The era of superhero movie dominance is officially over, and the 2025 box office receipts prove it. This year brought a renewed uptick in superhero movie releases, with Marvel and DC both rolling the dice on some pivotal new projects. And yet, even with Marvel Studios releasing three new films (Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts*, Fantastic Four: First Steps) and DC Studios launching its franchise on the back of James Gunn’s Supermanit’s become clear over the course of the year that these films haven’t performed as well, or been as profitable as other genres of film offering blockbuster experiences.
So, where does the hype for new blockbuster films now rest? Based on the trends of 2025, it seems like anime and horror are both angling for the throne.
Anime Is Having A Milestone Year At The Box Office
As of writing this, the theatrical film (and IMAX) release of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle is proving to be on a milestone run. The film has earned over $600 million at the worldwide box office since its release in July, following its rollout across Japan and international markets. Infinity Castle‘s US and UK openings in mid-September added a box office bump no one could’ve imagined, earning a $70 million opening in the US alone.
Even though DC’s Superman had a bigger opening weekend ($125 million) domestically, you have to factor in that Infinity Castle is 2 hours and 35 minutes long and is an R-rated animated movie. The fact that it has earned more worldwide than every DC and Marvel movie released this same year is significant, to say the least. It could be a sign that the tides of blockbuster fandom are beginning to shift away from superheroes and toward other interests. And the box office receipts for the coveted youth demographics are painting an even more startling picture.
Anime & Video Game Movies Are the New Family-Friendly Hits
Disney’s game plan in the 2010s and the logic driving it were easy to discern: expand the company’s longtime dominance of girls’ childhoods (via all those Disney Princess dreams) into a full family-friendly brand, where boys and girls (and even parents) all felt equally enticed by Disney IP. Rake in the subsequent waterfalls of profit. Marvel, Star Wars, and Pixar were all fronts Disney bet on as the future of IP, with shared universes across TV and films, as well as animated features guaranteed to be box office hits. In 2025, however, it’s looking like Disney may have placed too many of its chips in the wrong places. While anime certainly dominated superheroes at the summer box office (thanks to Demon Slayer), that overwhelmingly male crowd of viewers between high school and adult ages wasn’t the only major win for the genre.
Netflix has been investing in anime content for years now; when Sony Pictures Animation waffled on releasing its anime-themed musical action flick, KPop: Demon Hunters, in theaters, Netflix scooped it up. The result was one of the biggest breakout hit phenomena of summer 2025, with the film topping streaming charts for weeks. KPop went beyond its streaming success, dropping a record-setting soundtrack that ruled the Billboard charts for weeks.
More than that, though, Demon Hunters did something no Marvel or DC project has ever done: it went from being a streaming hit to a box office hit. KPop won the box office during its one-weekend run, earning $19 million. That amount, while not monumental, represents a significant milestone: families paying theatrical prices for a new movie they were already watching at home (ad nauseam). Demon Slayer had moviegoers sitting for nearly three hours (at IMAX prices in some cases) for only one-third of a story, with an expected high retention rate for the next two installments. All in, the Infinity Castle trilogy looks like it could pull in over a billion at the box office, when all is said and done.
Video game movies have also come to stake claim to their share of the market; hot on the heels of Nintendo Studios launching with the $1.3 billion-dollar success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie in 2023, Universal Pictures nearly touched a billion ($957.8 million) with the live-action Minecraft Movie this year. Sony has already taken in over a billion dollars (collectively) with its Sonic the Hedgehog movie trilogy, with a fourth installment set for 2027. Before 2025 ends, Warner Bros. will try to break the box office with its video game movie sequel, Mortal Kombat IIwhile Universal will try to get one last bag of cash with its own highly anticipated video game sequel, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2.
That’s not even counting all the upcoming blockbuster video game films studios are betting on: Nintendo has both a Legend of Zelda movie in the works, and the Super Mario sequel film Super Mario Galaxy; Paramount’s Street Fighter movie reboot (set for 2026 release) has been one of the most successful hype campaigns of the year, with its stacked cast and clearly unserious approach to the game. Even smaller studios (Cineverse/Bloody Disgusting) are betting on video game movies being the next frontier, with projects like Return to Silent Hill feeling more in spirit with indie horror works than anything. Hollywood has seen where the box office dollars are flowing now and is digging new pools to collect them. And after 2025, it seems pretty undeniable that youth culture may be looking at gaming and anime as their new favorite genres – the question is, have Marvel and DC’s movie franchises also bridged the generational gap?
Superheroes Can Still Reclaim The Box Office (And Soon)
The question of whether superheroes can still appeal to youth demos got a strong, resounding answer with the success of James Gunn’s Superman. Even if the Man of Steel couldn’t best the Demon Slayers at the box office, Superman managed to pull the hero out of over 20 years of being largely marketed to an adult demo (thanks in no small part to Zack Snyder’s DCEU films). The merchandising success of Superman is noteworthy – as is the branding success of the film launching an entirely new DCU franchise for DC Studios, which will (hopefully) once again add a competitive alternative to Marvel Studios.
DC Studios is also going with the bold approach of widening its content variety to include adult-themed content (Peacemaker, The Batman II, Clayface, Lanterns) as well as family-friendly blockbuster content (Superman), ostensibly spreading chips across the same lanes anime is gaining ground in. Getting a viable DC movie franchise off the ground could bring back old fans, while also attracting new ones. Meanwhile, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is currently poised to also achieve that former goal, as well.
From 2026 – 2027, the MCU will attempt to get its groove back with Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Warstwo major event films that will attempt to rectify the last five to seven years of franchise missteps with the “Multiverse Saga,” and clear the deck for a soft-reboot of the entire MCU concept, come Phase Seven. Doomsday and Secret Wars are already guaranteed to be major event films (read: box office wins), but they will likely appeal more to fans who have already been invested in the MCU for years. Unless the Russo Bros. include a youth-focused subplot in the films (and rumors suggest they could), then it will be entirely on the next phase of Marvel Studios projects to blow the doors open again and attract a new generation of younger fans.
If Marvel and DC both re-vitalize their brands across all demographics in the next few years, then superheroes have a chance to hold their ground. But then, even in the best-case scenarios, the market share will be smaller than it once was. But if you ever thought any particular trend in genre would rule cinema forever, you were wrong. Superhero movies won’t ever die off entirely, but the guarantees of making top dollar are long gone, and the fight for every dollar is only getting harder.
Do you think superhero movies are due for a major comeback? Or will anime and gaming movies take over the box office? Let us know your thoughts in the comments, or over on our ComicBook Forum!
