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Ticket sales website Fandango has released a list of the top ten most anticipated summer movies of 2025, based on a poll of over 3,500 of its users, and there are some surprising entries on there.

It’s been a bad year at the box office so far, with several big movies underperforming, so studios will be looking to the summer season to keep them afloat, as several big releases hit theatres then. Here’s the list from Fandango:

1. Jurassic World: Rebirth
2. Fantastic Four: First Steps
3. Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning
4. Superman
5. Thunderbolts*
6. From the World of John Wick: Ballerina
7. 28 Years Later
8. How to Train Your Dragon
9. Lilo & Stitch
10. Freakier Friday

Let’s have a look at some of the numbers here. Jurassic World: Rebirth is from Universal, so is HTTYD under Dreamworks. Mission Impossible is from Paramount, Ballerina is from Lionsgate, 28 Years Later comes from Sony. Surprisingly, Superman is the only Warner Bros. film here. There are two Marvel movies, Thunderbolts and Fantastic Four, which combined with Lilo & Stitch and Freakier Friday means Disney has four movies total on this list.

Of these, we’ve got three movies releasing in May, June and July, with just one top ten movie coming out in August.

Also, as I’ve written about before, Hollywood is still hooked on sequels, and so is the audience it seems. Every single one of these movies exists in a franchise or cinematic universe, there are two live-action remakes of animated children’s movies, which must put a bit of a sting in it for Disney after Snow White’s reception, though they are sure to be hopeful for L&S. And seeing as the respondents to the survey wouldn’t have been kids, there’s a chance these will do better than their placing suggests.

As far as making money goes, the only super successful one here is Jurassic World, which has four billion-dollar movies to its name. We’ll not count the MCU, because both Thunderbolts and F4 are untested, and it’s had a rough time lately. The Superman movie is on rocky ground, too, the last one, Man of Steel, made well under $1B, and this is a reboot of the failed DCEU, so all bets are off.

As for 28 Years Later, this is a popular franchise, but it’s not a big hitter. Thanks to low budgets both previous films have turned profits, but with a budget of $75 million, the latest movie has a price tag higher than either of the previous movie’s box office gross.

Freakier Friday is an interesting entry, as it’s been more than twenty years since the last movie released, and that didn’t end so well for Gladiator II last year.

It’s no surprise that Jurassic World: Rebirth takes the top spot. It’s a tried and tested franchise, people love these movies, and they are pretty reliable for a fun (if not very intelligent) blockbuster experience.

What’s more worrying is that Superman is in fourth place. It comes out just one week after Rebirth, which means if the dino flick has a strong start, it could still be eating up the box office in its second and third weeks, damaging the chances for DC’s leading man. This would be a disaster for them, as it’s their first movie in the new DCU, and if it fails, it could have a huge effect on the future of the franchise. Not only that, but Warner Bros. has had a hard time recently, with flops like Mickey 17 taking their toll.

Of course, it’s a good sign for Marvel that their movie has taken the number two spot, as it’s a turning point for the MCU, introducing the new lead characters, probably debuting Doctor Doom, and setting the stage for Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars. So similarly to Superman, if Fantastic Four fails, it messes with Marvel’s future plans a lot. It’s more of a surprise that Thunderbolts is in the top five, as it’s something of an outlier for the MCU and superhero movies aren’t as popular as they were.

Surprisingly, there are no animated movies here. Last year, they dominated the box office, with Inside Out 2 and Despicable Me 4, so maybe studios are regretting not having any more big-name sequels lined up. I doubt if Smurfs will do very much, but maybe Pixar’s Elio can pull off a win, even if it is an original movie.

This is a sad thing, and show the state of modern entertainment, and Hollywood in particular, that several sequels to low-grossing movies are on this list, ahead of original movies like Elio and F1, starring Brad Pitt. The reliance on sequels, spin-offs and remakes is going nowhere anytime soon.

But with all these entries, it’s likely only big fans of them have bothered to complete Fandango’s survey. The real test will be whether they can draw in the casuals and normies, especially with the big-budget offerings. On that note, I do think JWR has the best chance, with one of the kids movies following it. Family movies always have a good chance of bringing in high returns, and I would expect HTTYD to have more resonance with kids now, though from both trailers, they look like solid, entertaining, if unoriginal, movies.

The proof will be in the viewing for these ten movies as to whether they are as successful as their ranking here suggests. It will depend what they are up against, how less popular movies perform, and also how their perception rises or falls before their release. We’re yet to have full trailers for several of them, and as we learn more about them, audience reactions could change.

However it turns out, this is shaping up to be one of the most interesting summer movie seasons for some time, and will set the course for Hollywood’s future, good or bad.

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