This summer has been an eventful one for movies, filled with superhero blockbusters and revivals of old franchises. If you’re looking to experience any of these movies for the first time, you’re in the right place. The following is a spoiler-free, comprehensive list of the top 5 best movies from over the summer.
5. Final Destination: Bloodlines
Directed by filmmaking partners Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein, Final Destination: Bloodlines is a revival after 14 years of the massively popular Final Destination series of supernatural horror movies. Stated as a “re-imagining of the franchise,” Bloodlines had many potential pitfalls during its creation. Originally planned to be released on HBO max in 2022, filming was delayed due to the SAG-AFTRA strikes. Luckily, though, the movie has been a major success. Quickly becoming the highest grossing and best reviewed movie in the franchise, and with a surprisingly emotional story, Final Destination: Bloodlines has had a massive effect on the trajectory of the Final Destination franchise, and we should be excited to see where it goes next.
4. The Materialists
As the newest addition to A24’s impressive list of in-house produced films including Everything Everywhere All at Once, Civil War, and Uncut Gems, The Materialists has some big shoes to fill. Along with this, this film represents a shift in the way that A24 operates as a studio. With the smallest budget on this lost, $20 million, and starring 3 A-list actors, being Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, and Pedro Pascal. While A24 has had both bigger hits and higher budgets, this film is unique because it cements A24 even further as the most dominant mini-major film studio in today’s industry. The film took a risk spending a large amount on its cast, where they might have previously saved that budget for other expenses. Luckily for them and for us, though, the movie is excellent, and the casting choices, at least for me, worked very well. If you’re interested in a really well put together romantic comedy movie, I would absolutely suggest this movie.
3. Fantastic Four: First Steps
In 2025, The public reception of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) alternates between either a state of “It’s so over” or “We’re so back”. When a good movie releases, such as Guardians of The Galaxy 3 or Spider-Man: No Way Home, audiences are quick to say that the MCU is redeemed and the movie does well at the box office. Inversely, when a bad movie is released, such as The Marvels, It’s easy to return to the narrative that they haven’t been able to recapture the magic that movies like Infinity War had. This is all to say that, when Thunderbolts* released this May to critical acclaim, nobody would have expected that it wouldn’t meet its marketing budget. Even so, the movie was a miss for Marvel Studios, spelling doom for the franchise. Finally, we come to Fantastic Four: First Steps. If this movie were to flop, I don’t believe that Marvel would be able to recover. This was their most anticipated movie in years, and expectations were high. Now that the movie is out, it has done decently well for a marvel movie, grossing $514,000,000 worldwide. However, it was only the second most successful superhero movie from July, being beat out by a movie we’ll cover later in this list.
2. Weapons
As the newest movie on this list, only being a month old, and as an original horror I.P. in a time full of M.E.G.A.N.’s and Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey’s, Weapons has a lot to prove. If you’ve ever been interested in a Jordan Peele film, such as Us or Get Out, you will probably enjoy this film, as it’s another weird, high concept, mystery thriller. In fact, this movie was almost a Jordan Peele production. When Zach Cregger, the writer and eventual director of this movie,, offered this screenplay to the market in 2023, two major studios were involved in a bidding war. Universal, in conjunction with Monkeypaw Productions, Jordan Peele’s studio, against Warner Brothers.While a bidding war is not uncommon in the film industry, one of this magnitude and scale is. When it was concluded, Cregger was offered $10 million as writer, director, and producer, as well as final cut privilege. Shortly after, Peele parted ways with his managers Joel Zadak and Peter Principato, presumably due to their inability to get this script. When a bidding war of this magnitude occurs, which rarely happens, it’s usually an indicator of a stellar script, on its way to becoming a stellar movie, and while I won’t say any spoilers, I think it lives up to these expectations.
1. Superman
After years of the DCEU (DC Extended Universe), Warner Brothers’ Marvel competitor franchise, producing flop after flop, Warner Brothers decided to reboot their DC universe for a second time, appointing James Gunn as the co-chairman and co-CEO of the new DC Studios, overseeing the creation of the new DCU (DC Universe). As the director of all three critically acclaimed Guardians of the Galaxy films, Gunn seemed a natural fit to lead this new universe, especially as he was permanently wrapping up with his tenure at Marvel Studios, after his final Guardians of the Galaxy movie. In the three years since then, the DCU has been largely silent, only releasing the animated streaming series Creature Commandos in 2024. In 2025, though, they began to ramp up their marketing for their debut film in the series, Superman. From there, I’ll spare you the boring details, because we all saw the cultural phenomenon that Superman became. The song Punkrocker by the Teddybears, a 25 year-old song, charted on the Billboard Hot 100, simply because it was in the movie, and it grossed $614,000,000 globally. It even, for the first time ever, beat the highly anticipated Marvel Studios movie coming out the same summer. Overall, it’s incredible what Superman has been able to achieve as an underdog in the massive superhero movies industry.
