On the other hand, according to Cinema United, the movie exhibition trade association, last year saw moviegoing by Gen Z grow by 25% — the highest increase of any demographic. Gen Z is also the first generation to have come of age during the great disruption caused by streaming. Turns out, people want what they’ve always wanted: A reason to leave the house for a couple of hours and be entertained.

The bigger financial questions surrounding the long and short-term viability of the movie industry are out of our hands, which means our only job as moviegoers is to pick and choose what we want to see. So let’s commit to a New Year’s resolution to stop talking about movies in terms of box office. What’s happening on the screen is so much more interesting anyway.

“28 Years Later: The Bone Temple”

Filmmaker Nia DaCosta’s interests as a director run the gamut, from horror (the “Candyman” remake) to popcorn films (“The Marvels”) to her recent update and reimagining of the play “Hedda Gabler.” She circles back to horror with this sequel to the post-apocalyptic “28 Years Later.” Ralph Fiennes leads the ensemble cast. In theaters Jan. 16.

“The Rip”

Old pals Ben Affleck and Matt Damon team up on screen once again, this time in a crime thriller. Here’s the official description: “Upon discovering millions in cash in a derelict stash house, trust among a team of Miami cops begins to fray. As outside forces learn about the size of the seizure, everything is called into question — including who they can rely on.” Screenwriter Joe Carnahan says the idea came out of a “deeply personal experience that my friend went through, both as a father and as head of tactical narcotics for the Miami-Dade police department.” On Netflix Jan. 16.

“Send Help”

A plane crashes and a woman (Rachel McAdams) and her jerk of a boss (Dylan O’Brien) are the only survivors, now stranded on a deserted island. Didn’t Anne Heche and Harrison Ford already do this in 1998’s “Six Days, Seven Nights”? Well, this one’s way more ominous, directed by “Spider-Man’s” Sam Raimi. In theaters Jan. 30.

“Dracula: A Love Tale”

Director Luc Besson reimagines the vampire story as a tragic romance. The movie opened in Europe late last year, with one critic describing it as Dracula meets “Pride and Prejudice”: “While it almost certainly does not work on any narrative level, it remains compulsively watchable throughout thanks to writer-director Luc Besson‘s flair for the preposterous.” In theaters Jan. 30.

“Pillion”

If you want the elevator pitch, this is Alexander Skarsgård’s gay biker romance, which premiered at Cannes last year, prompting this observation in Variety:  “With lots of kinky gay BDSM sex scenes, elaborately choreographed orgies, full-frontal nudity and men in rubber, ‘Pillion’ has easily been among the most sexually graphic films of Cannes so far (and also one of its most warmly received).” According to co-star Harry Melling (as the submissive partner), the movie’s themes are “relatable and familiar, but maybe dealing with a subculture that people aren’t so familiar with. It’s how those two things interplay that I found so fascinating … taking romantic comedy tropes and subverting them.” In theaters Feb. 6.

“Wuthering Heights”

Based on her resume so far, Emerald Fennell might be the most vibes-based filmmaker of the moment, judging by her visually specific but thematically shallow efforts with “Saltburn” and “Promising Young Woman.” This time she’s adapting the Emily Bronte 1847 novel about the stormy relationship between Catherine (Margot Robbie) and Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi). In theaters Feb. 13.

“Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die”

A sci-fi action adventure from Gore Verbinski (“Pirates of the Caribbean”) that has artificial intelligence on the mind. A man from the future (Sam Rockwell) travels back in time to strong-arm the patrons of a diner into helping him fight a rogue AI. Variety got an early look when the film premiered last fall at Fantastic Fest, calling it “unapologetically irreverent, wildly inventive, end-is-nigh take on the time-loop movie — call it ‘Terminator 2: Groundhog Day’ — except that here, Rockwell’s dizzy protagonist knows what it takes to stop the cycle.” In theaters Feb. 13.

“Crime 101”

Halle Berry and Chris Hemsworth star in this crime thriller (title sorta gave the genre away) about a burned out insurance broker (Berry) who gets caught up in a multi-million dollar heist organized by a jewel thief working one last job  (Hemsworth). Mark Ruffalo plays the LAPD detective on the case. In theaters Feb. 13. 

“Man on the Run”

As a pop cultural figure, Paul McCartney’s life and work has been endlessly documented. I don’t know if the world is clamoring for more, but here we are regardless. According to McCartney’s official website, the film will take viewers on an “intimate journey through Paul McCartney’s extraordinary life following the break-up of The Beatles and the formation of Wings with his wife, Linda.” On Amazon Feb. 25.

“Whitney Springs”

A live-action musical comedy from “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone about an interracial couple: A Black guy finds out his ancestors were enslaved by the ancestors of his white girlfriend. An additional twist: He works at a living history museum as a reenactor, playing an enslaved person. The script is from “South Park” alum Vernon Chatman. Kendrick Lamar is also a producer. In theaters March 20. 

“Project Hail Mary”

Adapted from the 2021 novel of the same name, Ryan Gosling stars in the sci-fi adventure as a guy who wakes up on a spacecraft with no memory of who he is or why he’s there. Slowly, he figures out that he’s the sole surviving crew member of a team searching for a solution to a catastrophic event back on Earth. Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (“21 Jump Street”). In theaters March 20. 

“The Dog Stars”

Another post-apocalyptic story. So much apocalyptism these days, you think Hollywood decision-makers are feeling pessimistic? This one’s from director Ridley Scott and is based on the 2012 novel by Peter Heller. It takes place after a pandemic wipes out a chunk of the population, leaving behind a pilot (Jacob Elordi) and his dog, plus a grouchy ex-Marine (Josh Brolin). They live a lonely existence in an airplane hangar until, one day, a mysterious transmission comes through the radio. Are there other survivors? In theaters March 27.

LOS ANGELES — Even with inflation, endless air travel complaints and the recent flight cancellations caused by the government shutdown, millions of Americans, including me, will begin their holiday celebrations on a plane. And while some are already making their packing lists, I am more concerned about what I should watch. In addition to getting you where you want to go, those hours spent in uncomfortable seats — first at the gate and then on board — are a guilt-free opportunity to catch up on or revisit great shows and films.

In-flight viewing is a specific, and sometimes unintentionally communal, viewing experience; not everything works. Choose tearjerkers and musicals with care. Ugly crying over “The Notebook” or singing along with “Wicked” might feel great, but it can cause your fellow passengers unnecessary consternation and/or annoyance.

If you are traveling with or seated near children, you should avoid hard-R-rated fare — as I discovered while briefly attempting to watch “Game of Thrones” while seated beside my then-young son, nudity and beheadings don’t need the sound on to be inappropriate.

Likewise, avoid anything that involves tragic or problematic air travel — catch up on the “Final Destination” franchise another time — and you also might want to skip full-attention-demanding subtitles. The perfect airplane watch allows you to immerse yourself while also remaining aware of what’s happening around you. (Including and especially requests from flight attendants.)

With all these considerations in mind, here are some suggestions.

Watch at the gate

Comedy series are best, for obvious mood-sweetening reasons (should delays occur), but also because the episodes are short and tend not to have dramatic moments that might keep you watching even after your group number has been called.

“Schitt’s Creek” (Amazon)

Each episode of this perfectly addictive series about a once-rich (and very dysfunctional) family that finds itself forced to start anew in a small town will make you laugh no matter how many times you’ve seen it.

“Derry Girls” (Netflix)

Those unfamiliar with the Northern Ireland accent may find it necessary to use subtitles, which I just cautioned against. But this show is worth breaking the rules for. Living through the Troubles in 1990s Derry, five Catholic school friends and their families cope hilariously with everyday issues, including school life under the redoubtable eye of Sister Michael (Siobhán McSweeney).

“New Girl” (Hulu)

The shenanigans of friends/roomies Jess (Zooey Deschanel), Nick (Jake Johnson), Schmidt (Max Greenfield), Winston (Lamorne Morris) and Cece (Hannah Simone) are always a delight.

“Brooklyn Nine-Nine” (Netflix)

Any time’s a good time to watch the greatest police comedy series since “Barney Miller.” Andy Samberg’s Jake Peralta heads a misfit but inevitably successful team of New York detectives, headed by the driest, wisest chief in TV history — Captain Holt, played by the late, great Andre Braugher.

“Abbott Elementary” (Hulu)

Celebrate the holidays with this quick-witted, revelatory and very sweet teacher-centric mockumentary-comedy created by and starring Quinta Brunson. Compared with classroom chaos, even the airport will seem like an oasis of tranquility.

“What We Do in the Shadows” (Hulu)

If you somehow missed this hilariously unique comedy-horror mockumentary about a group of vampires living in modern-day Staten Island, now is the time to rectify that.

Watch on domestic flights

All of the above comedy series work here as well — but movies are best, especially if you can time it so the film begins when altitude is achieved and ends as you’re returning your seat backs and tray tables to their full upright positions.

FILMS:

“The Da Vinci Code” (AMC+)

The perfect in-flight film, “The Da Vinci Code” offers something like cultural edification (the Louvre! The Knights Templar! Biblical history!) while not forcing you to think too much. A tour of Paris, great action sequences, the always endearing Tom Hanks and a literally beatific conclusion.

“Spy” (Amazon)

Melissa McCarthy is an everywoman intelligence agent who chooses to go into the field for the first time in this strangely unsung hero of modern comedy. Guaranteed to make you laugh even if you’re stuck in the middle seat. (Also set in Paris, it’s a perfect double feature with “The Da Vinci Code” for those five-hour flights.)

“Crazy Rich Asians” (Netflix)

Jon M. Chu’s glorious romantic comedy will transport you into a world far beyond the dreary confines of contemporary air travel and make you feel, if only for a moment, that you too are flying in a first-class compartment that contains an actual double bed.

“Iron Man” (Disney+)

Travel back in time to the moment when Robert Downey Jr. jump-started the Marvel Cinematic Universe and remind yourself why. It really is that good.

“Sense and Sensibility” (Amazon)

The exquisite nature of the performances, writing, direction, cinematography and score has made one of the best Jane Austen adaptations a go-to comfort film for when you’re feeling ill. Which is why it’s perfect while flying.

“Paddington” and/or “Paddington 2” (Netflix)

Come for the adorable bear (voiced by Ben Whishaw), stay for the adventure and sweet hijinks (and, in “Paddington 2,” Hugh Grant!). You will reach your destination feeling more kindly to your fellow travelers, which can only improve any trip.

“Edge of Tomorrow” (Netflix)

Tom Cruise teams up with Emily Blunt to battle an alien invasion, with some help from time travel. Classic dystopian thriller with several clever twists. If you’re feeling hot and cramped, just think of Cruise and Blunt in those super suits.

“The Martian” (Netflix)

Feel bad that your flight got delayed and you might not make your connection? A little time spent with Matt Damon’s astronaut, stranded for years on Mars, will put everything in perspective. At least you don’t have to figure out how to grow potatoes in hostile soil.

“Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” (Amazon)

The ultimate full-immersion movie sees four teenagers sucked into a survival adventure game in which their avatars are played by Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart and Karen Gillan.

“Skyfall” (Amazon)

Honestly, most Bond films are a good choice but Daniel Craig is my favorite Bond and “Skyfall” features a more-than-usual presence of M (Judi Dench). Also, the song.

“Knives Out” (Amazon)

A classic manor house mystery, which revived the genre when it became a hit in 2019, “Knives Out” is the ideal blend of mystery and wit, with a cast of characters to keep you company.

SHOWS:

“Hawkeye” (Disney+)

If you’re looking for a five-hour (or so) miniseries with plenty of Marvel action and a holiday theme, look no further. A year after the events of “Avengers: Endgame,” Hawkeye super fan Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) teams up with her reluctant hero, Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner), to face down enemies new and old. Oh, and celebrate Christmas in New York.

“Black Mirror” (Netflix)

This sci-fi anthology series is perfect plane viewing because a.) It’s so very good and b.) Each episode is its own story, so you can construct however many hours you need (and, perhaps, catch up on a show so many people continue to talk about).

“Sherlock” (PBS)

Same principle — each episode is essentially a short film and you get to wallow in the wonder of Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock), Martin Freeman (Watson), Mark Gatiss (Mycroft) and all the rest as they solve crimes in modern twists on the classic tales.

Watch on international flights

For flights six hours and longer, you can hunker down and make your way through a film franchise or an entire season or seasons of a television series.

FILMS:

“The Lord of the Rings” trilogy (HBO Max)

Pick the director’s cut of all three and your journey through Middle-earth will take you almost 12 hours, which is about as long as it takes to fly from L.A. to New Zealand, where it was filmed.

“Hunger Games” (HBO Max)

The four films in which Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and friends attempt to wrest a shattered land from the tyranny of President Snow (Donald Sutherland) clock in at about nine hours total, which, with bathroom and meal breaks, should get you from L.A. to London or Paris.

“Mission Impossible” films (Amazon and other platforms)

Although they often include mishaps in the air, the fantastic (in both senses of the word) nature of “Mission: Impossible” makes these films an ideal high-altitude binge. From first to last, they run more than 18 hours, which is, quite frankly, far too many hours of consecutive movie viewing. But with plenty of installments to choose from, you can accept whichever assignments (and Cruise stunts) appeal to you.

“Harry Potter” (HBO Max)

However one feels about J.K. Rowling’s politics, this is a delightful film franchise that’s even longer than “Mission; Impossible” — about 20 hours. But you can start, and stop, the series wherever you want (though I would urge you not to skip the underrated “Order of the Phoenix”).

SHOWS:

“Black Doves” (Netflix)

Keira Knightley and Whishaw play highly unlikely but ruthlessly skilled mercenary spies who work for an ice-cold Sarah Lancashire. The six-hour-long series tells a complete tale (though Season 2 is in the works) and as the events take place in London as Christmas approaches, makes a fine holiday thriller.

“House”

Pick a season, any season (there are eight of them, with an average of 22 episodes each) and the wit, wisdom and scathing insanity of Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) and his team will carry you through to any destination. And unlike other medical shows, most of the ailments are so bizarre that you won’t have to worry if that cough or twinge is a sign that you’re getting one of them.

“The Durrells in Corfu” (PBS)

It’s 1935 and young widow Louisa Durrell (Keeley Hawes) decides that the answer to her financial straits is to move herself and her four children to the island of Corfu. Sweet and scenic hilarity ensues, and includes the young Josh O’Connor (“The Crown”) and Callum Woodhouse (“All Creatures Great and Small”) as two of Louisa’s sons. Four seasons, 26 episodes. You’re welcome.

“Call the Midwife” (Netflix)

Seasonal purists could just download the dozen or so Christmas episodes of this long-running and still-exceptional drama about a group of midwives working out of a convent in London’s East End. (Between the nuns and the babies, the specials are always wonderful.) But if you haven’t seen the series, best to start with Season 1 and keep going.

“Mare of Easttown” (HBO Max)

If you somehow missed Kate Winslet’s turn as a small-town Pennsylvania cop (with a great Delco accent) who is trying to solve a brutal murder, then this is your chance. If you didn’t, well, it’s time for an eight-hour rewatch in which you can use the time you spent wondering who dunit to admire all the terrific acting.

“Slow Horses” (Apple TV)

The butt-numbing hours will fly by like minutes when you immerse yourself in the TV adaptation of the first five of Mick Herron’s Slough House novels. Gary Oldman is having a blast as Jackson Lamb, the greasy, rumpled, sharp-tongued and strategically flatulent keeper of a den of MI5 misfits. Who somehow manage to save the day.

“The Crown” (Netflix)

Think your flight is long? Consider the reign of the late Queen Elizabeth, played over the course of six seasons by Claire Foy, Olivia Colman and Imelda Staunton. For a full immersive experience, it’s tough to beat the royal settings, period clothes and changing times. And with 60 hours at your fingertips, you can move through history without ever leaving your seat.

“30 Rock” (Hulu)

Tina Fey’s send-up of a fictional “Saturday Night Live”-type show, and satirical look at the television business in general, is just as biting and gimlet-eyed as it was when it premiered almost 20 years ago. It got better as it aged, so for purposes of downloading, look to Seasons 4 and 5.

“Parks and Recreation” (Peacock/Amazon)

Life is always better when you spend some time with Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler), Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman), April Ludgate (Aubrey Plaza) and the many fine public servants in Pawnee, Indiana’s city government. The mockumentary series found its feet in Season 2, so you might want to start there.

“The Wire” (HBO Max)

David Simon’s five-season Baltimore-based crime drama is definitely R-rated (thus breaking one of our earlier stated rules) but it is the show that is consistently listed as one of the best — if not the best — TV dramas ever. So if a long-haul flight demands that you binge, why not binge big?

©2025 Los Angeles Times. Visit latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

LOS ANGELES — Tunes — well-chosen ones — turn normal movie scenes into electric ones. Needle drops, they’re called in the film world. (And don’t laugh: Several of the filmmakers below are, indeed, dropping turntable needles onto vinyl records.)

What makes for a good needle drop? Sometimes it’s comic irony. Elsewhere, it’s trapping the sincerity of a moment in the amber glow of a perfect pop song, one you’ll never think of in the same way again.

We went through the entire year and grabbed a dozen of our favorites, listed below in no particular order — feel free to resequence them into your own personal playlist.

The Spice Girls, ‘2 Become 1,’ as heard in ‘Together’

Dave Franco and Alison Brie are married in real life, but in the body horror romance “Together,” they play an engaged couple named Tim and Millie who might be happier breaking up. He’s a frustrated, flunked-out rock star; she’s a schoolteacher who loves the Spice Girls. Writer-director Michael Shanks plays their discordant musical taste like a minor joke among all the major reasons why their codependent relationship has hit the skids. As a Hail Mary, Tim and Millie move from the city to the countryside for some miserable quality time — and there, deep in the woods, an eerie cave infects Tim’s skin cells with the urge to merge with Millie permanently. It all climaxes in a slow dance to the 1996 grrrl-pop ballad that’s never felt more sticky-sweet. — Amy Nicholson

Jack O’Connell, Lola Kirke and Peter Dreimanis, ‘Pick Poor Robin Clean,’ as heard in ‘Sinners’

So much of Ryan Coogler’s supercharged vampire movie is saturated with blues music, both in its original score by Ludwig Göransson (itself an impressive piece of scholarship) and its careful selection of authentic period songs that both articulate and subvert the legend of going down to the crossroads to make a deal with the devil. So why is it this one I’m fixated on? It’s the tune most loaded with subtext. A trio of white musicians shows up at the door of the juke joint. They play this traditional number in the hopes of getting through the door. But in their smiling, cleaned-up, sprightly version of it, you can hear the whole of white cultural appropriation to come. The music is ominous. What exactly is getting picked clean? The song has become an evil spell. And the fact that it doesn’t work — they’re turned away — is another credit to Coogler’s instincts. It’s music criticism smuggled into a Hollywood smash. — Joshua Rothkopf

Steely Dan, ‘Dirty Work,’ as heard in ‘One Battle After Another’

Paul Thomas Anderson has been deploying needle drops with precision since “Boogie Nights” and “Magnolia,” and 10 movies deep into his career, his ear remains sharp. In “One Battle After Another,” his darkly comic action-thriller, Leonardo DiCaprio plays Bob Ferguson, a former revolutionary who has spent years in hiding, raising his teenage daughter and trying to keep his past at bay. But the movie’s frenetic opening stretch loosens into something shaggier when Steely Dan’s 1972 world-weary track “Dirty Work” comes in. We see Bob parked outside his daughter’s school, getting high before a parent-teacher conference, ducking the eyes of other parents and swinging the door to air out the smoke. When the chorus arrives — “I’m a fool to do your dirty work” — it lands as recognition, not commentary. Bob knows he’s a sucker. We all are sometimes. The song just says it out loud. — Josh Rottenberg

George Harrison, ‘Beware of Darkness,’ as heard in ‘Weapons’

Zach Cregger’s viral horror hit winds its way methodically to a climax of such hilarious savagery that you’ll scare yourself with how hard you’re laughing. Yet the movie opens with an almost unbearably poignant blend of picture and sound: a bunch of third-graders in their PJs running over dark, rain-slicked suburban streets — why? how? to what end? — against the aching psychedelic folk-rock of George Harrison’s “Beware of Darkness.” The song, from Harrison’s first solo album after the Beatles’ breakup, urges the listener not to be swallowed by “the hopelessness around you in the dead of night.” In “Weapons,” its eerie harmonic movement portends an innocence soon to be lost. — Mikael Wood

Led Zeppelin, ‘Whole Lotta Love,’ as heard in ‘F1’

Too on the nose? Sure. That’s why it’s such a thing of beauty. First with “Top Gun: Maverick” and now this year with “F1,” director Joseph Kosinski has perfected Dad Cinema, creating movies centered on old(ish) guys who most definitely know best. There’s no better soundtrack to this microgenre than classic rock music. And there’s no better classic rock band than Led Zeppelin, a group famously resistant to licensing their songs until recently when the levee has apparently broken. Kosinski employs “Whole Lotta Love” when Brad Pitt’s Sonny arrives at the track for his shift at the 24 Hours of Daytona. His team is languishing until Sonny gets behind the wheel and Robert Plant starts wailing and John Bonham begins bashing. Jimmy Page’s guitar riff seemingly propels Sonny’s car forward to the lead. Ramble on, baby. — Glenn Whipp

John Prine and Iris DeMent, ‘In Spite of Ourselves,’ as heard in ‘Die My Love’

Lynne Ramsay’s film is an elliptical, claustrophobic portrait of postpartum delirium. Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson evoke the small-bore unraveling of new parenthood in the boonies, with Lawrence in particular throwing her whole body into a creeping alienation from one’s spouse and oneself. But there is humor and tenderness shot throughout, moments where the lines of connection between them still hum. The pair singing along to Prine and DeMent’s “In Spite of Ourselves,” with its wincingly funny lovers trading jabs and devotions, is one moment of levity and self-awareness breaking through the desperation. The tune also memorably appeared in Celine Song’s “Materialists,” but here, it’s arguably the heart of the movie. — August Brown

Gil Scott-Heron, ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,’ as heard in ‘Dead Man’s Wire,’ ‘One Battle After Another’ and ‘The Running Man’

If the same piece of music is used at the end of three different movies, it becomes song of the year by default, right? Gil Scott-Heron’s 1971 “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” unexpectedly captured the mood of the moment, one of absurdity and anger with a clear-eyed view on the world. Edgar Wright’s “The Running Man” used the song’s looping, funky backing track underneath a bit of conspiracy-minded explainer video, adding an escalating urgency to the conclusion of the movie’s action-packed satire of corporate media culture. Gus Van Sant’s “Dead Man’s Wire” (in theaters Jan. 9) placed it in the end credits to sharpen focus on the film’s growing sense that those stuck outside the system must make their own sense of justice. Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” also deploys the song as part of the end credits, revealing that lines of his script’s dialogue — repeated numerous times as a passcode among compatriot revolutionaries — come from the lyrics. To see three movies using this one song in particular is thrilling, giving expression to the confusion and discontent felt by so many. Moviemaking can often feel disconnected from the moment. To get three films so vibrant and relevant, in tune with the times and each other, is electrifying. — Mark Olsen

Peter Gabriel, ‘I Have the Touch,’ as heard in ‘Marty Supreme’

Let the era of Peter Gabriel’s gentle movie contributions — “In Your Eyes,” and “Solsbury Hill” most sweetly — come to an end. So much of his spikier music deserves attention. Take this cut off 1982’s “Security,” which director Josh Safdie puts to vibrant use in “Marty Supreme” (in theaters Dec. 25). How good is Timothée Chalamet’s Marty at table tennis? He’s a machine. Aggressive ’80s drums and processed electric guitars set the tone. Even as his opponents step up, there’s no question about the outcome. “I have the touch,” Gabriel states, an alpha competitor in his element. Originally, the song was about establishing dominance while meeting strangers (ah, art rock). Safdie turns it into a referee’s instructions: “Shake hands!” the lyrics continue, as we train in on a match. Then, a few seconds later, we hear Gabriel’s voice isolated in scary clarity: Shake hands. — J. Rothkopf

Donna Summer, ‘Love to Love You Baby,’ as heard in ‘The Secret Agent’

Between “Sirāt” and “The Secret Agent,” 2025 was a good movie year for scenes featuring late-night drives along treacherous rural roads. “The Secret Agent” finds a ruthless stepfather and stepson hit man team winding their way around São Paulo in the dead of night, skirting the Sérgio Motta Dam, their headlights barely illuminating the path ahead. The darkness is essential to the task at hand: dumping a corpse into the dam’s reservoir. It’s 1977 and the radio’s on, so naturally the soundtrack to their drive is Donna Summer’s disco anthem. It’s a 17-minute song, punctuated by 23 orgasmic moans (per a BBC count). The hypnotic groove gives the sequence an eerie, otherworldly feel, giving it a place among cinema’s great late-night body disposal scenes. — G.W.

Katy Perry, ‘Firework,’ as heard in ‘Eddington’

Katy Perry’s “Firework” insists on optimism whether you’re in the mood or not. Midway through “Eddington,” Ari Aster’s polarizing pandemic-era Western, the glossy pop song becomes a pivot point as tensions rise between Joaquin Phoenix’s sheriff and Pedro Pascal’s mayor. At a COVID-masked backyard fundraiser, the sheriff shows up on a noise complaint and tries to turn the music down. The mayor turns it up. The sheriff cuts it again. The mayor cranks it louder still. When Pascal finally slaps Phoenix across the face, the joke is gone and what’s left is a petty, pathetic standoff, scored to Perry’s incongruously perky anthem. Aster has shown a taste for this kind of pop perversity before, most memorably using Mariah Carey’s “Always Be My Baby” in an Oedipal sex scene in “Beau Is Afraid.” For some filmmakers, a needle drop doesn’t just score a moment. It pierces it. — J. Rottenberg

The Veronicas, ‘Untouched,’ as heard in ‘Bring Her Back’

In any other movie, the pop-punk confection of the Veronicas’ “Untouched” would be a perfect cue to establish its setting in middle-class suburban Australia, as light and lucky a place as ever was. In this foster care cult-horror nightmare, though, the song is the comic foil to one of the movie’s most grotesque and intense moments, and you’re left to watch the scene cackling through clenched hands as all the gore gets barely papered over by a frothy mid-aughts hit. It’s played less for irony and more as context for the relatable world that the directing Philippou brothers built for Sally Hawkins’ desperate pain. A completely sinister, bleakly hilarious bit of soundtrack work that the Veronicas must have found absolutely delicious. — A.B.

Metallica, ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls,’ as heard in ‘Freaky Tales’

“Freaky Tales” is a kooky love song to the Oakland of the 1980s by the filmmaking duo Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (“Half Nelson,” “Captain Marvel”). Fittingly, it’s packed with fantastic tunes by local artists like Too Short, who narrates these retro misadventures and lets a younger version of himself lose a rap battle to a pair of ferocious female teenagers. Their lyrical spat is my favorite scene but the film’s show-stopping sequence is Golden State Warriors point guard Sleepy Floyd (Jay Ellis) avenging himself upon a Nazi gang who murdered his girlfriend during a playoff game. (Here’s where I should say “Freaky Tales” is very fictional.) At the first peals of Metallica’s thrash classic, Floyd stuffs his pockets with knives, grabs a samurai sword and gets to slashing, offing so many goons that the movie eventually has to cue up another Bay Area banger, E-40’s “Choices (Yup).” — A.N.

©2025 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The bean counters might say otherwise, but 2025 was a good year for movies.

Filmmakers working in and out of the studio system managed to make bold, personal, wildly imaginative and singular works. Some of them even broke through to the mainstream — how extraordinary that “Sinners” is among the highest earning of the year in North America, alongside all those “safe” sequels, reboots and known brands? Most, however, are more likely destined for cult classic status.

Hollywood as we know it is undergoing seismic changes, with yet another studio, Warner Bros., staring down a possible merger. This an industry that’s always under threat, though, and always seems to figure something out. If anything, 2025 was also a year in which audiences showed that they still crave the theatrical experience, whether it was to shout “chicken jockey” at the screen or, despite all logic and polling otherwise, help “KPop Demon Hunters” unofficially top the box office charts two months after hitting Netflix.

More than a few greats were woefully underseen as well. But in a year which also saw the deaths of cinema icons like David Lynch, Robert Redford, Diane Keaton and Gene Hackman, it’s good to remember that box office and awards are just temporary measurements. The films are the things that last.

Here are The Associated Press’ Film Writers Lindsey Bahr and Jake Coyle’s picks for the best movies of 2025:

Lindsey Bahr’s top movies of 2025

1. “One Battle After Another”

Paul Thomas Anderson took us on ride of the year with “One Battle After Another,” which is so many things — a clever farce, a frenetic thrill ride, a poignant drama about single parenting, a buddy comedy — it’s nearly impossible to describe compellingly or coherently. The performances are excellent from lead to smallest supporting character, the vision is ambitious and singular, and the payoff is a great time and a reminder of an experience that can only really happen at the movies. (In theaters)

2. “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”

Mary Bronstein turned her own domestic nightmare into a raw and surreal cinematic expression of maternal exhaustion and madness in “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.” Anchored by an utterly fearless performance from Rose Byrne, Bronstein’s film is an exposed nerve come to life, existential dread manifested. Plus Conan O’Brien and A$AP Rocky. (Available for digital rental)

3. “Marty Supreme”

Great filmmakers can make anything exciting, like, say, the adventures of a broke table tennis player, and true SOB Marty Mauser, in mid-century New York. Josh Safdie and his cowriter and editor Ronald Bronstein (Mary’s husband) built an enormously entertaining, white-knuckle spectacle of ambition and ego giving us the defining Timothée Chalamet performance we’ve been waiting for. (In theaters Dec. 25)

4. “Sentimental Value”

The ghosts of the past and things unsaid linger in cracks and floorboards of the quiet home at the heart of Joachim Trier’s latest, a textured and mature portrait of family, grief, forgiveness and the loneliness of a life in the arts. With a moving turn from Stellan Skarsgård as an acclaimed filmmaker trying to reconnect with the daughters he cast aside for his career, it’s also surprisingly funny in its deft exploration of how difficult it can be to express love to those who matter most, even for artists. (In theaters)

5. “The Naked Gun”

Finally, a great studio comedy and in the most unlikely of packages: A self-consciously shameless reboot/sequel/remake that stands on its own through Akiva Schaffer’s total commitment to absolute silliness. Only “Hamnet” elicited more tears. (Streaming on Paramount+)

6. “Sinners”

Another deeply personal, go-for-broke film that (in this case) only Ryan Coogler could have made, “Sinners” is the bluesy, vampire, gangster musical we never knew we needed. Vibrantly filmed and told, with an extraordinary ensemble cast (and two Michael B. Jordans), its surface pleasures alone are worth celebrating, but every frame is also imbued with history and symbolism adding up to one of the most profound and original thrillers to grace our movie screens. (Streaming on HBO Max)

7. “Sound of Falling”

Past and present also blur in Mascha Schilinski’s haunting and ethereal second feature. It’s both disorienting and transfixing in telling the stories of four young women, in four different times, on the same North German farm, somehow both coming-of-age and ghost story at once. (Wide release in theaters Jan. 16)

8. “It Was Just an Accident”

Tense, devastating and even a darkly funny, Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi sets up an enthralling moral conundrum in his first film since his own imprisonment. What does justice look like after imprisonment and torture? What should they do to the man who did it? How can they be sure they even have the right guy? (In theaters)

9. “The Voice of Hind Rajab”

Kaouther Ben Hania also confronted modern atrocities using the language of cinematic storytelling, and the real audio of a young girl’s call for help, in “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” a shattering document of the Israel-Hamas war, set entirely inside the dispatch center of the Palestine Red Crescent Society rescue service. (In theaters Dec. 17)

10. “Urchin,” “The Chronology of Water” and “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight”

Three wonderful films this year came from familiar faces, all making their feature debuts. Harris Dickinson channeled the social realism of Ken Loach and Mike Leigh to tell a compassionate but clear-eyed story about the cycles of homelessness in “Urchin.” Kristen Stewart proved to be as bold behind the camera as she is in front of it with “The Chronology of Water,” an utterly electric and alive memory piece of trauma and inspiration. And Embeth Davidtz, drawing on her own experience, confronted a thorny story about the Rhodesian bush war fearlessly and with grace. (“Urchin” is available to rent or buy. “The Chronology of Water” is in select theaters this week, expanding in January. “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight” is available to rent or buy.)

Also: “Hedda,” “My Father’s Shadow,” “The Secret Agent,” “The Testament of Ann Lee,” “Blue Moon,” “The Ballad of Wallis Island,” “The Mastermind,” “2000 Meters to Andriivka,” “Splitsville,” “Sorry, Baby,” “Presence,” “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl.”

Jake Coyle’s top movies of 2025

1. “One Battle After Another”

For a movie that feels so enthrallingly of the moment, Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest is curiously out of time. The echoes of the Black Panther and Weather Underground movements seem to belong to another era. Yet Anderson’s scruffy opus makes its own history and its own resistance. Key, I think, is that both the forces of oppression and counterculture in the film are lost in rituals and code words. It’s about finding your own grammar of struggle. And it’s also about how unstoppable Teyana Taylor is. (In theaters)

2. “No Other Choice”

In Park Chan-wook’s masterful, midnight-black comedy, a newly out-of-work man (Lee Byung-hun) decides his best option to get a leg up on similarly qualified job applicants is to kill them, one by one. It’s an ingenious narrative (from Donald E. Westlake’s 1997 novel, previously adapted by Costa-Gavras) that Park extrapolates in increasingly profound ways. Park, the Korean director of “Oldboy” and “Decision to Leave,” remains at the height of his diabolical powers. (In theaters Dec. 25)

3. “It Was Just an Accident”

Jafar Panahi has made a lot of great films, many of them in extraordinary circumstances. All of them, despite the hardships they document and exist in, are also playful and entertaining. So see his latest not just because it’s an important Iranian film, shot through with pain and fury, and made by one of the most courageous filmmakers on the planet, but because it’s gripping and funny and human. (In theaters)

4. “Marty Supreme”

The annals of great New York movies have a new one. Josh Safdie’s picaresque pingpong epic, starring Timothée Chalamet as a tireless striver, is the giddiest, most breathless movie of the year. And I’m not just saying that in the hope that a Chalamet-induced table tennis resurgence displaces pickleball. (In theaters Dec. 25)

5. “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery”

Underestimate Rian Johnson’s whodunits at your peril. The latest chapter in the endlessly entertaining adventures of Benoit Blanc may be the best of the bunch. It’s certainly the most moving one. And it’s got Josh O’Connor, who put his stamp on the movie year in a handful of standout performances — most especially this and in Kelly Reichardt’s flawless portrait of a very flawed man, “The Mastermind.” (In theaters; on Netflix Dec. 12)

6. “April”

Easily the most haunting movie of the year. Georgian filmmaker Dea Kulumbegashvili’s second film is about a solitary obstetrician, Nina (an extraordinary Ia Sukhitashvili), who traverses the country’s dark countryside serving women while enduring oppressive vilification. The pitiless plight of Nina, who absorbs and carries all the pain around her, will stay with me for a very long time. (Not yet available for digital rental)

7. “Sinners”

Swaggering big-screen genre mashups like this don’t come along too often. Hollywood is desperate for more of them. It should start with whatever Ryan Coogler wants. (Streaming on HBO Max)

8. “Secret Mall Apartment”

The hook of this gem of a documentary is a goofy one: In 2003, eight young Rhode Islanders built and often lived in a hidden space within a Providence mall for years. But when director Jeremy Workman digs into the stranger-than-fiction story, he reveals much more than a prank, uncovering something thoughtful and inspiring about art and commerce and community. (Available for digital rental)

9. “Blue Moon”

What extraordinarily good company Ethan Hawke’s Lorenz Hart is in Richard Linklater’s delightful and melancholy chamber drama, one of two excellent films in 2025 from the director, along with the French New Wave ode “Nouvelle Vague.” From the first monologue at Sardi’s the night his former songwriting partner, Richard Rodgers, is opening “Oklahoma!,” Hart’s wit is warming to the soul. I’d have sat by the bar with him (as “Blue Moon” makes you feel you’re doing) for hours more. (In theaters)

10. “Afternoons of Solitude”

Albert Serra’s documentary close-up of bullfighting makes no overt judgment of the Spanish corridas. Instead, it stays rigorously trained on one bullfighter, Andrés Roca Rey, and the bulls he faces in the ring. It comes close to a purely cinematic experience. In tight compositions, Serra documents a persisting ritual and the sheer spectacle of the blood sport. (Available for digital rental)

Also: “Caught by the Tides,” “One of Them Days,” “Eephus,” “My Father’s Shadow,” “The Testament of Ann Lee,” “Cloud,” “Sentimental Value,” “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl,” “Bugonia,” “Sorry, Baby”

Ryan Coogler’s bluesy vampire thriller “Sinners,” the big screen musical “Wicked: For Good” and the Netflix phenomenon “KPop Demon Hunters” are all a step closer to an Oscar nomination. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released shortlists for 12 categories Tuesday, including for best song, score, international and documentary film, cinematography and this year’s new prize, casting.

“Sinners” and “Wicked: For Good” received the most shortlist mentions with eight each, including makeup and hair, sound, visual effects, score, casting and cinematography. Both have two original songs advancing as well. For “Wicked” it’s Stephen Schwartz’s “The Girl in the Bubble” and “No Place Like Home.” For “Sinners,” it’s Ludwig Göransson, Miles Caton and Alice Smith’s “Last Time (I Seen the Sun),” and Göransson and Raphael Saadiq’s “I Lied to You.”

The “KPop Demon Hunters” hit “Golden,” by EJAE and Mark Sonnenblick, was another shortlisted song alongside other notable artists like: Nick Cave and Bryce Dessner for “Train Dreams”; John Mayer, Ed Sheeran and Blake Slatkin for the “F1” song “Drive”; and Miley Cyrus, Simon Franglen, Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt for “Dream as One” from “Avatar: Fire and Ash.”

One of the highest profile shortlist categories is the best international feature, where 15 films were named including “Sentimental Value” (Norway), “Sirât” (Spain), “No Other Choice” (South Korea), “The Secret Agent” (Brazil), “It Was Just an Accident” (France), “The Voice of Hind Rajab” (Tunisia), “Sound of Falling” (Germany) and “The President’s Cake” (Iraq).

Notable documentaries among the 15 include “My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow,” “The Perfect Neighbor,” “The Alabama Solution,” “Come See Me in the Good Light,” “Cover-Up” and Mstyslav Chernov’s “2000 Meters to Andriivka,” a co-production between The Associated Press and PBS Frontline.

The Oscars new award for casting shortlisted 10 films that will vie for the five nomination slots: “Frankenstein,” “Hamnet,” “Marty Supreme,” “One Battle After Another,” “The Secret Agent,” “Sentimental Value,” “Sinners,” “Sirāt,” “Weapons,” and “Wicked: For Good.” Notably “Jay Kelly and “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” did not make the list.

Composers who made the shortlist for best score include Göransson (“Sinners”), Johnny Greenwood (“One Battle After Another”), Max Richter (“Hamnet”), Alexandre Desplat (“Frankenstein”) and Kangding Ray (“Sirāt”).

For the most part, shortlists are determined by members in their respective categories, though the specifics vary from branch to branch: Some have committees, some have minimum viewing requirements.

As most of the shortlists are in below-the-line categories celebrating crafts like sound and visual effects, there are also films that aren’t necessarily the most obvious of Oscar contenders like “The Alto Knights,” shortlisted in hair and makeup, as well as the widely panned “Tron: Ares” and “The Electric State,” both shortlisted for visual effects.

The lists will narrow to five when final nominations are announced on Jan. 22. The 98th Oscars, hosted by Conan O’Brien, will air live on ABC on March 15 at 7 p.m. ET.

Even so, some publishers were skeptical.

“It’s not a sexy topic, which I’m aware of!” she says. “I wanted to write something that people can read where they’re not going to feel judged and can laugh a little. But also where I can talk about how movies have shaped a generation of disabled viewers — how these stereotypes leap off the screen and can hit the person watching them, and I use myself as the example. I talk about how these movies have affected me and how I see myself.”

A wheelchair user, Lopez talks about her frustration watching disabled characters played by abled actors, especially female characters.

“The disability is directly tied into how she looks. You don’t want to mess with the face, so you get a lot of blind, deaf, nonverbal performances, what I call ‘pretty disability.’ When you do see a wheelchair user, the woman is 5’6” and she’s sitting and she could pass for abled. For me, growing up, I couldn’t pass for abled. I’m not proportionate, I’m very small, I’m very compact. And growing up I was like, if these women have problems finding love and going about their lives and they’re beautiful women, what the hell does that mean for me? I don’t see anybody that looks like me!

“Most women that are disabled in films, who aren’t conventionally aesthetically attractive, are monsters,” she adds. “I talk in the book about my fear growing up of Zelda in ‘Pet Sematary ’ (1989) because she looked more like me than someone like Jane Wyman in ‘Johnny Belinda’ (1948). So when you’re a young girl and already dealing with beauty standards in terms of weight and makeup and all of the ways that you can look attractive, if you’re a disabled girl and you’re watching movies about disabled women? You’re like, well, I don’t look like that, so I guess I’m unattractive and I shouldn’t exist. I worry about the next generation of disabled girls, because they don’t have something better.”

The book also includes chapters on mental and cognitive disabilities in film, a reluctance to acknowledge the way racism can complicate a disabled person’s experiences in the world, and whether abled actors playing disabled characters is a blatant play for awards.

We talk more about Hollywood’s conception of disabled people.

Q: There’s a phrase you use throughout the book, which is the Tiny Tim principle. Explain what that is.

A: Tiny Tim is the one that screwed it up for everyone! He’s obviously the character from “A Christmas Carol” and he’s kind of the de facto definition of what a disabled person is, where you have a character that’s disabled and therefore sickly, but he has such a good heart. His soul is pure. And through his purity and goodness and unselfishness, he is able to teach the miserly Scrooge how to be a good person. And that was something that set the tone for shaping the belief that disabled people were children in need of caring.

So that extended to movies more generally, where disabled characters are always good and almost saintly and they help teach able-bodied people how to be good people.

Q: In the book, you talk about the idea that what we see on screen often shapes how we understand or think about the world. 

A: Culture influences movies, and movies have the ability to influence culture. I’ve had so many personal experiences with people where they feel that they understand me or understand my life because they’ve seen a movie.

Q: Let me push back a little. Isn’t that one of the things we love about the movies — that they give you a window into someone else’s experience?

A: They do! But at the same time, if the representation is bad and you don’t know that, then the bad representation becomes solidified as truth. That’s the problem. Unless you’re an active viewer and want to take the time to research and maybe read a book about it, you’re probably going to believe certain things that a movie is espousing, and movies codify ideas that trickle down into people’s perceptions of disability.

A lot of people who have met me are like, “You have sweet government money! The government pays you as a disabled person.” And I’m like, where do people get that idea? Movies don’t even discuss the issues inherent in the Social Security disability insurance system. And as I was watching movies for the book, I realized how often disabled characters are financially well-off or at least comfortable. We never see disabled characters struggle for money. But a lot of that is because the movies situate the character as being cared for by somebody — a wife or their parents — and movies don’t discuss how disabled people make money, or even have jobs.

Another example was watching David Gordon Green’s film “Stronger” (2017) with Jake Gyllenhaal, which was really kind of eye-opening because it was the first time in a long time I had seen a disabled character living in a house that was not designed for a wheelchair. And watching that character struggle to move around, to transfer to a toilet in a small bathroom, to transfer into a car — these moments are not big moments, but the fact that Green shows them is kind of amazing because I still meet people who are shocked that I can drive a car, because they’ve never seen it. And if you’ve never seen it and you don’t interact with disabled people, then, yeah, you’re not going to know that we can drive cars.

Q: Is there a stigma against hiring disabled actors?

A: There definitely is. Marissa Bode, who plays Nessarose in “Wicked” has talked about the fact that we still have abled actors “cripping up,” which is the terminology for when abled actors play disabled characters. I come at it from a slightly different perspective because I am an entertainment journalist and I understand, OK, butts in seats and movie stars sell.

In 1932, when Todd Browning does the horror-drama “Freaks,” it sets up this idea that disabled actors are inexperienced and can’t act and therefore can only play themselves. So if a movie doesn’t call for a disability, why would you hire a disabled actor?

Q: Let’s talk about disability in the horror genre.

A: Horror has always been hospitable to the disabled, I think, because monsters are coded that way, going back to the Boris Karloff version of “Frankenstein” (1931).

But horror movies also often have disabled lead characters and disabled women, in particular. I love the Chucky films; actress Fiona Dourif is not a disabled woman, but the character uses a wheelchair and the director Don Mancini spends time showing you how she cooks, how she navigates space. A criticism of the premise is that Chucky is 3 feet tall, you could just kick him, and Mancini’s like, wouldn’t it be great to look at a heroine who wouldn’t have that ability? And the way that she gets out of situations is really inventive and it’s great to see that she’s not a victim. That she’s not a helpless damsel waiting for an abled person to save her.

Q: What’s one film you think captures disability well?

A: I love “Coming Home” from 1978. It’s the story of a Vietnam vet, played by Jon Voight, who is a wheelchair user who is trying to find his way in a world of changing political morals, and being a disabled man, and he falls into a relationship with a woman, played by Jane Fonda, who is the wife of another vet. There are some abled actors who have done an amazing job playing disabled characters and that’s true here. I love the bits of business, like the way Voight wheels the wheelchair, the way that he moves through space. It feels authentic.

Q: Also, he’s a sexual character and I feel like most depictions of disabled people tend to be asexual.

A: And if you’re a woman? Don’t expect to have sex at all. But yeah, “Coming Home” has a beautiful sex scene that’s hot regardless of the disability or not. And it’s a sex scene where the sexiness is in their communication. There’s a lot of discussion around, what’s going to work for him and “are you comfortable?”

Q: What’s one film that makes your skin crawl with its depiction of disability?

A: There are so many, but the one I always go for is “Me Before You” (2016) with Emilia Clarke and Sam Claflin. He plays a wealthy wheelchair user who lives in a castle and he is a curmudgeon who wants to kill himself because he doesn’t want to be disabled anymore. His family hires him an unqualified caregiver played by Clarke, who flirts with the line of being a sex worker. The hope is that he’ll fall in love with her and not want to kill himself. It’s based on a romance novel and it always makes me mad. I’m like, dude, you have nothing to complain about, you live in a castle, you have a tricked out van so you can go wherever you want and you’re still not happy.

And it sets a bad precedent for caregivers of disabled people. If you’re a woman, what’s the line between sex work and caregiving? That’s a thing that happens way too much in these types of movies. And the fact that she doesn’t listen to him; there are so many scenes where he tells her, as a wheelchair user, what works for his experience, and she’s like, “You don’t know!”

It’s just so stereotypical that disabled people are angry about their disability, but also financially well-off and are just waiting for their turn to die. It never ceases to piss me off.

Netflix’s deal to acquire Warner Bros., one of Hollywood’s oldest movie studios, poses seismic shifts to the entertainment industry and the future of moviegoing.

As one of the remaining “big five” studios, the 102-year-old Warner Bros. is an essential part of movie theater business.

The studio currently boasts three of the top five earning films domestically, including “A Minecraft Movie,” in first place, “Superman” and “Sinners,” as well as the Oscar frontrunner, “One Battle After Another.”

There are more questions than answers about how ownership from a streaming giant would change things for Warner Bros. It’s not even clear if it will pass antitrust scrutiny, or, if it does, what the details will look like.

Here are some things to know, and lingering questions, in the wake of the news.

Will Warner Bros. continue releasing movies in theaters?

Yes, but it might change as well. For starters, it’ll be at least 12 to 18 months before the deal officially goes through and moviegoers can expect essentially business as usual until then. Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said Friday that they will “continue to support” a “life cycle that starts in the movie theater” for Warner Bros. movies. But he also commented that he doesn’t think that “long exclusive windows” are consumer friendly.

With the rise of streaming, and especially in the pandemic era, studios experimented with different theatrical windows. For many years, a 90-day theatrical window was standard, but now it’s closer to 45 days and often a film-by-film decision.

Netflix and movie theaters

Netflix does release some films theatrically, but not usually more than a few weeks before they hit streaming. Sometimes that’s to qualify for awards eligibility, sometimes it’s a gesture to top filmmakers. This year those releases included Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein,” Kathryn Bigelow’s “A House of Dynamite” and Noah Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly.”

Major chains like AMC and Regal had refused to program Netflix releases until 2022, when enthusiasm for the “Knives Out” movie “Glass Onion” helped break the stalemate.

Earlier this year, “KPop Demon Hunters” unofficially topped the box office charts, earning nearly $20 million from a one-weekend run in theaters two full months after it debuted on the streamer.

Netflix also owns and operates several movie theaters, including the Paris Theater in New York and the Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles.

Upcoming Warner Bros. movies

The studio has a diverse slate of films expected in 2026, with high profile titles including the Margot Robbie-led “Wuthering Heights” in February, “Supergirl” in June, “Practical Magic 2” in September, Alejandro Iñárritu’s untitled Tom Cruise movie in October and Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Three” in December.

Movies planned for 2027 include sequels to “Superman,” “A Minecraft Movie” and “The Batman.”

Earlier this year the company said its target was 12 to 14 releases annually across its four main labels, Warner Bros. Pictures, DC Studios, New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. animation.

What does it mean for movie theaters?

So much of this depends on the details, but Cinema United president and CEO Michael O’Leary said hours before the news broke that it posed “an unprecedented threat to the global exhibition business.”

He added: “Regulators must look closely at the specifics of this proposed transaction and understand the negative impact it will have on consumers, exhibition and the entertainment industry.”

Theatrical exhibition has not fully recovered since the pandemic. Before 2020, the annual domestic box office regularly surpassed $11 billion. Since then it has only surpassed $9 billion once, in 2023, driven largely by “Barbie,” a Warner Bros. release.

How will top filmmakers react?

It’s too early to tell, but Warner Bros. has always prided itself on being one of the premier homes for top filmmakers, this year releasing films from Paul Thomas Anderson, Ryan Coogler and James Gunn. Other longstanding relationships include Villeneuve, who has “Dune: Part Three” coming next year, Clint Eastwood and Todd Phillips. Much likely depends on whether robust theatrical releases will be honored — many of these filmmakers are vocal champions of the theatrical experience and may not stick around if it shifts.

The studio’s controversial decision to release films simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max in 2021 during the pandemic led to a rift with Christopher Nolan, who after making eight major films with the company, including the “Dark Knight” trilogy, partnered with Universal to make his next two films, “Oppenheimer” and next year’s “The Odyssey.”

Will HBO Max and Netflix become one service?

That’s also unclear. If the two platforms remain separate subscriptions, there may be “bundling” options, as with Disney and Hulu. Netflix on Friday said that the addition of HBO and HBO Max programming will give its members “even more high-quality titles from which to choose” and “optimize its plans for consumers.”

The Warner Bros. library of films includes classics like “Casablanca” and “Citizen Kane” as well as the “Harry Potter” movies.

With more than its fair quota of quaint towns, pretty parks and sandy beaches laced along 300 miles of shoreline, Wisconsin’s Door County has long been a popular Midwest summer getaway. But this slender peninsula sandwiched between Lake Michigan and Green Bay has plenty of appeal in winter, too. And a new holiday movie aims to show it.

“A Wisconsin Christmas Pie” stars Katie Leclerc (“Switched at Birth”) as a Chicago pastry chef who returns home to Door County, where she has to deal with her family’s struggling orchard and a rekindled crush on a high-school flame. It’s your typical feel-good, hygge-filled holiday flick — as well as a love letter to a vacation destination that often gets overlooked when the temperature drops.

Movie scenes unfold among the snow-covered branches of Peninsula State Park and rows of dormant cherry trees at Lautenbach’s Orchard Country, which doubles as the beleaguered family business in the film. Characters stroll between stalls selling cherry jam, alpaca sweaters and dried lavender at Christkindlmarkt, an annual event in the northern county hamlet of Sister Bay. A candy-apple red Door County trolley cruises through fat snowflakes along the serene coast.

“People who are here in the winter always say it looks like a Christmas movie, and now it is,” said Jon Jarosh, head of communications for Destination Door County.

If viewers are going to make a game out of it and drink every time the film makes a Wisconsin reference, they’d better have a brandy old-fashioned glass the size of a paint bucket. The movie is stuffed with Badger State shout-outs, from New Glarus beer and Renard’s cherry cheddar cheese to an appearance by former Green Bay Packers running back Ahman Green.

Door County’s tourism office helped bankroll the production, which recently debuted on the Great American Family network and various streaming services.

“It puts the focus on a different time of year that’s not May through October — our high season,” said Jarosh, who dressed in a cherry pie costume for his cameo. (“I hope I don’t get typecast,” he laughed.)

Almost half of the annual visitors to Door County, often dubbed the Cape Cod of the Midwest, come in June, July and August. December, January and February account for only 8% of the region’s overnight stays, according to the tourism bureau.

Winter might mean some businesses pare back hours, but the county doesn’t hibernate through the frostier months. Parks turn into cold-weather playgrounds for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, sledding and snowmobiling. Anglers head onto carpets of ice to catch whitefish, walleye and northern pike. (Fishing charter guides can hook up novices with the necessary bait, gear and shanties.)

The Ridges Sanctuary offers hiking and luminaria-lit boardwalks at its 1,700-acre nature preserve in Baileys Harbor, a lighthouse-studded town on the Lake Michigan side of the peninsula. Door County Trolley runs holiday pub crawls and winter wine tours, and Mayberry’s Carriages has horse-drawn sleigh rides at Lautenbach’s Orchard, one of the filming locations.

The county’s largest city, Sturgeon Bay, is home to about 10,000 people — and the Door County Maritime Museum, a good spot to warm up indoors. The tourist attraction draws about 100,000 visitors a year, many of whom come to learn about the plethora of shipwrecks filling the surrounding waters. The county’s name stems from the French phrase for death’s door. It’s a reference to the treacherous passage between the north end of the peninsula and Washington Island, the largest of Door County’s 34 isles and the only one with a year-round community.

The maritime museum sits along Sturgeon Bay’s working waterfront, the backdrop for one of the film’s flirty scenes between Emma the pastry chef and fisherman Mitch Henriksen. The latter character’s name is a nod to the county’s real-life whitefish suppliers, Henriksen Fisheries. The longtime business is selling its whitefish chowder along with some movie merch at this year’s Christkindlmarkt.

Lake Michigan whitefish is the star ingredient of the beloved Door County fish boil. The outdoor event involves tossing kerosene on a fire, causing a giant kettle of fish, potatoes and onions to boil over. The blaze gets rid of the fish oil that’s floated to the top of the cauldron. This culinary spectacle with Scandinavian roots is a hot ticket with tourists in the summer, but some places keep the tradition going all year.

The White Gull Inn in Fish Creek puts on winter fish boils Fridays and Sundays. “A Wisconsin Christmas Pie” cast and crew were supposed to shoot their requisite fish boil scene at this historic inn and restaurant, but a lightning storm quashed those plans. It ended up being filmed at Waterfront Mary’s Bar and Grill in Sturgeon Bay, where visitors can catch a fish boil on Saturdays in winter.

Both fish boil joints are among the 16 stops that make up the new Door County Christmas movie trail. At each location, people get points for checking in with their mobile phone. These points can be redeemed for movie-themed prizes at the Door County welcome center in Sturgeon Bay.

“We have coffee mugs to give away and a special blend from Door County Coffee for people to enjoy,” Jarosh said, “hopefully while they’re watching the film.”

Lori Rackl is a freelance writer.

©2025 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

NEW YORK (AP) — Netflix struck a deal Friday to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, the Hollywood giant behind “Harry Potter” and HBO Max, in a $72 billion deal that would bring together two of the biggest players in television and film and potentially reshape the entertainment industry.

If approved by regulators, the merger would put two of the world’s biggest streaming services under the same ownership — and join Warner’s television and motion picture division, including DC Studios, with Netflix’s vast library and its production arm, which has released popular titles such as “Stranger Things” and “Squid Game.”

“For more than a century, Warner Bros. has thrilled audiences, captured the world’s attention, and shaped our culture,” David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, said in a statement. “By coming together with Netflix, we will ensure people everywhere will continue to enjoy the world’s most resonant stories for generations to come.”

The cash and stock deal is valued at $27.75 per Warner share, giving it a total enterprise value of $82.7 billion, including debt. The transaction is expected to close in the next 12 to 18 months, after Warner completes its previously announced separation of its cable operations. Not included in the deal are networks such as CNN and Discovery.

The proposed merger could draw intense antitrust scrutiny, particularly for its effects on movie making and streaming subscriptions.

“Netflix is the top streaming service today. Now combined with HBO Max, it will absolutely cement itself as the Goliath in the streaming industry,” said Mike Proulx, vice president and research director at Forrester, a market research company.

Will streaming services stay separate or combine?

One of the big unanswered questions, Proulx added, is whether HBO Max and Netflix would “stay as separate streaming services or combine into a mega streaming service.”

But either way, he said, customers could see some price relief in the form of a single subscription bill or bundle promotions, which would be a welcome change as streaming prices continue to rise and consumers feel the pinch of paying for multiple services.

Of course, that all depends on whether the deal goes through. Netflix on Friday maintained that the addition of HBO and HBO Max programming will give its members “even more high-quality titles from which to choose” and “optimize its plans for consumers.”

Others warned that a Netflix-Warner combo could create an even bigger entertainment titan with ramifications for both consumers and people working across the film and TV industry. Critics said the consequences could include job losses and a reduced variety of content.

Gaining Warner’s legacy studios would mark a notable shift for Netflix, particularly its presence in theaters. Under the proposed acquisition, Netflix has promised to continue theatrical releases for Warner’s studio films, honoring Warner’s contractual agreements for movie releases.

Netflix has kept most of its original content within its core online platform. But there have been exceptions, including qualifying runs for its awards contenders, including this year’s “Frankenstein,” limited theater screenings of a “KPop Demon Hunters” sing-a-long and its coming “Stranger Things” series finale.

“Our mission has always been to entertain the world,” Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix, said in a statement, adding that merging with Warner will “give audiences more of what they love.”

Critics question potential effect on movie theaters and filmmakers

Critics said a Netflix-Warner combo would be bad news for people who love to go to movie theaters and for those who work in them. Cinema United — a trade association that represents more than 30,000 movie screens in the U.S. and another 26,000 screens internationally — was quick to oppose the deal, which it said “poses an unprecedented threat to the global exhibition business.”

“Netflix’s stated business model does not support theatrical exhibition. In fact, it is the opposite,” Michael O’Leary, CEO of Cinema United, said Friday. “Theaters will close, communities will suffer, jobs will be lost.”

The Writers Guild of America sound a similar alarm and called for the merger to be blocked. The Producers Guild of America said the Netflix deal must prove that it protects workers’ livelihoods and theatrical distribution.

“Legacy studios are more than content libraries — within their vaults are the character and culture of our nation,” it added.

Warner Bros., which is 102 years old, is one of the “big five” studios left in Hollywood. If the Netflix sale goes through, the remaining legacy studios would be Disney, Paramount, Sony Pictures and Universal.

Friday’s announcement arrived after a monthslong bidding war for Warner. Rumors of interest from Netflix, as well as NBC owner Comcast, started bubbling up in the fall. Skydance-owned Paramount, which completed its own $8 billion merger in August, also reportedly made several all-cash offers.

Paramount seemed like the front-runner for some time, and unlike Netflix or Comcast, it was reportedly vying to buy Warner’s entire company, including its cable networks and news business.

Beyond combining two of Hollywood’s legacy studios, that would have brought Paramount-owned CBS and Warner’s CNN under the same roof. Such sizeable consolidation would have vastly reshaped America’s TV media landscape, and perhaps raised questions about shifts in editorial control — as seen at CBS News both leading up to and following Skydance’s purchase of Paramount.

Paramount did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday from The Associated Press.

Regulators and politics could decide fate of deal

While Netflix’s bid won over Warner’s approval, experts stressed that a bumpy regulatory road lies ahead.

“No doubt politics are going to come into play,” Proulx said. He pointed particularly to the Trump administration’s relationship with the family of Larry Ellison, whose son David runs Paramount, and reports of that company’s frustrations over Warner’s sale process — both of which, he noted, “can’t be ignored as part of the calculus as to the outcome of all of this.”

Christina DePasquale, a Johns Hopkins University professor who specializes in antitrust issues, said the government might be skeptical of a streaming behemoth controlling both the production and distribution of content.

Warner Bros. Discovery, which was formed just three and a half years ago, announced its intention to split its streaming and studio operations from its cable business back in June. The move arrived as more and more consumers continue to “cut the cord” and rely almost entirely on streaming.

The company outlined plans for HBO, HBO Max, as well as Warner Bros. Television, Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group and DC Studios, to become part of a new streaming and studios company. That is what Netflix is now acquiring. Meanwhile, networks such as CNN, Discovery and TNT Sports and other digital products will make up a separate cable counterpart called Discovery Global.

Warner signaled that it was open to a sale of all of parts of its business back in October, citing “unsolicited interest” it had received. Now that it’s agreed to Netflix’s bid, Discovery Global is set to become a new publicly traded company by the third quarter of 2026.

Ott reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Matt Sedensky in New York and Lindsey Bahr in Pittsburgh contributed to this report.

The coming months will bring everything from family fare to award-hopeful dramas to thrillers.

Oh, and the next “Avatar.”

Here’s a look at much of what’s coming to a theater near you and a streaming device in your living room into early 2026. And remember that these release dates, the latest we have for the Northeast Ohio market, are subject to change.

“Eternity” | Nov. 26 | Theaters >> This high-concept romantic comedy directed by David Freyne (“Dating Amber”) is set during the week after your death, when you make decisions about your eternity, including with whom you’ll spend it. Miles Teller, Elizabeth Olsen and Callum Turner star.

“Jingle Bell Heist” | Nov. 26 | Netflix >> Christmas, crime, comedy and romance mix in this seasonal romp. Olivia Holt’s Sophie and Connor Swindells’ Nick are thieves who discover they both have their sights set on the same score. Hmm, could jingle bells give way to wedding bells for this morally challenged pair?

“Zootopia 2” | Nov. 26 | Theaters >> It’s one of the great mysteries of the world: Why did it take Walt Disney Animation Studios so long to put out a sequel to the 2016 hit “Zootopia”? Sure, you can cite the idea of not rushing things, strategic positioning and the like, but we’re talking about an initial offering that made north of $1 billion at the box office. Regardless, the follow-up is finally here, with Ginnifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman back to voice optimistic rabbit police officer Judy Hopps and con artist-turned-cop fox Nick Wilde, respectively. Ke Huy Quan (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) joins the fun as Gary De’Snake, a viper trying to save his family from some bad animals. Jared Bush, co‑writer of the original, returns to write and co‑direct alongside fellow returnee Byron Howard.

“The Thing With Feathers” | Nov. 28 | Theaters >> Benedict Cumberbatch portrays a father left to raise two boys after his wife’s death in this British drama. This challenging time in his life is amplified by the presence in the house of what he perceives as a large crow, which taunts him from the shadows. Dylan Southern, whose experience is largely with documentaries, writes and directs, adapting the 2015 novel “Grief Is the Thing with Feathers” by Max Porter.

“Hamnet” | Dec. 5 | Theaters >> Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”) is the director of this historical drama. It concerns the death of Hamnet, the son of William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and his wife, Agnes (Jessie Buckley), which leads to him penning “Hamlet.” Zhao co-wrote the screenplay with the author of the novel from which the film has been adapted, Maggie O’Farrell.

“Oh. What. Fun.” | Dec. 5 | Prime Video >> Talented director Michael Showalter (“The Big Sick,” “The Lovebirds”) tries his hand at a Christmas comedy with this romp. With action built around a missing mom who’d previously gone underappreciated, it boasts an ensemble that includes Michelle Pfeiffer, Felicity Jones, Dominic Sessa, Chloë Grace Moretz, Eva Longoria and Denis Leary. The story is credited to Chandler Baker (“Discretion”), who co-wrote the movie with Showalter.

“Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” | Dec. 5 | Theaters >> Emma Tammi is returning to helm the sequel to her 2023 supernatural horror romp “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” which was adapted from the popular video game series in which players must survive an evening of attacks from animatronic characters in a pizza joint. Returning cast members include Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio and Matthew Lillard. They’re joined by newcomers Mckenna Grace, Wayne Knight and Lillard’s old “Scream” buddy Skeet Ulrich. The creator of the games, Scott Cawthon, who co-wrote the first movie, has the lone screenwriting credit on this one, which is expected to be an adaptation of the game “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2.”

“Jay Kelly” | Dec. 5 | Netflix >> Already enjoying a limited theatrical release, the latest effort from filmmaker Noah Baumbach (“The Squid and the Whale,” “White Noise”) serves up the intriguing on-screen tandem of George Clooney and Adam Sandler. Famous actor Clooney is asked to show his range by playing … a famous actor, the titular Jay Kelly, while Sandler portrays Jay’s manager and friend, Ron Sukenick, in this dramedy about life and legacy. The supporting cast includes Laura Dern, Billy Crudup, Riley Keough and “Barbie” director Greta Gerwig, Baumbach’s wife and his co-writer on the acclaimed 2012 film “Frances Ha.” Baumbach penned “Jay Kelly” with actress Emily Mortimer, who also appears in the movie.

“Merrily We Roll Along” | Dec. 5 | Theaters >> As director Richard Linklater applies his decades-long, “Boyhood” approach to a live-action adaptation of this Stephen Sondheim-George Furth musical, theater fans can experience this live-recording film of the Tony Award-winning 2023 revival. The story follows three friends over the course of 20 years, and actors Jonathan Groff and Daniel Radcliffe earned Tonys for their work, while actress Lindsay Mendez was nominated. The Sony Pictures Classics offering is arriving in theaters via Fathom Entertainment.

“Merv” | Dec. 10 | Prime Video >> In this romcom, Zooey Deschanel and Charlie Cox play exes who are concerned their dog isn’t himself after their split, so it’s off to Florida with him for the holidays! Jessica Swale directs from a screenplay by Canadian husband-and-wife tandem Dane Clark and Linsey Stewart (“I Put a Hit on You”).

“Dust Bunny” | Dec. 12 | Theaters >> Known for well-thought-of TV shows “Pushing Daisies” and “Hannibal,” Bryan Fuller makes his feature-film debut as the writer-director of this horror thriller. Fuller has recruited “Hannibal” star Mads Mikkelsen to play a hitman asked by a girl (Sophie Sloan) to help kill a monster under her bed, whom she believes to be responsible for her parents’ death. Sigourney Weaver is among the supporting players.

“Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” | Dec. 12 | Netflix >> Considering that 2022’s “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” was an improvement over 2019’s “Knives Out,” we’re expecting big, deadly fun things from this third entry in writer-director Rian Johnson’s whodunit film series built around clever detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig). Already playing in select theaters, “Wake Up Dead Man” boasts an ensemble that also includes Josh Brolin, Glenn Close, Jeremy Renner, Josh O’Connor, Kerry Washington and Andrew Scott. The titular dead man is a priest, Brolin’s Jefferson Wicks, with Blanc poking around the monsignor’s congregation for clues connected to his mysterious passing.

“Avatar: Fire and Ash” | Dec. 19 | Theaters >> It’s hard to believe that, after all these years, we’ll soon be over the theoretical “Avatar” hump. After delays, director James Cameron’s second of four planned sequels to his technologically amazing 2009 film, “Avatar,” is due in theaters. (Yes, it’s time to wear 3-D glasses again.) This follow-up to 2022’s visually dazzling “Avatar: The Way of Water” is expected to continue the tale of the Na’vi family led by former human Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana). They will encounter the dangerous Ash Na’vi people while also continuing to contend with longtime enemy Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) and his forces. How this third, very expensive “Avatar” does at the box office — “The Way of Water” made mountains of money — will help determine whether Cameron is able to move forward with the fourth and fifth installments.

“The Housemaid” | Dec. 19 | Theaters >> Paul Feig (“A Simple Favor”) directs this psychological thriller starring Sydney Sweeney. She portrays Millie Calloway, hired by Nina Winchester (Amanda Seyfried) as a housemaid for her wealthy family. Millie has a troubled past, and she discovers the Winchesters may be hiding some things themselves. Rebecca Sonnenshine (“The Boys”) penned the screenplay, adapting Freida McFadden’s 2022 novel.

“Is This Thing On?” | Dec. 19 | Theaters >> Will Arnett, of “Arrested Development,” “SmartLess” and TV commercial voiceover work fame, portrays a stand-up comic trying to figure out his existence now that he’s no longer living with his ex-wife and their kids. This is the latest directorial effort from Arnett’s pal Bradley Cooper, following impressive efforts “A Star Is Born” (2018) and “Maestro” (2023). Cooper, Arnett and Mark Chappell (“See How They Run”) collaborated on the screenplay.

“The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants” | Dec. 19 | Theaters >> SpongeBob (voiced by Tom Kenny) goes on a dangerous journey to prove his bravery to Mr. Krabs (Clancy Brown) in this fourth big-screen adventure for the kid-friendly animated character. A notable addition to the voice cast: Mark Hamill takes on the role of The Flying Dutchman.

“Goodbye June” | Dec. 24 | Netflix >> Kate Winslet makes her directorial debut with this holiday drama, which is getting a limited theatrical release on Dec. 12 before landing on the streaming giant. Just before Christmas, the health of a matriarch (Helen Mirren) takes a turn, bringing her children together, with messy family dynamics to be explored as the potential loss approaches. The cast also boasts Toni Collette, Andrea Riseborough, Timothy Spall, Johnny Flynn and Winslet. The movie is penned by Joe Anders, Winslet’s son.

“Anaconda” | Dec. 25 | Theaters >> The appealing duo of Paul Rudd and Jack Black headlines this comedy-focused meta reboot of the “Anaconda” horror franchise, dating to the 1997 movie of the same name. The pair play buddies who venture to the Amazon rainforest on a passion project — remaking (cough) a certain film from the late 1990s — and run afoul of … well, you know. (Nothing says “Christmas” like giant snakes!) “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” director Tom Gormican is at the helm and co-wrote the screenplay with Kevin Etten, with whom he also penned that enjoyable Nicolas Cage-focused romp.

“Marty Supreme” | Dec. 25 | A24 >> A few months after his younger brother and filmmaking partner on “Uncut Gems” and other projects, Benny Safdie, brought fact-based sports drama “The Smashing Machine” to theaters, Josh Safdie serves up this sports dramedy inspired by the story of Marty Reisman, an American table tennis player from the mid 1900s. Timothée Chalamet stars as Marty Mauser, with the film’s supporting cast featuring Gwyneth Paltrow. Safdie co-wrote the screenplay with Ronald Bronstein, who has long worked with the brothers.

“Song Sung Blue” | Dec. 25 | Theaters >> Craig Brewer (“Hustle & Flow”) writes and directs this biopic musical film based on the documentary from 2008 of the same name about a Neil Diamond tribute band, Lightning & Thunder. Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson portray the band’s husband-and-wife tandem. Will you spend part of your Christmas belting out “Sweet Caroline”?

“We Bury the Dead” | Jan. 2 | Theaters >> “Star Wars” alum Daisy Ridley plays a woman desperately seeking her husband in a quarantine zone after a military accident, where, a news release tells us, “the dead don’t just rise — they hunt.” Written and directed by Zak Hilditch (“1922”), this one may be just what you need to kick the last remnants of your New Year’s hangover.

“Greenland 2: Migration” | Jan. 9 | Theaters >> Director Ric Roman Waugh returns, as do stars Gerard Butler and Morena Baccarin, for the sequel to the 2020 post-apocalyptic disaster thriller “Greenland.” In this second chapter, the Garrity family — led by Butler’s John and Baccarin’s Allison — must abandon their bunker in Greenland and make a dangerous trek across Europe in the name of finding a new home.

“The Rip” | Jan. 16 | Netflix >> Longtime pals and collaborators Matt Damon and Ben Affleck share the screen again as Miami cops. In the drama written and directed by Jo Carnahan (“Narc,” “The A-Team”), their characters’ lives are complicated when they seize millions of dollars.

“28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” | Jan. 16 | Theaters >> Director Nia DaCosta (2021’s “Candyman”) takes the reins from Danny Boyle on this follow-up to his “28 Years Later” from earlier this year. (Boyle directed 2003’s “28 Days Later,” launching the post-apocalyptic franchise in which humans try to survive those turned into vicious creatures by the Rage Virus, but served only as a producer on its 2007 sequel, “28 Weeks Later.”) It felt as if “28 Years Later” existed largely to set up “Bone Temple,” which will see Jack O’Connell front and center as cult leader Sir Jimmy Crystal, a character teased in the previous movie. Ralph Fiennes will again play Dr. Ian Kelson, a major figure from this year’s entry. Like all films in the series save for “28 Weeks Later,” this one is penned by Alex Garland (“Civil War”).

“Send Help” | Jan. 30 | Theaters >> Sam Raimi (the “Spider-Man” trilogy) is in the director’s chair for this black comedy thriller that will see a pair of coworkers (Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien) marooned on an island after a plane crash. They’ll have to get past some work-related baggage if they are to survive.

“Mercy” | Jan. 23 | Theaters >> Chris Pratt portrays a detective who has only an hour and a half to prove he didn’t kill his wife in this science-fiction thriller helmed by Timur Bekmambetov (“Wanted”). The supporting cast includes Rebecca Ferguson and Kali Reis, who was impactful as one of the leads of the excellent HBO series “True Detective: Night Country” in 2024.

“Crime 101” | Feb. 13 | Theaters >> In this crime thriller, Chris Hemsworth portrays a jewel thief and Mark Ruffalo a detective on the case. The supporting cast features Barry Keoghan, Halle Berry, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Monica Barbaro. Known for documentary films such as 2012’s “The Imposter,” Bart Layton is the director and writer, having adapted the screenplay from a novella by Don Winslow.

“Goat” | Feb. 13 | Theaters >> The voice cast of this sports-centered animated offering boasts Gabrielle Union, Nick Kroll, David Harbour, NBA great Stephen Curry and myriad others. Caleb McLaughlin (“Stranger Things”) voices the main character, Will, a goat who’s out to prove a smaller animal can hang with the big ones in the sport of roarball.

“Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” | Feb. 13 | Theaters >> In this tale said to be a mix of science fiction, comedy and action, Sam Rockwell stars as a man from the future who drops by Los Angeles to battle an artificial intelligence. Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Peña, Zazie Beetz and Juno Temple are among the supporting players. Gore Verbinski (“The Ring,” ”Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”) directs.

“Wuthering Heights” | Feb. 13 | Theaters >> After two impressive directorial efforts, 2020’s “Promising Young Woman” and 2023’s “Saltburn,” Emerald Fennell helms this latest adaptation of Emily Brontë’s classic novel. Also responsible for the screenplay, Fennell has recruited “Saltburn” star Jacob Elordi to portray Heathcliff, while Margot Robbie is the woman Heathcliff desires, the wealthy Catherine Earnshaw. It’s a bit surprising this one is landing in theaters after awards season, but you can understand the business folks at Warner Bros. Pictures seemingly believing “Wuthering” will reach great financial heights as a Valentine’s Day release.