollywood Reporter confirms Disney dominated 2025 with Zootopia 2 pulling $1.31 billion, Lilo & Stitch live-action hitting $1.03 billion, and Avatar: Fire and Ash already at $506 million and climbing. Three billion-dollar movies from one studio. Absolutely insane.
Universal had a strong showing too. Jurassic World Rebirth delivered, How to Train Your Dragon surprised everyone, and Wicked: For Good kept printing money. Their Epic Universe theme park launch was “surprisingly formidable” according to analysts – which is corporate speak for “it crushed Six Flags.”
Variety notes Timothée Chalamet proved himself a legitimate movie star. A Complete Unknown hit $140 million domestic – a Bob Dylan biopic that “wouldn’t have made $40 million without him.” His Michael Jackson biopic is next and already being called “an early contender for 2026’s most awkward publicity tour.”
Netflix topped 300 million subscribers globally with revenue up 16%. Love em or hate em, the numbers work.
The Losers
Six Flags got absolutely wrecked between Universal Epic Universe pulling guests and their own operational issues. The merger with Cedar Fair hasn’t helped.
Donna Langley over at NBCUniversal poached Taylor Sheridan for Peacock which is great for them but pretty rough for everyone else who was building shows around the guy. Paramount especially took a hit there.
Several streaming platforms are still figuring out profitability. The days of just throwing money at content and praying are ending fast.
The Weird Middle Ground
Marvel’s having a strange moment. Broadway adaptations are outperforming superhero films and nobody saw that coming. The MCU still makes money but the cultural dominance feels shakier than it did five years ago.
The theatrical vs streaming debate rages on. Some films need the big screen. Others do fine at home. Nobody’s found the perfect formula yet.
One things clear – 2025 proved you still cant predict what audiences want. A Bob Dylan movie and a Lilo and Stitch remake were two of the years biggest hits. Go figure.
