Whether you’re having a movie night with your family or trying to decide which movie ticket to buy with a group of friends, it is hard to decide what to watch. With a near-unlimited amount of movies and episodes out there, and dozens of different services to watch them on, we’ve all sat on the couch for an hour arguing over this movie or that before finally settling on a 90s sitcom none of you really want to watch.
With nearly 7,000 new releases scheduled for next year, according to IMDb — from live-action remakes to anticipated sequels, intriguing new titles to superhero flicks, new seasons of fan-favorite shows and much more — it promises to be an exciting year for television and film. But the question still remains: What to watch?
IMDb’s top five most popular anticipated releases for next year include “Jurassic World Rebirth,” “Superman,” “Captain America: Brave New World,” “28 Years Later” and “I Know What You Did Last Summer.”
Around campus, the buzz of next year’s movies is basically nonexistent, most students giving a simple “no” when asked if they were looking forward to any new releases next year while others said they had no idea what was coming out
While there has been a lot of talk of releases in the final months of 2024, 2025 releases are not on the tip of local tongues just yet.
“There are not any [movies] I can think of for next year,” student Mackenzie Garcia said. “I am excited for “Moana 2” to come out this month though!”
The most anticipated releases among those excited were “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” “Wicked Part Two,” “Stranger Things” season five and the multiple new Marvel projects out next year, including a new “Captain America” film, “Thunderbolts” and the “Ironheart” series.
Looking back at the past year, there were a few box office hits that if you didn’t catch in theaters, you need to find time to see.
The top movie to hit the box office this year, according to Rotten Tomatoes, was “Inside Out 2.” The trend of sequels and remakes dominated the box office this year with every movie in the top 10 fitting the bill. “Deadpool & Wolverine,” the anticipated third installment of the Deadpool movies, took the top two spots.
The hit “Twisters” was released in July, trailing peak tornado season. The stand-alone sequel, starring Glen Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones, and Anthony Ramos, made $267.7 million and was the seventh most popular movie at the box office this year.
“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” aired in September and started the Halloween season early, The spooky sequel, 36 years in the making, scored the fourth spot on the Rotten Tomatoes Top 10 Movies of the Year list, and making $283.9 million at the box office. This is a far jump down from “Despicable Me 4” and their $361 million box office earnings.
One student claims their top movie of the year was “IF,” a film focusing on a young girl’s adventures with everyone else’s imaginary friends. Starring Ryan Reynolds, Cailey Fleming and John Krasinski, the movie scored a 6.5 on IMDb. While not a top movie of the year, it promises to be an interesting watch.
A theater major, Kaitlyn LaFleur, is crediting the must-watch movie of the year to “Wicked,” which has not been released yet, but the anticipation has theater students on the edge of their seats. The musical movie starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande is an adaptation of the Broadway musical following the Wicked Witch of the West before the tornado landed Dorothy in Oz. “Wicked Part Two” is another anticipated release for next year, releasing in November 2025, nearly a year after the “Wicked” movie which is to be released this Friday, Nov. 22.
Great films weren’t the only things released in 2024, IMDb’s top TV shows show promise as well. With the DC mini series “The Penguin” being the top rated show of the year with an 8.8 on IMDb. An interesting but predictable trend is shown in the top shows of the year, with almost all of them, and the entire top 8, being released on various streaming platforms as opposed to traditional release.
Luca Desear, a first year Guilford student, said their top show of the year was “Arcane” season 2.
“I really loved the second season of Arcane!” Desear said. “The new characters they added were great and they helped further the arcs of existing characters.”
While 2024 was a good year for film and television and 2025 promises some interesting new titles, it is interesting to notice the lowered excitement in recent years for movies and television. While everyone has shows they love and movie series they eagerly await new installments of, it is clear that people just aren’t as interested in filling up theaters for movies anymore.
