Counting ticket sales and how much movies make at the box office in 2025 has begun, and with a whole year of releases ahead, it's time to predict what the 10 highest grossing movies of the year will be. For the third consecutive year, I'm taking my shot at projecting what the biggest box office hits will be, with a lot of crossover coming from films featured in our most anticipated movies of 2025. This is thanks to the coming year including the return of several franchises that typically do well at the box office, like Jurassic World and Avatar.

The results of predicting the year's biggest box office hits have varied over the years. 2023's predictions, where only four of the 10 films finished the year in that grouping as some big titles underperformed and the Barbenheimer craze massively changed Barbie and Oppenheimer's totals. The 2025 box office should be quite bountiful for many films based on our projections.

10 Captain America: Brave New World

Predicted Box Office: $650 Million

Captain America: Brave New World has a chance to stake its claim among 2025's highest grossing movies early on. With its February 14th release, Anthony Mackie's first Marvel Cinematic Universe movie as Captain America has all the makings of a box office hit. The Captain America franchise has a great track record financially, with the previous three films having a $746 million average total. Harrison Ford's addition as Red Hulk should help keep interest high, especially as Phase 5 kicks into high gear with Avengers: Doomsday approaching.

While the MCU's box office results have been more volatile in Phase 5, Captain America: Brave New World should perform comfortably well. It's a proven franchise with a known lead character and a villain audiences have waited over a decade to see. Changing the leads from Chris Evans' Steve Rogers to Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson makes this a slight reboot for the franchise, so there is not an expectation Brave New World will outperform earlier sequels. Captain America: Brave New World could make $650 million worldwide, having a small drop for the franchise's and Phase 5's average.

9 The Fantastic Four: First Steps

Predicted Box Office: $680 Million

2025 is finally the year that the Fantastic Four officially the MCU, and there are some grand box office expectations that come with that. Although the quartet of Marvel heroes might be among their most iconic with comic readers, the fact remains that they've never truly delivered a major financial hit. Between the three pervious Fantastic Four movies, they only average a final box office total of $267 million. That's well below the MCU's average of $916 million per film, as well as Phase 5's average gross of $716 million.

I believe that Marvel Studios will pull out all the stops to make The Fantastic Four: First Steps a much bigger box office hit than previous films with these characters. With them all already confirmed to return in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, this movie is the beginning of Phase 6 and is important for the conclusion of the Multiverse Saga. There could even be a Robert Downey Jr. Doctor Doom cameo here to really amp up audience interest. Still, I'm comfortable predicting The Fantastic Four: First Steps will make $680 million at the box office.

8 Michael

Predicted Box Office: $700 Million

Michael Jackson is getting the biopic treatment in 2025, and as one of the most recognizable and iconic pop artists of all-time, interest in Michael should not be discounted. There are several recent examples of how well musician-focused biopics can fare at the box office, such as Elvis making $288 million and Straight Outta Compton making $201 million. The best performance in history came in 2018 with Bohemian Rhapsody as the Queen/Freddie Mercury movie grossed $910 million.

Michael has the of Michael Jackson's family, with his nephew even playing the music icon, and Antonie Fuqua steps into the director's chair. With the film's portrayal of Michael Jackson and having full access to his music catalog, there's a clear path for the biopic to become a major box office hit. It's October release date should help too as there's minimal competition around it. If Bohemian Rhapsody can come so close to $1 billion, Michael should make $700 million if it delivers.

7 Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning

Predicted Box Office: $710 Million

Hype for Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning is mounting as it could be Tom Cruise's final time playing Ethan Hunt. The Mission: Impossible franchise has a consistent track record of delivering at the box office, even if Dead Reckoning underperformed based on expectations and its inflated budget. That step backwards after Mission: Impossible - Fallout should be a blip on the series' radar. With Paramount marketing The Final Reckoning as the end (even if it ultimately isn't), there are more reasons to see this in theaters than just Cruise's next epic stunts.

If Top Gun: Maverick was able to rally audiences around Cruise's return as Maverick, The Final Reckoning can generate more than Dead Reckoning did with the final installment narrative. It also helps that it isn't billed as a "Part One" or "Part Two," although there's still plenty of history attached to the eighth installment of a franchise. Ultimately, I think Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning will make around $710 million at the box office, finishing as the second highest grossing film in Cruise's franchise.

6 How To Train Your Dragon

Predicted Box Office: $760 Million

DreamWorks is giving How To Train Your Dragon the live-action treatment in 2025, with the clear hopes of a significant box office haul. Disney has made a fortune from doing the same with its beloved animated films over the years. DreamWorks and Universal are betting on How To Train Your Dragon to do the same, even if it looks pretty close to a shot-for-shot remake of the animated film. That should not fully stop the film from making a franchise record amount at the box office.

The animated How To Train Your Dragon movies made $545 million at the box office on average, with How To Train Your Dragon 2 holding the record at $621 million. The prime summer release date and franchise appeal should help the fantasy film draw in mass crowds. I'm predicting a $760 million box office haul for the live-action How To Train Your Dragon, which is right around what Maleficent made for Disney several years ago. Don't be too surprised if it flies well past this mark and approaches $1 billion as four of Disney's live-action remakes have done.

5 Wicked: For Good

Predicted Box Office: $840 Million

2024 proved that Wicked is a phenomenon that extends to the box office, with the first film sitting right around $650 million at the time of this writing. That's a great sign for Universal considering the sequel, Wicked: For Good, is already shot and deep in post-production ahead of its November release. Now that audiences have experienced this version of Elphaba, Glinda, and Oz, the anticipation to return in 2025 is clear.

It is quite common throughout history for sequels to do better at the box office than their predecessors. And now that the second film has dropped the "Part Two" subtitle, the promise of a new installment will delight audiences. Wicked: For Good could make around $840 million at the box office if it has a 25 percent increase on Wicked's total box office numbers. That could be on the safer side of predictions if Wicked becomes an Oscar-winning film and further props up the sequel.

4 Superman

Predicted Box Office: $920 Million

There's arguably more pressure on Superman to be a box office hit in 2025 than any other movie coming out. The future of James Gunn's DC Universe rests on David Corenswet's broad shoulders and whether the reboot of DC's iconic superhero delivers financially. That's a risky prospect considering Warner Bros. and DC's previous Superman movies only have an average gross of $366 million - including Batman v Superman. The good news, though, is that this movie has James Gunn. Forgiving the circumstances around The Suicide Squad's poor performance, Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy movies averaged $827 million totals.

I tend to believe that Gunn will get audiences into seats more like he did with the Guardians movies than the average Superman movie. The film's record breaking amount of trailer views is a promising sign that the film will not disappoint at the box office and could finally see Superman fly to new financial heights. I'm predicting Superman will make $920 million, making it the highest-grossing film Superman has ever been in. That will assure James Gunn's DC Universe continues on.

3 Jurassic World Rebirth

Predicted Box Office: $1.1 Billion

The Jurassic franchise is back in 2025 with plenty of reasons to be excited. Original writer David Koepp penned the new film with Gareth Edwards (Rogue One) directing, and Scarlett Johansson headlines the completely new ensemble Jurassic World Rebirth cast. The Jurassic movies have almost always been huge hits at the box office. The prior six films have a $1 billion gross average overall, while the Jurassic World trilogy in particular averaged $1.3 billion per film. That's a proven track record for interest in the dinosaur-driven series.

The Jurassic World trilogy did have declining box office hauls with each installment

That makes it easy to predict that Jurassic World Rebirth will make $1.1 billion. It could even go much higher thanks to having a proven box office star like Scarlett Johansson attached. Even if everything goes right, it probably won't catch Jurassic World's franchise record $1.6 billion performance. But with its early July release, it has an opportunity to dominate the summer - possibly hurting films like Superman or The Fantastic Four: First Steps in the process.

2 Zootopia 2

Predicted Box Office: $1.2 Billion

It's easy to forget that Disney delivered a huge hit in 2016 with Zootopia, as the animated animal film made over $1 billion. With nine years separating the original film and the sequel, predicting Zootopia 2's box office really comes down to belief in the Mouse House. With some recent woes before 2024, it would be understandable to discount Zootopia 2's potential at the box office and predict a major downfall. That could still happen, but that's not what I think will happen.

Disney just proved that it can turn even a mediocre sequel into a near $1 billion hit with Moana 2. While Moana is a much more recognizable and beloved character than Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde, Zootopia 2 should benefit from same Thanksgiving week release plan. With Encanto's directors taking the reins of the franchise with this installment, I predict a $1.2 billion performance at the box office. With Moana 2 and Inside Out 2 making near this total, Disney should have the top animated film of 2025 too.

1 Avatar: Fire and Ash

Predicted Box Office: $2 Billion

If there is a new Avatar movie coming out in any year, it's only sensible at this point to predict that it will be the biggest movie of the year. Avatar is the highest grossing movie of all-time and easily sits atop the 2009 box office. Then, Avatar: The Way of Water topped 2022's box office charts as it became the third biggest film ever. James Cameron also delivered 1997's biggest film with Titanic. With Avatar: Fire and Ash coming out in 2025, the same outcome is all but assured - leaving just the specific final amount worth predicting.

Looking at how the franchise has performed, Avatar: The Way of Water still made $2.3 billion despite making over $600 million less than Avatar. That sizable drop would kill almost any other film's box office prospects, but Avatar 3 could still be okay if the same happened and it finished with $1.7 billion. With only three years separating the second and third films, a smaller drop makes more sense to me than another massive decline. That's left me to believe Avatar: Fire and Ash will make another $2 billion at the box office and finish 2025 in style.