On the Friday, Dec. 12, 2025, episode of The Excerpt podcast: From "Sinners" to franchise finales, 2025's year in film showed that Hollywood still has what it takes to thrill and surprise. USA TODAY Entertainment Reporter Ralphie Aversa joins The Excerpt to discuss the year's biggest home runs.

Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here

Dana Taylor:

2025 showcased A-list movie stars, long-awaited finales, and a K-pop smash that no one saw coming. From Sinners to Wicked: For Good, One Battle After Another to KPop Demon Hunters, Hollywood had a lot to smile about this year. Which movies had movie lovers pumping their fists and which films failed to connect?

Hello, and welcome to USA TODAY's The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Friday, December 12th, 2025. Joining me to share his insights on the fast-moving world of film is USA TODAY Entertainment Reporter, Ralphie Aversa.

Thanks for closing out the year with us, Ralphie.

Ralphie Aversa:

Always a pleasure, Dana.

Dana Taylor:

Sinners made waves early in the year with critical praise and strong box office success, Ralphie, but what's the compelling takeaway from the success of this film?

Ralphie Aversa:

All right, well, let me give you two. First of all, Ryan Coogler, the filmmaker here, he's got a very interesting deal with Warner Brothers where he's going to own this film after about 25 years. So that was certainly a bit of an eye-opener and that's more of an industry takeaway.

I think one of the bigger takeaways besides that is the idea of original storytelling. This isn't a rehash, this isn't a re-imagination, it's not a sequel. Not to pooh-pooh on any of those, but the fact that this was an original story, a predominantly Black cast, I think this really resonated with all audiences, but especially in the way that it reimagined the way in which horror stories are told with a Black cast for Black audiences. This was a mainstream hit. It was top 10 at the box office, seven Golden Globe nominations, including for Michael B. Jordan, the star of it. So yeah, Sinners was just an unbelievable breakout in 2025.

Dana Taylor:

Well, expectations were sky-high for the follow-up to last year's Wicked. Did Wicked: For Good meet the moment?

Ralphie Aversa:

Yes, and I say it like that with that tone in my voice because look, it was a box office hit. I think the fans were very much satisfied, but it's a tricky thing that Jon M. Chu is trying to do here. When you take a musical, and look, any musical, obviously the first act is longer than the second act. So he took the Wicked musical and he split it into two movies, but he extended the second act. That's a really, really tough thing to do.

So I don't think it is as critically acclaimed as the first one. Certainly it did not receive a Golden Globe nomination for Best Musical or Comedy in that category. But look, the box office numbers don't lie. The fans still came out to see it in droves.

Dana Taylor:

Well, speaking of the Golden Globes, Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another with Leonardo DiCaprio, that leads nominations for the 2026 awards. Is there a front-runner for sweeping the awards this season?

Ralphie Aversa:

So look, you have to put One Battle After Another right in the mix, and the star power with Leo and with Benicio del Toro and Teyana Taylor, I mean, it goes on and on and on. One of the Haim sisters, for crying out loud, is in this film. You got to put that one front and center. But then we're going to talk about Sentimental Value a little more in a second also. That received eight Golden Globe nominations, and I would keep your eye on the Norwegian dramedy as well.

Dana Taylor:

The phenomenal Jessie Buckley, this was my favorite this year, has received a ton of buzz for her role in the movie Hamnet. What were some of the standout female performances of the year? Who are the likely Oscar nominees?

Ralphie Aversa:

All right. I got to get this name right. Renate Reinsve, I believe we nailed it there, the Norwegian actress in the aforementioned Sentimental Value. I think she is certainly a front-runner for the Oscar Best Actress campaign as far as that is concerned.

And another person I'd throw in the mix, somebody who's known, Kate Hudson from Song Sung Blue as well. Hugh Jackman, of course, did not receive a nomination, her co-star, but she did. And so that caught my attention and we'll see if perhaps that nomination can bolster her campaign as we move throughout awards season.

Dana Taylor:

And what about best male performances?

Ralphie Aversa:

One of the interesting nominations I found was Jeremy Allen White for Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere. I thought that Jeremy Strong in the Supporting Actor category would get a nod. He did not. Jeremy Allen White did, so that was certainly interesting. And then you got to go with certainly Leo for One Battle After Another, and George Clooney in Jay Kelly, that's another name that I would keep my eye on here throughout awards season.

Dana Taylor:

Ralphie, it took a while for me to press play on KPop Demon Hunters, and then I pressed play about 10 times. What can you tell me about that Netflix juggernaut?

Ralphie Aversa:

I think there's something to be said about K-pop music and the way it resonates, specifically with folks that are maybe a little younger than you or I, Dana. The fact that Golden received a Grammy nomination in one of the major categories, talk about going up, up, up. I think that says everything you need to know about the way in which music drove the popularity of this movie that, really, again, transcended a release. You could talk about the Netflix streaming numbers, and I believe it did get nominated in the Box Office and Cinematic Achievement category, which is this new category that they created a couple years ago at the Golden Globes.

We could talk about all the numbers, this, that, and the third, sure, but I have seen these various stars, the various voices of this movie out on different red carpets. And I can tell you, Dana, the reaction to these actors and actresses is just as vibrant and vervent as any other A-lister in Hollywood. So people love this movie, including you who pressed play 10 times, including my niece who's pressed play 10 times that. And yeah, we'll see how it does at the Golden Globes.

Dana Taylor:

Tom Cruise wrapped up his hugely successful run with the Mission Impossible franchise and capped off the year with an Honorary Oscar. That award was a long time coming, wasn't it?

Ralphie Aversa:

Yeah, it was. I mean, look, he's certainly been in the mix in Oscar contention before. I think what really put him over the edge as far as finally receiving this lifetime achievement award was what Top Gun: Maverick did a few years ago to bring fans back to the theater after the COVID-19 pandemic. It is universally recognized that Top Gun: Maverick was really what brought theaters back.

Now, look, they've had an up-and-down go since where you talk about different spikes in COVID-19, you talk about the Hollywood strikes as well. It certainly has been far from smooth sailing for Hollywood in general since 2020, but it's tough to think what that landscape would look like in 2025 had Top Gun: Maverick not released on the big screen when it did. So well-deserved, whether it was long overdue or not.

And the one other thing I'd just say quick about Tom, he's really built his career off the audience, off of pleasing the audience, off of creating great films, but really pleasing the audience. And I say that, for example, with the Golden Globes, obviously the Golden Globes had a controversy a number of years ago with the voting block formerly known as the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. And when that controversy broke, Tom Cruise, who I believe had two or three Golden Globes, said, "You know what? I don't need these on my mantel anymore. I'm sending them back."

So he's not one that is driven based off of the gold, the awards. He's somebody that really wants to please the audience, and it's something he's done very, very consistently at a high level throughout his entire career.

Dana Taylor:

Another longtime Hollywood star who lit up the screen again this year was Brad Pitt in F1, the movie. How did that movie fare at the box office and with critics?

Ralphie Aversa:

Oh, it fared very, very well. It made about double its budget globally. It was a huge hit for Apple who was behind that film. And critics enjoyed it as well. It's director, of course, Joseph Kosinski, we just talked about Tom Cruise, was a part of Top Gun: Maverick and is already, I believe, in the works on Top Gun 3 as well.

Also, little bit of a tease, I can't say too much, but Joseph Kosinski involved in some coverage we'll have later this year for USA TODAY's Ad Meter. I've probably said more than I was supposed to say, but again, talking about Joseph's success as a director and F1's success this past year, it's translated in a number of different ways.

Dana Taylor:

I'm going to make you tell me offline.

Okay. If we were to talk solely about who dominated the box office in 2025, it was almost too close to call, at least domestically with Jason Momoa and Jack Black's Minecraft Movie and Disney's Lilo & Stitch. Who came out on top, and are there other movies that deserve an honorable mention?

Ralphie Aversa:

I believe at the very moment of this taping, it's Minecraft one, Lilo & Stitch two. You got to throw Wicked in there. And again, you talk about the fans coming out in droves for Wicked. I think it's number three and it was released so late in the year, so at least domestically, as far as the box office is concerned. Sinners is in the top 10. I believe that right now is sitting at number six. And then also Superman, which had a big release over the summer, and Jurassic World Rebirth.

So just a few of the big blockbusters, again, some original storytelling, others, some IP that we know and that was reimagined or brought forward into 2025.

Dana Taylor:

And then on the flip side, what were some of the most surprising box office flops this year, Ralphie?

Ralphie Aversa:

I guess we got to start with Christy because we are talking awards season. Poor Sydney Sweeney. And I did chat with her here for Entertain This! and for a feature on the film. I screened it as well. I thought her performance was really good. I certainly, I guess you could call it a snub that she did not receive a Golden Globe nomination for her performance, but that was certainly disappointing.

And I'll throw one other one in the same vein, and I don't mean to pick on either of these actresses because I do find them both incredibly talented, but a lot of people thought that Jennifer Lopez was going to have a big award season. And again, I think the box office numbers for Kiss of the Spider Woman really doused any momentum that she had moving into award season.

So those are the two, certainly off the top of my head, that I would talk about as far as movies that didn't quite meet up to box office expectations.

Dana Taylor:

What's on the horizon? What do we have coming up in 2026?

Ralphie Aversa:

Well, we got a lot of sequels. We always have a lot of sequels. Hollywood loves a sequel. Dune One and Dune Two were great, so of course we got Dune Three on the way. We have a new Avengers film on the way. We have a new Spider-Man film on the way that is super highly anticipated. Oh, and then on the animated front, the fifth, can you believe it, Dana? But talk about us getting old. The fifth ... I won't speak for you. I'm getting old. The fifth installment of Toy Story, for crying out loud. Toy Story 5 in 2026.

So a lot of big blockbusters. And look, as we see with this past award season, you get some of the blockbusters in the mix, but you also get some of the independent films, so we'll look out for some of those as well.

But yeah, Hollywood's still trying to figure out a few things. A lot of it from the production standpoint with studios and trying to figure out where they can film and get the most tax breaks. That really hasn't been California as of late. It's been Georgia, it's been New York, and then it's been overseas. Dana, I cannot tell you how many actors and actresses have stopped by our studio in New York and talked about their film that took place, the production, in Budapest. I mean, it's really been something else.

So Hollywood figuring out, certainly from the production standpoint, that, and then on the distribution standpoint, obviously this Netflix deal with Warner Brothers, now Paramount coming in. They put in a hostile bid, of course, during the time of this taping for Warner Brothers and HBO. So the distribution as well, I think, will be another big key in 2026, especially if this deal goes through with Netflix and Warner Brothers because Netflix has already basically come out and said, "Look, we're still going to release films in theaters, but we're going to keep a close eye on what makes sense from a consumer standpoint as far as releasing it in the theater," but then eventually bringing it to their home streaming service.

Dana Taylor:

Ralphie Aversa is an entertainment reporter for USA TODAY. We need to do this more than once a year, Ralphie. It's so good to have you on.

Ralphie Aversa:

Yes, let's. Please, let's. Dana, always a pleasure. Have a great holiday if we don't chat.

Dana Taylor:

Thanks to our senior producer Kaely Monahan for her production assistance. Our executive producer is Laura Beatty. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending a note to podcasts@usatoday.com.

Thanks for listening. I'm Dana Taylor. I'll be back tomorrow morning with another episode of USA TODAY's The Excerpt.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Which blockbuster movies defined 2025's year in film? | The Excerpt

Reporting by Dana Taylor, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect