A few weeks back, we might have gotten a bit carried away celebrating AMC’s strong Q1 and Q2 and declaring theaters officially back. Turns out, maybe that was premature. For every F1 or Weapons triumph, there’s been a string of mega disasters this summer—10 films that flat-out bombed, and plenty more that barely limped across the finish line. Marvel? Three releases in the last eight months, and none of them hit expectations. Pedro Pascal burn-out? Real. And somehow, a creepy horror flick that changed casts multiple times—Weapons—managed $230 million globally in a month and is still climbing. Go figure.
The one that’s genuinely worth celebrating this Summer of 2025 at the movies? The 50th anniversary of Jaws. IMAX? Absolutely. Finally, a film that reminds us why theaters exist.
Before we dive into the dogs of 2025—some with $100M+ production budgets—there were a few surprises. Take the aforementioned Weapons (I’ve seen it twice), and I still can’t decide if it’s genuinely stupid or secretly good. Darren Aronofsky’s Caught Stealing stars Austin Butler, Zoë Kravitz, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Liev Schreiber, who are absolutely hilarious as two psychotic Hasidic gangsters from Brooklyn with a deep love for their Bubie and an unhealthy fondness for silencers. Regina King delivers a dark turn in the film that feels more Wrestler with guns than anything resembling a comedy.
Then there’s F1 with Brad Pitt—riveting from start to finish. How does a 61-year-old Pitt look this good? Its audio and Oscar-worthy cinematography are going to make it a 4K reference disc for years. The Naked Gun is genuinely funny—Pamela Anderson (still robbed of an Oscar earlier this year, by the way) and Liam Neeson are a riot together, though it hasn’t exactly crushed the box office. And Superman? The film that kickstarted the revamped D.C. Universe, already sitting at $610M globally.
From Misfires to Mega-Disasters: The 10 Films That Couldn’t Swim in 2025
Even with A-list talent plastered across the posters, these 10 films couldn’t buy an audience this summer. Eden, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Eddington, Honey Don’t, Witchboard, The Phoenician Scheme, Elio, Ballerina, M3GAN 2.0, The Life of Chuck, and Splitsville all stumbled hard—some were just disappointments, others were full-on cinematic dumpster fires (and yes, I saw them all). The kicker? Jaws: 50th Anniversary in IMAX—three days of showings—has already outgrossed a few of them after two months in theaters. That’s not a good look when a half-century-old shark movie is still eating your lunch.
Let’s talk about Eden, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Honey Don’t, The Phoenician Scheme, and Splitsville—movies that were supposed to mint money but instead torched studio cash faster than a Marvel reshoot.
Eden cost roughly $55 million (a sneaky $35 million net thanks to Australia’s tax giveaways) and has crawled to just $1.5 million domestically—a pathetic $2.24 million worldwide. Ron Howard hasn’t had a flop this bad in decades. Not even a cast stacked with Jude Law, Ana de Armas, Vanessa Kirby, Daniel Brühl, and Sydney Sweeney could save it. She might have great jeans—and yes, she’s the best part of this so-called “Lord of the Flies with grunting and canned food” in the Galápagos—but this was no American Eagle campaign. And the studio knew it. How afraid were they to show this thing? I saw it as part of my AMC $7 “mystery movie Monday” perk. Enough said.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps was supposed to relaunch Marvel’s next phase, but instead it landed with a thud. Sure, it’s pulled in $506 million globally ($256 million domestic) on a $250 million budget, but that’s not exactly encouraging when this was meant to kick off the future of the MCU. Pedro Pascal’s overexposure is showing, the story was flat and uninspired, and it never felt like the big, bold origin film it was marketed as. Even die-hards noticed the second-weekend nose dive.
Not even the promise of “Eddie” from Stranger Things (definitely not a Master of Box Office—Metallica pun intended) or Vanessa Kirby (fresh off Eden—maybe failure is contagious?) could get people to care. The timing doesn’t help either: Thunderbolts and the latest Captain America already lowered the bar. And all of this is meant to funnel into The Avengers: Doomsday in 2026, which feels less like a fresh idea and more like Endgame—except with every MCU actor ever crammed in from the opening scene instead of the finale.
Honey Don’t! is a disaster that clearly proves Ethan Coen needs his brother back to hit anything resembling magic. Released in 1,332 theaters, this is part two of a lesbian B-movie trilogy—if you even knew that (Drive Away Dolls was the first installment). The climax? Flat as a pancake. Aubrey Plaza and Margaret Qualley get each other off multiple times onscreen, and the mostly empty theater responded…with laughter. Flat writing, boring, zero continuity. Chris Evans as the bad guy, Reverend Drew Devlin, was almost painful to watch—no pun intended. A terrible film that would have fared better on OnlyFans. With a $20 million budget and box office barely over $5 million, it’ll need a hit in France or Thailand just to avoid a $5 million loss.
Aubrey Plaza and Margaret Qualley deserved a better script—less beneath the counter fingering at the bar, more chaos and bodies outside Bakersfield—but instead we got a sleepy, overpriced indie that’s basically begging for the woodchipper.
The Phoenician Scheme was made for $30 million and has limped to just $39 million at the box office—Wes Anderson’s worst-performing film in over a decade. Sure, it has his usual stylistic charm: the world feels like a dollhouse you’re allowed to play in, but the pacing and amateurish editing kill any enjoyment. When Benicio Del Toro is even unwatchable, you know the wheels have fallen off.
Anderson doesn’t even try to care anymore—he just wants us all to join him as his billionaire pal bankrolls his “passion” projects. Who else had “passion” projects? Kurosawa. When he was feeling edgy, he gave us The Bad Sleep Well, Rashomon, and Ran. Anderson gives us…well, this. Maybe next time he can hire Margaret Qualley and Aubrey Plaza to make out while Jason Schwartzman eats a sandwich at the Royal Budapest—might even be worth $7 at AMC.
Splitsville opened to $386,965 globally—not bad for nine days in just five theaters. But with a $15 million budget, it’s already in the danger zone unless word of mouth somehow turns this actually decent, dark romantic comedy into a cult hit. When it expanded on the 29th to 28 theaters, it made just under $80K, and every day since has been a steady nose dive. Not even Dakota Johnson can save this one—which is a shame, because it thankfully doesn’t feature Seth Rogen naked, pretending anyone could find him attractive. I gave it an extra star just for having the brains not to cast him.
Jaws 50th Anniversary in IMAX: The Shark Still Bites
Now let’s talk about Jaws. I was five when I first saw it—nobody called CPS on my parents—and it scared me so badly that I spent the next summer braiding my sister’s Barbie’s hair instead of letting my dad toss me into the Cape Cod surf off Hyannis. I eventually conquered the fear, earned my PADI certification in the Florida Keys, and learned 75 feet below the rough Gulf of Mexico (sorry, President Trump) that sharks still weren’t my thing.
The IMAX showing was fascinating. Sold out. Kids seeing it with parents and grandparents for the first time. And it really benefits from the big screen—though I’ll admit the opening scenes looked a bit grainy, with weak black levels. Once the film hit bright sun, Amity Beach, and Chief Brody, Hooper, and Quint hunting the Great White on the ORCA? Totally different story. John Williams’ iconic score has never sounded more present, with low-end authority that could punch a hole through the theater wall. Worth every cent.
Box office? Projected to hit $10 million by Labor Day Monday, ranking #2 for all four days. And just wait—Back to the Future, The Sound of Music, and the original Spider-Man trilogy are all headed for IMAX re-releases in September. The big screen is officially the new “you’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
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