From a box office perspective, 2025 was the worst-performing non-COVID-19 pandemic year since 2001. There are many reasons for this, but at the top are Hollywood studios making theatrical titles available to stream too soon after their initial release. If people can wait a month or less to watch something at home, most will do so.
As far as the quality of films is concerned, 2025 was very good. I attribute this to the de facto death of comic book adaptations and the filling of that void with smaller-budgeted original pictures. This is reflected in my top 10 favorite movies of the year, where only two titles were released by major studios.
