An avalanche of sequels and remakes in theaters: 'Superman,' 'Mission: Impossible,' 'The Karate Kid'...
2024 was a year saturated with film sequels, and the highest-grossing films were precisely sequels, especially animated ones. Topping the list was Disney's Inside Out 2 , which grossed $1.699 billion worldwide and broke multiple records. In second place was Marvel's Deadpool and Wolverine , and third was the fourth installment in the Gru universe with the scene-stealing minions, which grossed close to $1 billion. Moana 2 and Dune: Part 2 occupied the fourth and fifth tier, with Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice , and Kung Fu Panda 4 among the most-watched.
Read alsoThis 2025 kicked off with a new version of The Wolfman , a Snow White with the face of Rachel Zegler in the form of a live-action musical and we have seen Harrison Ford transformed into a red Hulk in the fourth film of the Captain America franchise . The major commercial cinema releases will extend until the end of the year following the trail of sequels, remakes and spin-offs seeking the support of a nostalgic audience loyal to stories they already know. To start with, we will have to see how the Spanish public responds to the Chinese Ne Zha 2 which, after becoming the highest-grossing animated film of all time with more than 2 billion dollars, will land in theaters on June 20. It is an epic and visually dazzling adventure that continues the fantasy franchise that began in 2019.
Still from the Chinese animated film 'Ne Zha 2'
This week, the tireless Tom Cruise will present Mission: Impossible - Final Judgment at the Cannes Film Festival, his eighth and, in principle, final adventure as agent Ethan Hunt in one of the most important action sagas of this century. It will be released in theaters on May 23, the same day as Lilo & Stitch , a live-action remake of the Disney classic about the friendship between a lonely Hawaiian girl and a mischievous blue alien. The original film was released in 2002 and directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, and had a sequel three years later.
Read also Tom Cruise will bring his new "Mission: Impossible" to Cannes, and Herzog will be honored in Venice. Astrid Meseguer
DeBlois is also at the helm of How to Train Your Dragon , a remake of the Dreamworks trilogy that he directed between 2010 and 2019. In this new offering, which hits theaters on June 12 with Mason Thames and Gerard Butler, Hiccup and Toothless take flight in live-action. Also returning with new adventures and mysteries to solve in the mammal metropolis are police officer Judy Hopps and the talkative fox Nick Wilde in Zootopia 2 , just nine years after the successful original film for which Shakira performed the main theme Try everything .
The John Wick universe, with Keanu Reeves playing the iconic hitman, will expand in Ballerina , a spin-off starring the Canadian actor and Cuban actress Ana de Armas in a violent revenge story that will be available from June 6. More Jurassic remake-flavored action will come from Scarlett Johansson in Jurassic World: Rebirth in a film dominated by mutant dinosaurs that takes place five years after the events of Dominion.
For his part, James Gunn will make his DC debut with his own take on the Man of Steel in Superman , where David Corenswet will don the superhero suit that was once so well worn by the late Christopher Reeve and later worn by Henry Cavill and Brandon Routh. Rachel Brosnahan will play Loise Lane and Nicholas Hoult will be in charge of bringing the villain Lex Luthor to life in this film, which will be released on July 11.
Still from 'Superman'
Warner BrosSummer will feature another superhero reboot, starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Fantastic Four: First Steps . Marvel's first family joins the MCU to begin its Phase 6 in the hopes of improving its relationship with an audience that didn't quite connect with the previous stories. At the end of June, coinciding with the start of the summer holidays, Santiago Segura will once again seek the complicity of Spanish families with the fifth installment of the juicy Father There Is Only One .
Read also Santiago Segura: “I've found inner peace through family films, and I love it.” Leonor Mayor Ortega
Another saga, the virtual TRON, is growing with a third film that serves as an independent sequel to Tron (1982) and Tron: Legacy (2010), which tells the story of Ares, a highly sophisticated program sent from the digital world to the real world on a dangerous mission that triggers the first encounter between humanity and artificial intelligence. Jared Leto and Greta Lee lead the cast. Former 007 agent Daniel Craig signs on for a third adventure in his role as detective Benoit Blanc in Knives Out: The Mystery of Lazarus , due out on Netflix in the fall.
In the horror genre, Blumhouse brings back the evil doll M3GAN (2023) in a 2.0 version where the future of human existence is at stake. Mexican Guillermo del Toro will resurrect Frankenstein , the famous Universal monster, in November on Netflix, with the help of Jacob Elordi and Oscar Isaac. There will be a new reboot of I Know What You Did Last Summer , one of the most famous slasher sagas of the late 90s. The Final Destination franchise reaches its nightmarish sixth installment, while Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson face a new case in The Conjuring 4 .
Read also Ethan Hawke, a child killer, returns to horror with 'Black Phone' Astrid Meseguer
After the positive reception of The Black Phone , Ethan Hawke returns, more disturbing than ever as The Captor in the second part, directed once again by Scott Derrickson. Two years after Five Nights at Freddy's , Emma Tammi resumes the sequel to the successful adaptation of the video game saga. And Danny Boyle, with a script by Alex Garland, returns 28 years later to the zombie story that made Cillian Murphy famous in 28 Days Later (2002). The film, shot with an iPhone 15 Pro Max, tells the story of how the rage virus has returned and a group of survivors must survive in a world ravaged by hordes of infected. Oppenheimer 's star does not appear on screen this time, although he will do so in the next installment prepared by the British director.
Oscar Isaac in Guillermo del Toro's 'Frankenstein'
NetflixAnother famous franchise like the one that started in the eighties , Karate Kid, will bring back Ralph Macchio as the iconic Daniel LaRusso in Karate Kid: Legends . Towards the end of the year there will be more sequels, such as the musical Wicked , which swept the box office last year, again with Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande in the role of Glinda. As icing on the cake and with the expectation of breaking records as he did in the previous two installments, James Cameron will liven up the Christmas season with the science fiction Avatar: Fire and Ashes . The third part of the fantasy saga starring Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldaña introduces the People of Ashes, a not-so-peaceful Na'vi clan that will use violence to achieve their goals.
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