what will the year 2025 be made of?

The year 2025 is starting slowly. After a busy month of December on streaming platforms as well as in cinemas, the cultural industry is sparing its effects. The month of January promises to be particularly calm before February awakens the enthusiasm of spectators. Between Captain America : Brave New World at the cinema, Reacher on Prime Video or even Paddington in Peru, studios and platforms will spare no effort to attract the attention of the public. More broadly, the next 365 days promise to be very busy and particularly interesting for an industry in full transformation. The writing of the Journal du Geek took out his crystal ball to predict the significant moments of the year 2025. What do the cinemas, platforms and emblematic licenses of geek culture have in store for us? We take bets.

Live streaming will become a priority for platforms

Unless you spent last November in a cave, you couldn’t have missed the fight between Jake Paul and boxing legend Mike Tyson. After months of preparation, a daunting promotion and much helped by the celebrity of the two opponents, Netflix pulled off the coup of the century by broadcasting the match live from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The American platform broadcast one of its first live events of this scale, bringing together millions of spectators around the world. If the plan did not go off without a hitch, the Red N had to resolve to cut back on the quality of retransmission to allow everyone to access the combat, it must be admitted that the operation was particularly profitable. The fight between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson has become the most streamed sporting event in history. Just that.

In 2025, Netflix will undoubtedly want to continue its momentum. The company has acquired the rights to Raw, a weekly professional wrestling program created by WWE. The discipline is among the most popular on North American soil, but also in South America, there will undoubtedly be many fans who want to follow the exploits of their favorite personalities. These are just as many live viewers that Netflix must not disappoint with lower quality or interference.

More broadly, live broadcasting is a new asset up the sleeve of streaming platforms. Other companies have already mentioned their desire to invest more widely. This is the case of Disney+, which recently told us that it wanted to increase the number of events of this kind in France and elsewhere. A few days later, Disney+ France announced that it had obtained the broadcast rights for the 2025 Oscars. The platform beat Canal+ to the post, this is the first time in 35 years that the Hollywood mass will not be transcribed on the encrypted channel. For its part, Prime Video already benefits from a lead in the live sector with its old Ligue 1 bouquet and the broadcast of Rolland Garros.

Fantastic Four will be a new hope for Marvel

Thor : Love and Thunder, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania or even The Marvelsthe Maison des Idées is not at the top of its form. If Deadpool & Wolverine was a real hit at the cinema, Wade Wilson’s film cannot really be seen as a sign of a recovery for cinematic licensing. Shawn Levy relied heavily on the reputations of Reynolds and Jackman to attract viewers. A deluge of fan-service (pleasant for once), the third part of the mutant’s adventures reminded MCU viewers of better days. Phases 4 and 5 of the MCU were major disappointments and the future does not look brighter. The return of Robert Downey Jr, and perhaps even that of Chris Evans, sounds like an admission of failure for Kevin Feige and his teams. Marvel has not managed to overcome the disappearance of its headliners, and it is not the series devoted to some of them that will be able to save the license from a planned end.

However, in the midst of films which have a feeling of déjà vu, the new proposition of Matt Shakman could do well. In fact, the director of Wandavision hopes to breathe a breath of fresh air into the license with its retrofuturistic adventure dedicated to the most famous family in the Marvel stable. Fantastic Four : First Steps will have the heavy responsibility of building icons that spectators will want to follow closely after the first film. Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn et Ebon Moss-Bachrach have the opportunity to become Marvel icons as Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Hemsworth and Jeremy Renner were in the early 2010s.

As a result, we can expect the characters to be at the epicenter of the next Avengers and that they define the start of a new era for the MCU. For Marvel, it will also be an opportunity to take the temperature. before the introduction of the X-Men. The series X-Men ’97 has proven that the public is still interested in Charles Xavier and his teams, it is only a matter of time before Marvel decides to offer them a new version in the cinema.

Zootopia 2 will be the hit of the year

It’s not taking a big risk to bet on the sequel to the adventures of Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde to dominate the global box office in 2025. After all, it’s already another sequel to an animated hit which dominated the year 2024. Zootopia even has a certain advantage over the adventures of Riley, its first part was otherwise profitable for the two entities Pixar and Disney. When it was released in 2016, the first film dedicated to Judy and Nick grossed more than billion dollars worldwide. Vice-Versa had finished its run with (only) 859 million. While Disney appears to be on the path to resurrection, one can expect Zootopia 2 surpasses the results of its predecessor and stands out as the highest-grossing film of the yearall genres combined. If competition with Avatar : Fire and Ash could have largely thwarted these plans, the late release of the third film in the James Cameron saga leaves Zootopia a certain freedom of movement.

We can also note that, despite a less enthusiastic review than expected, Vaiana 2 was a veritable tidal wave in cinemas around the world in November, proving that animation has truly returned to the forefront. If the pandemic has pushed families to turn more widely to streaming platforms, the return to a three-month window before the SVOD exploitation of a film has allowed projects of this type to truly find a place in the ranks of the productions most popular with the public. The abandonment of double distribution – an idea launched by Warner Bros in full confinement and which consisted of offering films in certain cinemas and in streaming by subscription – is finally bearing fruit.

Superman by James Gunn will have a box office of around 800 million dollars

More than a decade later Man of Steelthe DC Films catalog is getting a makeover. If the attempts of Zack Snyder, David Ayer and Patty Jenkins have not been successful, Warner Bros. finally thinks it has found a way to exploit its legendary heroes within a huge cinematographic license. To do this, the company has appointed Peter Safran and James Gunn in charge of operations. The second plays the role of creative director but will also go behind the camera to get the ball rolling. He will be responsible for staging the first adventures of the Clark Knows the David Corens Act. The trailer unveiled last December proved that the public’s interest was there, that the film would be talked about upon its release. 250 million people watched the trailer through all the platforms where it was made available. Superman is officially the most talked about project in the Warner Bros. catalog. Such enthusiasm suggests a bright future for the son of Krypton.

The studio could take advantage of the experience acquired with Barbie to become the unmissable production of the summer. The film starring Ryan Reynolds and Margot Robbie benefited from a promotional campaign like few others do, between real trends on social networks and the sanctification of the moment in theaters. Superman would have everything to gain from adapting this recipe to its emblematic universe. Sessions with the iconic superhero glasses in perspective? Still, the competition is likely to be rather tough since Fantastic Four won’t be far behind Kal-El’s return.

Netflix will move away from binge-watching

A new trend is attracting more and more fans of living room entertainment. As the SVoD offering becomes more massive, as platforms flourish and each uses its arguments to attract attention, more and more users are unsubscribing and resubscribing as releases arise. In this little game, Netflix is not a big winner. The platform has widely popularized binge-watchingwhich consists of watching an entire series from the first days of its release.

However, certain series, those which are particularly popular, benefit from a new format. The Bridgerton Chronicles, Stranger Things, The Witcher or even more recentlyArcanemany productions have been offered in two or three different salvos. It appears very likely that this trend will intensify over the coming months, so that Netflix will keep its customers under its control as long as possible. We are already imagining several parts for the adventures of Wednesdayor even the return to weekly broadcasting.

Romanticism will be omnipresent

Since the era of teenage dystopia sagas came to an end, Hollywood has struggled to find a genre that captivates young viewers. The return of The Hunger Games was not a great success, nor did the attempts of certain platforms in the field of fantasy end in success. Netflix nevertheless thought it would have a serial phenomenon with Shadow and Bonebefore a significant drop in audience during season 2 thwarted his plans.

However, there are many literary successes that platforms could want to take advantage of to attract this audience. Romantasy is preparing to become one of the priorities of living room entertainment companies, a number of emblematic licenses have already been acquired. Hulu is preparing its adaptation ofA Palace of Thorns and Roses while Prime Video hopes to make Fourth Wing one of its most appreciated stamps. After all, “young adult” romance already works miracles on our screens when it evolves in a less imaginary context, think Maxton Hall or even to Counter-Sense sur Prime Video.

Prime Video has just acquired the adaptation rights to Rise of the Empressa literary saga inspired by the Evil Queen from Snow White and which has its share of eroticism and romance. Filming should begin in a few weeks in Malaysia, allowing readers to cherish the hope of a release in 2026. Faced with the eagerness of the platforms to seize these works which are at the top of book sales, the we can easily imagine that the coming months will mark the start of a new trend for SVoD platforms to give pride of place to romance. It remains to be seen whether the public will respond to the call, the first attempt of its kind was not really successful. My Lady Jane on Prime Video was canceled after one season.