What's on the big screen in 2025

With a new year upon us it’s time to see what cinemas are promising moviegoers in the year ahead. Tymon Smith looks at some of this year’s most promising releases.

MARCH 07: The Great Lillian Hall

Jessica Lange returns to take centre stage in this drama about a Broadway actress suffering from a late-phase crisis of confidence that’s affecting her ability to do what she loves most.

MARCH 07: Sinners

The Black Panther director reunites with star Michael B. Jordan for this horror thriller in which a pair of twin brothers return to their hometown in an effort to leave their troubled city lives behind them, only to find that there’s something very powerful and evil waiting for them there.

MARCH 14: Black Bag

Stephen Soderbergh directs Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett in this thriller about a married pair of intelligence agents whose loyalty to their country and each other is tested to the limits when one of them is accused of betraying their country.

APRIL 11: The Amateur

The world of espionage and secret political deals is the main fodder for this action thriller starring Rami Malek as a CIA cryptographer, who blackmails his employers into training him so that he can pursue a deadly terrorist responsible for killing his wife.

APRIL 11: Kind of Madness

South African director Christiaan Olwagen (Poppie Ngema, Kanarie) directs a cast that includes Sandra Prinsloo, Ian Roberts, Ashley de Lange and Luke Volker. It's a drama about a 70-year-old man who abducts his dementia-suffering wife from an old age home and goes on the run from the police and his family.

APRIL 18: Mickey 17

Parasite director Bong Joon Ho’s much-delayed sci-fi adventure comedy finally arrives on screens. Starring Robert Pattinson, Toni Colette and Steven Yeun, it’s the story of Mickey 17, an “expendable” who makes a treacherous journey to colonise an ice planet.

02 MAY: Thunderbolts

After a mostly quiet and unsuccessful 2024, Marvel Studios makes its big bet for 2025 box office dominance with this adventure about a group of super villains recruited to take on deadly missions for the government. Directed by Jake Schreier, the film features a star-studded cast that includes Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Rachel Weisz and David Harbour.

MAY 09: A Big Bold Beautiful Journey

Colin Farrell, Margot Robbie and Phoebe Waller-Bridge star in South Korean director Kogonada’s fantasy drama about two strangers and the strange journey that connects them.

MAY 23: Mission Impossible 6 (Fallout)

The eighth instalment of the blockbusting, bombastic action spy franchise reunites star Tom Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie for another globe-trotting high-stakes race against the clock.

MAY 30: The Life of Chuck

Horror master Mike Flanagan (The Haunting of Hill House) directs Karen Gillan and Harvey Guillén in another of this year’s Stephen King adaptations. This time the story is a lighter, more life-affirming fantasy tale that offers scenes from the life of an ordinary man with a very ordinary name.

JUNE 06: Ballerina

The John Wick universe continues its expansion with this boldly choreographed action thriller starring Keanu Reeves and Ana de Armas as an assassin trained in the ways of the Ruska Roma organisation — and intent on avenging the death of her father.

JUNE 13: Elio

Disney Pixar’s offering for the year features the voice talents of Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana and Brad Garrett in its telling of the story of Elio, a space-obsessed boy with a very active imagination who forms a life-changing friendship with alien life forms.

JUNE 20: 28 Years Later

Danny Boyle re-teams with writer Alex Garland as they return to the disease-ridden zombie universe of their 2002 horror hit 28 Days Later. Cillian Murphy returns to join a cast that includes Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ralph Fiennes for a story about a group of rage virus survivors living on a small island, whose lives are upended when one of them makes a mission to the mainland and discovers the secrets and horrors that have forever changed other survivors.

JUNE 27: F1

Brad Pitt’s much-anticipated Formula One drama features the veteran actor playing a retired driver who comes out of retirement to mentor a younger driver.

JULY 11: Superman: Legacy

James Gunn boldly hopes to save the struggling DC movie universe with this reboot of the origin story of the superhero who started it all, starring David Corenswet as The Man of Steel, Nicholas Hoult as arch-nemesis Lex Luthor and Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane.

AUGUST 01: The Naked Gun 2025

The beloved Leslie Nielsen-starring spoof franchise from the late 80s and early 90s gets a rehash in which Liam Neeson exercises his slapstick chops in the company of Pamela Anderson.

AUGUST 08: Untitled Paul Thomas Anderson Event Film

After tackling the seemingly impossible task of bringing the work of American literary giant Thomas Pynchon to screen in 2014’s Inherent Vice, visionary director Paul Thomas Anderson returns with a bigger and bolder film, “loosely inspired” by the author’s epic Reagan-era satire Vineland, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Benicio del Toro, Sean Penn and Regina Hall.

AUGUST 15: Nobody 2

Bob Odenkirk returns as reluctant vigilante Hutch Mansell in this sequel to the 2021 film, in which Odenkirk’s now retired lethal assassin is pulled back into the world of his violent past.

SEPTEMBER 26: The Bride

Maggie Gyllenhaal directs Jessie Buckley, brother Jake and Christian Bale in this reimagining of the classic horror drama Bride of Frankenstein, in which the monster Frankenstein asks Dr Euphronius to make him a bride — only to unleash all sorts of hell on 1930s Chicago.

OCTOBER 03: Michael

Antoine Fuqua directs Jaafar Jackson, a nephew of Michael Jackson, in this biopic about the life and meteoric rise to fame of the King of Pop that also stars Colman Domingo, Miles Teller, Nia Long and Derek Luke.

OCTOBER 17: Good Fortune

Keanu Reeves, Stephen McKinley Henderson and Seth Rogen star in this body swap comedy written and directed by Aziz Ansari. When a struggling man has his life swapped with that of his wealthy friend, he inherits his friend’s one-percenter lifestyle, while the friend discovers the realities of life at the bottom of the pile.

NOVEMBER 07: Bugonia

Prolific Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos re-teams with stars Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons for this remake of the 2003 Korean cult classic Save the Green Planet, in which two conspiracy madmen kidnap the CEO of a major company, after they become convinced that she’s actually an alien intent on destroying the planet.

NOVEMBER 21: The Running Man

Edgar Wright directs Glen Powell and Josh Brolin in this update of the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger-starring sci-fi classic, in which a falsely convicted policeman in a dystopian future America is given a chance at freedom by participating in a TV game show where convicts must battle killers to win their freedom.

NOVEMBER 28: Zootopia 2

The citizens of everyone’s favourite animal city make their long-awaited return after nine years in this animated adventure that sees brave rabbit police officer Judy Hopps and her foxy friend Nick Wilde cracking a new, twisty and dangerous case that threatens the stability of Zootopia.

2025: Avatar: Fire and Ash

Director James Cameron’s next instalment in his hit franchise will not to see release this year, but for now fans can prepare themselves for a third instalment in the visually-impressive adventures of the Na’vi and their battles to survive on the moon of Pandora.

*Release dates are provided by distributors and may be subject to change.