| | | | | | What's news: Ahoy hoy! We are fast approaching the end of 2025, and it's a bumper edition of the newsletter today, a sort of "THR Wrapped," if you will. Join us as we look back on a year of terrifying lows, dizzying highs, and creamy middles. — Abid Rahman
Do you have THR's next big story? Confidentially share tips with us at tips@thr.com. |
THR's 25 Best Stories of 2025 ►Editor’s picks. Even by Hollywood standards, this was a year bookended by tragedy, from the devastating L.A. wildfires to the brutal murder of Rob and Michelle Reiner. In between, moguls battled over their studio kingdoms while late night hosts fought D.C. to keep their jobs (and freedom of speech), even as powerful tech platforms continued to gobble up entertainment and AI began to show off its true disruptive potential. THR was there to document it all. Here are some of our most compelling reads of the year. The stories.
—Hollywood moments that mattered most. Netflix and Paramount duking it out for Warner Bros., DC topping Marvel, Tilly (Bloody!) Norwood, Sydney Sweeney's jeans, the end of Colbert and the suspension of Kimmel, job losses, fires and ICE. What a year! THR looks back at the 25 moments that defined 2025: the collapses and the comebacks, the pratfalls and the strange little things that somehow mattered just as much. The list.
—Hollywood's biggest winners and losers. It's time for THR's annual festival of snark. From Sydney Sweeney to Glen Powell, from Star Trek to South Park, THR's James Hibberd has 15 companies, people, or trends that triumphed in 2025, as well as 11 that struggled. The list.
—This year's guilty pleasures. A year ago, THR's writers and editors divulged the deepest, darkest secrets of their pop culture diets. It turns out a lot of our audience have an inclination toward high-calorie, low-nutrient entertainment, too. So we’ve brought back THR's annual staff poll of our favorite Hollywood guilty pleasures. The list. |
THR's 50 Best Photos of 2025 ►Covers, features and more. THR is famed for its fantastic photography, and here we've gathered together 50 of the best shots from this year, featuring Hollywood's leading lights mugging for the camera. The photos.
—Best and (worst) viral social media moments. From the Coldplay kiss-cam to AI Jake Paul, THR rounds up the most memorable viral videos and memes this year. The list.
—Best (and worst) style choices. The stars merged past and present on the red carpet this year. But some pulled it off better than others. (Here’s looking at you, Timmy!). The list.
—Best (most OTT) red carpet stunts. Move aside, A-listers; this year it was all about the stunts. THR's Kirsten Chuba writes that while red carpets are certainly a place for star-studded moments, they’re also where studios and streamers pulled out all the stops in 2025. The list. |
Hollywood's Top Dealmakers of 2025 ►The billionaires' brawl. In an action-packed business year, David Zaslav sparked a bidding war to sell Warner Bros., Lachlan Murdoch edged out his siblings and is rebuilding the Fox empire and Bob Iger is getting Disney into the AI gold rush. THR goes inside the year that reshaped the industry. The list.
—Hollywood's year on Wall Street. THR's Georg Szalai and Etan Vlessing reflect on the business of entertainment in 2025. The M&A-boosted Warner Bros. Discovery, as well as Sphere Entertainment, Fox, and Imax were among the gainers, while Netflix moved little, and some cinema operators declined over the past year. The winners, losers and surprises.
—How Stitch became Disney’s MVP of 2025. THR's Alex Weprin writes that the mischievous alien from Lilo & Stitch starred in a billion-dollar grossing film, sold more than $4b dollars in merchandise, and took over for Mickey Mouse on a national tour. The story.
—Best (and worst) entertainment rebrands. 2025 has been a whirlwind year for corporate rebranding shenanigans. From cable channels and streaming services to shows and some of America’s finest cultural institutions, there have never been more entertainment-adjacent rebrands in the history of Hollywood. From HBO Max to MSNOW, Alex Weprin ranks the best, the worst, and the mid rebrands of the year. The list. |
Best Films of 2025 ►Best films. THR's movie critics David Rooney, Jon Frosch and Sheri Linden hash out the best movies from 2025, widely considered an all-time year. A multilayered political thriller, a dark-comedy salute to radical resistance, a ping-pong picaresque and a bluesy vampire tale set in Jim Crow Mississippi are among THR film reviewers’ favorites of the year. The list.
—Best movie performances. From Timothée Chalamet's latest high-wire act to Amy Madigan's indelible horror villain to dynamic duos and standouts from around the globe, these were THR critics' favorite big-screen turns of the year. The list.
—Hidden gems. It's been an incredible year for film, so inevitably some standout features were sadly overlooked. THR's "Uncle" Scott Roxborough polled our critics, reporters, and trusted tastemakers to come up with an oddball collection of 20 cinema delights — from European art house to Asian animation to low-budget U.S. horror — that got lost in the shuffle but deserve another look. The gems.
—International hits. THR's Georg Szalai runs through the big local market movie successes from around the world, including a German slapstick comedy Western parody, a kabuki drama from Japan, an Indian historical action epic, a satire anthology from Argentina, and an Italian rom-com starring Edoardo Leo and Pilar Fogliati. The hits.
—Best Indian films. Lovers, losers, vampires, serial killers... Indian cinema was a bag of thrills in 2025. From mythic spectacles to tender lullabies, the team at THR India picks the best of the best. The list. |
Best TV of 2025 ►Best TV. THR's TV critics Daniel Fienberg and Angie Han (the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards' TV critic of the year!) discuss a down year for television, and come up with a muted list of the year's best from the small screen. Favorites include an Arctic-set heartwarmer, the second and final season of Andor, a pair of new animated gems, a bold historical drama, and a star-studded Hollywood satire. The list.
—Best TV performances. Daniel and Angie celebrate their favorite small-screen turns of the year, including scene-stealing supporting work, seasoned players showing new shades of their talent, and a luminous newcomer. The list.
—Best TV episodes. A pint-sized murder mystery, a searing Spike Lee-directed doc entry and a bittersweetly hilarious Thanksgiving rank among Daniel and Angie's favorite small-screen chapters of the year. The list. |
Best Music of 2025 ►Best albums. Instead of endeavoring to list out the best albums of the year — plenty of people already are — THR's Ethan Millman and Nicole Fell talk about the albums that they found themselves going back to again and again in 2025. The albums.
—Best K-pop songs. In many ways, 2025 proved to be a pivotal moment in the world of K-pop. From a career-best girl group anthem to a dynamic and exciting boy group debut, THR's K-pop writer Nicole Fell picks the 40 best songs of the year. The songs. |
Lists! Lists! Lists! Part I ►ICYMI. Here is a run through of THR's biggest and most read lists of the year.
—100 most powerful Women In Entertainment. In THR’s annual survey, this year’s honorees discuss how they got it done while revealing the trends they’re ready to let die, confess their AI flirtations, and much, much more. The list.
—50 most powerful TV producers. In THR’s annual census of the most powerful writer-producers, we polled 50-ish creators behind the biggest hits of the past year about the promising conversations they’ve had, Zoom pitch horror stories, their concerns with AI, writers room envy and the 2025 series that most impressed them. The list.
—Hollywood’s top 100 attorneys. Meet the dealmakers and litigators who made the cut for THR's 20th annual list of the entertainment industry’s most powerful legal advocates. The list.
—Best U.S. film schools. THR's annual survey of the best American film schools considered new facilities, equipment and endowments as well as alumni successes — with NYU performing particularly well this year as grad Sean Baker swept the Oscars. The list.
—Best international film schools. As a companion piece to our American film schools list, THR also rated the best global programs for budding filmmakers. From Argentina to New Zealand, these programs boast alumni like Jane Campion and Bong Joon Ho. The list.
—Best music schools. As DEI battles and funding shifts roil campuses, music programs from UCLA to Juilliard continue to grow. THR ranks the 20 global schools shaping the next generation of composers. The list.
—Best drama schools. THR spoke with industry members and educators to determine its ranking of the best schools for an acting degree while weighing factors including overall training, cost, alumni success and industry connections. The list.
—Best costume design schools. As in years past, THR reached out to top designers, educators and industry insiders to help shape the top 10 costume design schools in the world. The list.
—Best private schools in Los Angeles. For this guide to the most in-demand schools in L.A., THR spoke to parents as well as admission consultants, looking at a host of criteria including selectivity, location, class size and school culture. The list. |
Lists! Lists! Lists! Part II ►Best movie stunts of all time. To celebrate the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences plan for a stunt design Oscar category, which will first be presented at the 100th honors in 2028, THR released a list of the best stunts ever captured on the big screen. The list is a close read, year-by-year, from the start of the Academy Awards onward, on some of the most noteworthy stunt artistry in Hollywood cinema over the course of the past century — and which films may have claimed Oscar gold. The list.
—35 rising Hollywood executives under 35. THR's Next Gen class of 2025 was behind some of the year’s biggest entertainment. However, there were fewer names from traditional studios like Warner Bros. and Paramount, as corporate cost-cutting continues to cull young talent, but these 35 upstarts are building their own companies. The list.
—50 hottest influencers on the planet. To compile this year’s 44 honorees, THR scoured the web for the most influential voices across TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. Yes, follower counts and brand deals mattered, as did agency affiliations. But we also searched for something less quantifiable: that rare mix of originality, charisma and creative instinct that separates the strivers from the stars. The list.
—Most powerful players in podcasting. For the fourth straight year, THR presented its tally of the on-air talent and dealmakers who are making the biggest waves in podcasting. The list.
More of THR's most read lists of 2025...
—Most powerful women in Canadian entertainment
—Most powerful women in global television
—51 best Canadian films of all time
—40 greatest needle drops in film history
—25 greatest sports movies of all time, ranked
—25 best horror movies of the 21st century, ranked
—20 sexiest TV shows of all time, ranked
—10 most iconic Oscar images of all time
—10 best medical shows of all time, ranked
—10 best baseball movies of all time, ranked
—8 hottest young stars in Hollywood
What else we're reading...
—The Guardian's TV critics list the best television we all likely missed in 2025 [Guardian]
—Jonathan Abrams looks at 8 ways AI affected pop culture in 2025 [NYT]
—The Ringer’s 52 favorite sports moments of 2025 [Ringer]
—55 facts that blew the minds of The Atlantic's science desk in 2025 [Atlantic]
—The New Yorker's best books of 2025 [New Yorker]
Today...
...in 1952, Warner Bros.’ The Jazz Singer made its world premiere in Technicolor at Hollywood’s Fox Beverly Theatre, the final gala debut of that year. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Sheryl Lee Ralph (69), Tyrese Gibson (47), Tracey Ullman (66), LeBron James (41), Bennett Miller (59), Andra Day (41), Lucy Punch (48), Eliza Dushku (45), Kristin Kreuk (43), Daniel Sunjata (54), Faye Marsay (39), Selton Mello (53), Chelsea Talmadge (32), Caity Lotz (39), Russ Tamblyn (91), Ashley Zukerman (42), Barbara Kellerman (76), Leila Farzad (43), Meredith Monroe (56), Morgan Kohan (32), Dag Johan Haugerud (61), Anna Wood (40), C.S. Lee (54), Jeff Ward (39), Jing-Hua Tseng (28), Jason Behr (52), Kelli Maroney (60), Patricia Kalember (68), Lyliana Wray (21), Dominic Fike (30), Ferdi Stofmeel (43), Chris Vance (54), Lloyd Kaufman (80), John Patton Ford (44) |
| THR has highlighted the most impactful Hollywood deaths in 2025, including Rob Reiner, Diane Keaton, Robert Redford, Val Kilmer, Gene Hackman, Michelle Trachtenberg, Ozzy Osbourne, David Lynch, Brian Wilson, Irv Gotti and Jeff Baena. The list. |
|
|
|
| | | |
