Perhaps 12 days into 2025 is too late to release a most anticipated of the new year list, but I had no intentions of seeing Den of Thieves 2: Pantera anyway (sorry bros), so nothing so far being released in January as this posts eclipsed the window of time I allowed myself. That’s nothing against Den of Thieves 2, truly, I’ve heard it’s decent, I just… don’t really care.

Anyway, here are some movies I wanna see, but not as much as the ten I’ve chosen:

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, The Bride, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, Bugonia, The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, Downton Abbey 3, Eddington, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Final Destination: Blood Lines, Freaky Tales, Jurassic World: Rebirth, The Life of Chuck, Marty Supreme, Materialists, M3GAN 2.0, Michael, Mickey 17, Opus, The Monkey, Paddington in Peru, Predator: Badlands, Sinners, Wicked: For Good, Wolf Man, Zootopia 2

I would also like to preface, some of these might get pushed to next year, some might just outright suck and we don’t know it yet. Many films we don’t even know exist yet (Cannes/SXSW/TIFF surprises abound). That’s the joy of blind faith. Two films from this year I’ve already seen are Magazine Dreams (Yeah, that one. The one with that guy. It’s pretty decent!) and Love Me (Ohhhh boy. Don’t bother).

10. The Wedding Banquet (Andrew Ahn)

Including this on the list despite sadly never having seen the original 1993 film (that will be rectified) because I love Andrew Ahn, I love his last collaboration with Bowen Yang in Fire Island, I love Lily Gladstone, I love Joan Chen, I love Kelly Marie Tran, and I love Yuh-jung Youn. I also believe based off the strength of everyone involved that this may be the romantic comedy of the year. I certainly expect it to be one of the biggest hits of this upcoming Sundance.

9. The Running Man (Edgar Wright)

A Running Man remake is maybe not necessary in a post Hunger Games/Squid Game world, but I still remember catching the Paul Michael Glaser film from 1987 playing on Encore in the summer time. In the midst of my middle-school Schwarzenegger phase having just devoured the Terminator films also on cable, I found myself pretty drawn to the premise as well as the aesthetic, which I can only imagine Edgar Wright is going to amplify by a million. Even his most divisive film, Last Night in Soho, couldn’t help but be praised for its beautiful retro throwback filmmaking and applied to this material, with new movie star Glen Powell front and center, we could be in for a radical good time at the movies.

8. Frankenstein (Guillermo del Toro)

If Eggers’ Nosferatu is anything to go by recently, it’s incredibly exciting to see these auteurs finally tackle the films they were born to make. Del Toro’s vision of Pinocchio, another years-long passion project of his, turned out fabulously and while I worry about how Netflix plans to handle the release of this, there is no doubt in my mind Del Toro isn’t going to give everything of himself to this.

7. Superman (James Gunn)

I just want a good Superman movie, one that makes me feel all the good feelings that the original Donner film gave, all the good feelings the comics give, all the good feelings you get just watching Christopher Reeve’s interpretation transform onscreen from Clark Kent to Superman. You know, that movie magic. James Gunn has promised that that is his intention with his revitalization of the DC cinematic universe. While I still wish a director of more grand scale filmmaking were tackling this (Brad Bird, come back!), the trailer was very good. David Corenswet seems to be pulling off a mix of Reeve meets 90s Brendan Fraser that is perfect for the character. Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane is about as spot-on as you can get. Don’t f*ck this up, Gunn.

6. Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (Rian Johnson)

2019’s Knives Out was a tremendous good time, and a new autumnal classic. 2022’s Glass Onion was a slight step down, but still a riotous and thrilling exercise that promised these Knives Out Mysteries would feel different and fresh each time. Also, they work as a great excuse to gather the largest A-list ensemble possible to spew vicious dialogue and combat with Daniel Craig’s iconic and fashionable Benoit Blanc. This time we get Josh Brolin, Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Cailey Spaeny, Andrew Scott, Jeremy Renner, Thomas Haden Church, Mila Kunis, Kerry Washington, maybe a few more surprises? JUST FEED ME, RIAN JOHNSON.

5. 28 Years Later (Danny Boyle)

Trailer of the year. One of the best cut trailer IN years, period. This reboot-sequel, long overdue, bringing back Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland to the franchise, and with a cast featuring Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and a JACKED Ralph Fiennes? Hopefully the beginning of an incredible trilogy. Bonus points for shooting on an iPhone. Bonus points for Teletubbies covered in blood. Bonus points for “I’ve heard the script is incredible”. Bonus points for allowing Sony the excuse to put the original movie back on streaming after YEARS of inaccessibility.

4. After the Hunt (Luca Guadagnino)

Listen, Luca’s last two movies BOTH ended up on my Top 10 Best of the Year list. With a script by Nora Garrett (that is said to be incredible), a cast that includes Andrew Garfield, Ayo Edebiri, Michael Stuhlbarg, Chloe Sevigny, and headlined by Julia Roberts in what Guadagino has said is her “best performance to date”, we might be in for the year’s most hot-button, intense dramatic feature. One I expect is going to be a massive Oscar ticket for a Guadagnino, Garfield, Edebiri, and, of course, Roberts.

3. Avatar: Fire and Ash (James Cameron)

Seeing The Way of Water, and determining that not only was it a stronger film than the original, but also the most breathtaking viewing experience I’ve had in a theatre, it’s a no-brainer to be excited for James Cameron’s third trip to Pandora (or beyond!) Plot details are minimal, (APPARENTLY THERE’S A FIRE PLANET) but with the film shot back to back with the second film, this one has been baking in the post-production oven for a few years. Promising whatever the second film achieved, the third will once again attempt to deliver beyond that.

2. The Battle of Batkan Cross/Untitled PTA Project (Paul Thomas Anderson)

Who knows what this film will eventually be titled, but at the moment, this is the title we can assume. Said to be loosely based off of Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland, it marks PTA’s first collaboration with DiCaprio and has assembled a cast featuring Regina Hall, Sean Penn, Alana Heim, Teyana Taylor, and Benicio del Toro. I have no idea what the plot entails outside of DiCaprio being an ex-hippie committing crimes and maybe ties to Margorie Taylor Green? It could be a film about a monkey with its finger up its ass, and as long as Paul Thomas Anderson is involved, I am first in line to see it. That man, to me, makes nothing but gold-tier cinema and this time, he’s working with an enormous $140 million budget. Here’s praying the DiCaprio factor can keep this thing even a little bit profitable, but whatever we get, I’m confident it will be a wild, wild, wild time at the movies.

1. Mission: Impossible- The Final Reckoning (Christopher McQuarrie)

IT’S THE FINAL RECKONING. Long delayed due to the strikes, just as the 7th film was delayed due to the pandemic, these last two entries in the M:I franchise have gotten such a tough break. Ballooned astronomical budgets, a prior box office underperformance due to Barbenheimer, and an aging star who would risk his life on camera just to deliver a great spectacle and who is also clearly ready to move on to a new career transition, this series has inevitably reached its end. But despite those troubling complications, the films have delivered enormously quality-wise, with Dead Reckoning (“Part 1”) a fantastic aesthetic collage of the previous installments in a massive globe-trotting, death-defying, and heart-pounding spy extravaganza. Tom Cruise loves the movies. We love the movies. We love Tom Cruise (as a movie star!). I’m fully expecting this to be the blockbuster of the year. One to have us on the edge of our seat, answer questions previously unsolved (THE RABBIT’S FOOT), and potentially be a tear-jerking goodbye to… probably Ethan Hunt (the shot in the trailer where it’s clear Ethan and Benji are having a tender final moment… OH BOY!) Given the last film’s performance, I don’t expect this will do the numbers it should, but I do anticipate this will be as good a final entry as we could wish for. Best wishes and prayers for a Mission: Accomplished.

Sound off in the comments if there’s any more I failed to include due to my incompetent quick skimming of the internet. 2025 is definitely set to be an enormous year at the box office, bigger than any year since 2019, but I’m mostly here to see what my favorite filmmakers are doing next. Any surprises are welcome.