2020-five showcased A-list movie stars long-awaited finale and a K-pop smash that no one saw coming.

From sinners to Wicked for Good, one battle after another to K-pop demon hunters, Hollywood had a lot to smile about this year.

Which movies had movie lovers pumping their

fists and which films failed to connect. Hello, and welcome to USA Today is The Excerpt. I'm

Dana Taylor. Today is Friday, December 12, 2025. Joining me to share his insights on the fast-moving

world of film is USA Today Entertainment Reporter Ralphie Aversa. Thanks for closing out the year with us, Ralphie. Always a pleasure, Dana. Sinners made waves early in the year with critical praise and strong box office success, Ralphie. But what's a compelling takeaway from the success of this film? All right. Well, let me give you two. First of all, Ryan Coogler, the filmmaker here, he's got a very interesting deal with Warner Brothers where he's going to own this film after about 25 years. So that was certainly a bit of an eye-opener, and that's more of an industry takeaway. I think one of the bigger takeaways besides that is the idea of original storytelling.

This isn't a rehash.

This isn't a reimagination.

It's not a sequel.

Not to, you know, poo-poo on any of those.

But the fact that this was an original story, a predominantly black cast, I think this really

resonated with all audiences, but especially in the way that it

kind of reimagined the way in which horror stories are told, you know, with a black cast for

black audiences. This was a mainstream hit. It was, you know, top 10 at the box office, seven

Golden Globe nominations, including for Michael B. Jordan, the star of it. So, yeah, Sinners was just an

unbelievable breakout in 2025. Expectations were sky high for the follow-up to last year's Wicked.

Did Wicked for Good meet the moment? Yes. And I say it like that with that tone in my voice, because, you know, look, it was a box office hit.

I think the fans were very much satisfied.

But like, it's a tricky thing that John M. Chu is trying to do here when you take a musical and look, any musical, obviously the first act is longer than the second act, right?

So, you know, he took the wicked

musical and he split it into two movies, but he extended the second act. That's a really,

really tough thing to do. So I don't think it is as critically acclaimed as the first one.

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