2025 brought us an action-packed summer of films to choose from. Busy all summer traveling? Or maybe you just didn’t even hear about what new movies were coming out. Here you can catch up on all the biggest flicks from June to August, a simple run down of their plot, the money they made at the box office, and their ratings on Rotten Tomatoes. 

Children’s Films:

How To Train Your Dragon

In this remake of the beloved 2010 animated film of the same name, we follow a young boy named Hiccup who lives in a village of vikings that kill dragons for endangering their home. After injuring a dragon and going to kill it, Hiccup befriends the beast and tries to teach others how to show empathy to the dragons just trying to survive. 

The film was first previewed on April 2, 2025 at Cinemacon. It was then released on June 13, 2025 to an opening weekend of $84,633,315 domestically. It went on to gross $262,131,885 domestically, $364,305,000 internationally, adding up to $626,436,885 worldwide throughout its theatrical run. The film currently has a 76% critic score and a 97% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Omar Magana (12) weighed in on how the film compares to the original.

“I feel like it’s lacking in some aspects like they didn’t include the twins. It wasn’t the two girls this time it was like…the one guy…they made him obese…they didn’t really hold up to the characters’ looks and all that. I appreciated the two leads [they] did an amazing job on that. Two amazing actors. The supporting leads were okay, they could’ve improved a little bit. But I could tell it was their first time acting in some sense. Other than that, It was a pretty good movie. It held up with the whole action scenes and everything too. It felt very entertaining. I was kind of locked in for most of it,” said Magana.

When asked if he prefers the animated version or the live-action remake he states, “The animated, most likely because it holds up. It’s the, you know, original. The OG.”

In terms of the pomegranate rating scale, “That’s difficult. I would say 3.5 pomegranate seeds…It has some places it can improve but overall, for a first watch, it’s not bad. It may not be as best as the first but it’s good enough,” said Magana.

Elio

In Pixar’s newest film, Elio, a young orphaned boy named Elio is obsessed with space, always hoping to be able to go one day. When all of his wishes come true and he’s abducted by aliens, he finds himself on a space adventure in the middle of a conflict where he needs to navigate himself and space itself.

Elio came to theatres on June 20, 2025 to an underwhelming opening weekend of $20,840,667 domestically. This film is now considered the lowest opening weekend for a Pixar film. As of August 24, 2025, it has grossed $72,937,166 domestically, $79,264,728 internationally, and $152,201,894 worldwide. Although the film has been having a low box office run, Rotten Tomatoes has the critic score at 83% and an audience score of 90%.

Smurfs

In the most recent installment of the Smurfs franchise, we follow the Smurfs in their Smurf village going about their life until the evil Gargamel and his brother Razamel kidnap Papa Smurf. The smurfs now need to go on an adventure into the real world to find Papa Smurf.

Smurfs released in theatres on July 18, 2025 to an opening weekend box office of $11,075,090 domestically. As of August 26, 2025 the film has grossed $31,054,059 domestically, $79,129,517 internationally, and $110,183,576 worldwide. It currently holds a 21% critic score and a 64% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

The Bad Guys 2

The Bad Guys 2 follows the squad, Mr. Wolf, Mr. Snake, Mr. Shark, and Mr. Piranha trying to keep themselves on the straight and narrow and be “good guys” for once until a group of “bad girls” confronts them to fall back into their evil doings.

The Bad Guys 2 released on August 1, 2025 to a $21,995,715 domestic box office opening weekend. As of August 24, 2025 the film has grossed $67,407,690 domestically, $88,047,503 internationally, and $155,455,193 worldwide. The film currently has an 88% critic score with a 95% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Action Films:

F1: The Movie

Joseph Kosinski’s F1: The Movie follows Sonny Hayes, a washed up Formula 1 racer, still doing smaller races to scratch the itch. When his old friend, Ruben Cervantes is running a dying F1 team, he needs Sonny to join them. Through butting heads with new blood, Joshua Pearce, Sonny and Joshua need to learn how to work together to help the team reign supreme.

F1: The Movie was released in theaters on June 27, 2025, occupying the IMAX screens as well as standard formats. The film had an opening weekend of $57,001,667 domestically. The film was re-released to IMAX theaters on August 8, 2025 and as of August 22, 2025, it has grossed $183,857,445 domestically, $411,500,000 internationally, and $595,357,445 worldwide. It currently has a 82% critic score and a 97% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Jake Blaschak (11) shared his thoughts on the accuracy of Formula 1 racing in the film and where it lands on the pomegranate rating system.

“It didn’t really inform me a lot because I knew a lot already, but it was very accurate to the racing itself. I enjoyed that part of it. It taught a lot about tires and aerodynamics and how the cars work. That’s pretty much what I would learn from it,” he states. “I would give it a four and a half because it was completely accurate. They had a lot of the real life drivers in there as well. I would say it was just really well executed,” said Blaschak.

M3GAN 2.0

In this sequel to the beloved horror-comedy, M3GAN, M3GAN 2.0 pulls a complete 180, turning into an action comedy. We follow M3GAN’s creator, Gemma and her niece Cady as they try to move on from the events of the first film. It isn’t until they find out another AI has gone loose by the name of AMELIA that they realize they need to plug M3GAN back in.

M3GAN 2.0 released on June 27, 2025 to an opening weekend of only $10,201,625 domestically. It grossed $24,101,280 domestically, $14,981,243 internationally, and a total of $39,082,523 worldwide. Along with not performing very well at the box office, Rotten Tomatoes has the critic score at 59% but an 82% audience score.

Jurassic World: Rebirth

After two trilogies, the Jurassic franchise is giving it another go with Jurassic World: Rebirth. In the 7th installment, Jurassic World Rebirth finds ex-military operative, Zora Bennet being approached by Martin Krebb who works for a pharmaceutical company that wants to create a treatment for heart disease. They can’t create this cure without the DNA of the three biggest dinosaurs that happen to all be on one abandoned island. So, Zora recruits her old partner, Duncan Kincaid and his crew along with paleontologist, Henry Loomis to journey on this adventure.

The film released on July 2, 2025 to an opening weekend of $92,016,065, domestically. As of August 25, 2025, it has grossed $333,479,810 domestically, $508,561,000 internationally, and $844,140,810 worldwide. Critics were not as nice to the film with it holding a 51% critic score as opposed to the general audience giving it a 71% audience score.

Superman

DC Studios’ Superman is the official kick-off to the new DC Cinematic Universe co-led by James Gunn and Peter Safran. In this film we follow Superman caught in an international conflict between two countries while Lex Luthor does everything in his power to destroy Superman’s public image. Superman must persevere, lifting everyone else up with him.

Superman released on July 11, 2025 and had a very successful opening weekend of $125,021,735 domestically. As of August 26, 2025 the film has grossed $347,817,782 domestically, $258,282,000 internationally, and $606,099,782 worldwide. It currently has a critic score of 83% and an audience score of 90%. 

Eli Buban (9) spoke on the future of the DC Cinematic Universe. When asked if he is excited about the future of the universe he states, “I am because the DCEU wasn’t very good so I’m excited.” He goes on to say, “[I’m looking forward to] them introducing characters that are less known.”

In terms of the pomegranate seeds rating system, Eli said, “I would give it a 4.”

The Fantastic Four: First Steps

Marvel Studios’ The Fantastic Four: First Steps follows Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm who are known to the world as The Fantastic Four. When they find out Sue is pregnant, an ominous figure known as The Silver Surfer approaches them and marks their planet for death. Now, The Fantastic Four will do everything in their power to save their planet.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps was released on July 25, 2025 to a pretty successful opening weekend box office of $117,644,828 domestically. While the film opened big, it unfortunately did not have very strong legs with its second weekend seeing an 80% drop in the box office. As of August 26, 2025 the film has grossed $258,739,851 domestically, $233,164,435 internationally, and $491,904,286 worldwide. Rotten Tomatoes has The Fantastic Four: First Steps at a 87% critic score and a 91% audience score.

Horror Films:

28 Years Later

28 Years Later is the third installment of the popular post-apocalyptic zombie series. The film follows a group of survivors living on an island, 28 years after the zombie outbreak. A man that lives on the island, Jamie and his son Spike must go on an adventure outside of their island into the dangerous, zombie ridden world.

28 Years Later released on June 20, 2025 to an opening weekend box office of $30,002,966 domestically. It went on to gross $70,446,897 domestically, $80,000,000 internationally, and $150,446,897 worldwide. The Rotten Tomatoes critic score is fairly high at 88% but the audience score is very divisive at 64%.

I Know What You Did Last Summer

In this legacy sequel to the iconic 1997 film of the same name, we follow a new group of teenagers as they are haunted by a traumatic event from their past. Through these reminders of this past event, they must find the veterans of the franchise to help them.

I Know What You Did Last Summer released on July 18, 2025 to an opening weekend box office of $12,755,359. As of August 28, 2025 it has grossed $32,143,924 domestically, $31,937,397 internationally, and $64,081,321 worldwide. Unfortunately, Rotten Tomatoes has the critic score at 37% and an audience score of 68%.

Together

In Together we follow a couple, Tim and Millie while they’re on vacation and are staying in a cabin in the woods. When they come across a supernatural force in the woods that binds their physical bodies together, they must figure out how to deal with being constantly connected.

Together came out on July 30, 2025 to an opening weekend box office of $6,763,357 domestically. As of August 24, 2025 it has grossed $20,715,561 domestically, $7,000,000 internationally, and $27,715,561 worldwide. Together currently holds a 90% critic score and a 76% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Weapons

Zach Cregger’s Weapons tells the story of a town’s hysteria after every child from a single kindergarten class went missing the night before at 2:17 AM. We follow the kindergarten teacher Justine, a police officer Paul, a parent of one of the kids Archer, a local homeless man James, the school principal Marcus, and the only student that didn’t go missing Alex as they all play their part in figuring out what happened.

Weapons was released on August 8, 2025 and has gone on to make an impressive amount of money for it being an original movie, let alone a horror movie. The film made $43,501,217 domestically in its opening weekend. As of August 26, 2025 it has grossed $119,404,498 domestically, $88,000,000 internationally, and $207,404,498 worldwide. Along with the financial success, it currently holds a 94% critic score and a 85% audience score through Rotten Tomatoes.

Audrey Hovda and Danika Day (11) expressed their feelings on what they thought Weapons was trying to say. 

Hovda stated, “The children are creepy. The boy was creepy. Children are creepy.”

Day said, “No, I know the narrative.  I think it’s trying to say that the authorities always try to cover stuff up.”

They both talk about how they felt of the switching of perspective throughout the film.

Day said, “I liked it…it’s different,” and Hovda added, “I thought that was really cool. It was good.”

Hovda and Day said what they would rate it on the pomegranate scale.

“5 seeds,” said Hovda with Day adding “4.5.”

Danika said, “I thought it was very different and I liked the use of witchcraft.”

Hovda said, “Actually my favorite part was when…I forgot her name. The main character, the blonde…She was in the car sleeping and they cut her hair. Yeah the old lady came out with a knife. I thought that was the creepiest part.”