필사 모드: American Film and TV Roundup 2025-2026 — What the Oscars Picked and What Audiences Picked

• Introduction — 16 Nominations and 648 Million Views, Two Kinds of Success in the Same Year
• What the Oscars Picked in 2025
  • One Battle After Another
  • Sinners
  • Hamnet
• Genre Films Carried the Major Studios
  • Weapons
  • Superman
  • Avatar: Fire and Ash
• Where Streaming Overtook Theaters
  • KPop Demon Hunters
  • Stranger Things Season 5
• Series — What the Emmys Told Us
  • The Pitt
  • The Studio
  • Severance Season 2
  • DTF St. Louis
  • Beef Season 2
• First Half of 2026 — Theaters Got Big Again
  • The Odyssey
  • Project Hail Mary
  • Michael
  • The Devil Wears Prada 2
• The List at a Glance
• Closing — The Year Original Work Won, Which Made It an Uneasier Year, Too

Introduction — 16 Nominations and 648 Million Views, Two Kinds of Success in the Same Year

At the 98th Academy Awards, held on March 15, 2026, two numbers stood out. Ryan Coogler's Sinners picked up 16 nominations, tying the record for the most in Oscar history, while Best Picture went to Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another.

The Best Animated Feature winner at that same ceremony was KPop Demon Hunters, released on Netflix. The film racked up a cumulative 648.7 million views, becoming Netflix's most-watched film ever, and its theme song "Golden" won Best Original Song as well. Two categories went to a film that never played in theaters.

Sort through American content across 2025 and the first half of 2026, and this scene keeps repeating. Theaters put up big numbers again, while at the same time, work that never went through a theater walked onto the awards stage. This piece covers 17 titles. Where the way to watch is confirmed, it's noted; only the premise of each is introduced, not the turns of the story.

What the Oscars Picked in 2025

The major categories at the 98th Academy Awards were split among three films. Notably, none of the three was a major franchise entry.

One Battle After Another

September 2025 · Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson · Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn — IMDb

A political thriller based on Thomas Pynchon's novel Vineland. It follows Bob, a former member of a revolutionary group, confronting his past decades later, and mixes absurdist comedy, family drama, and action within a single film. It was the first collaboration between Paul Thomas Anderson and Leonardo DiCaprio. At the 98th Academy Awards it won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor, and was nominated in 13 categories overall.

Who'll love it — Audiences who enjoy a long film with constantly shifting tone, and who are comfortable reading American political cynicism as comedy. Who won't — Viewers who want a clearly stated theme and a tidy ending.

Sinners

April 2025 · Directed by Ryan Coogler · Starring Michael B. Jordan — Wikipedia

An original, R-rated vampire thriller set in 1930s Mississippi, unattached to any franchise. It earned $48 million in its opening weekend across 3,308 theaters in North America and went on to a final gross of $370 million, placing it among the top-grossing horror films of all time. At the Oscars it tied the record with 16 nominations, and Michael B. Jordan won Best Actor while Ryan Coogler won Best Original Screenplay.

As a case of an original-screenplay genre film dominating both the box office and the awards circuit in the same year, it was also the most frequently cited film in Hollywood in 2025.

Who'll love it — Audiences who want to see a genre film take on race and musical history head-on. Who won't — Viewers who'd see loading that much social weight onto a vampire movie as excessive.

Hamnet

November 2025 · Directed by Chloé Zhao · Starring Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal — IMDb

An adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's novel, dealing with Shakespeare's son, who died young, and what that loss left behind. The film's choice is to weight the story toward his wife rather than Shakespeare himself. It won the Audience Award at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, then opened in limited release on November 27 before expanding wide on December 12. It picked up 8 Oscar nominations, and Jessie Buckley won Best Actress.

Who'll love it — Audiences who think a film about loss is allowed to take its time. Who won't — Viewers who feel the literary reconstruction pushes emotion too hard.

Genre Films Carried the Major Studios

Outside the awards ceremonies, it was genre films that actually got people into theaters. The three results, though, diverged sharply.

Weapons

August 2025 · Directed by Zach Cregger · Starring Josh Brolin, Julia Garner — Wikipedia

Seventeen kids from the same third-grade class walk out of their homes at exactly 2:17 a.m. one night and vanish. Their teacher becomes the first suspect, while one father starts an investigation of his own. The film's method is stacking multiple characters' viewpoints one after another, and it's more interested in exposing adults dodging responsibility than in explaining the supernatural. Made for $38 million, it earned $270 million worldwide, and Amy Madigan won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for this role.

Who'll love it — Audiences who enjoy structure and staging over explanation in horror. Who won't — Viewers who care about the logical coherence of the supernatural premise.

Superman

July 2025 · Directed by James Gunn · Starring David Corenswet — The Hollywood Reporter box office coverage

Conceived as the fresh starting point for DC Studios. It opened July 11 across 4,135 theaters in North America, earning $125 million over its first three days, and went on to $615.1 million worldwide, the top-grossing superhero film of 2025. It was frequently noted for having outperformed all three films Marvel Studios released that same year. It's been available on HBO Max since September 2025.

Who'll love it — Audiences tired of cynical superhero fare who want an optimistic tone. Who won't — Viewers who find films heavy on world-building exposition tedious.

Avatar: Fire and Ash

December 2025 · Directed by James Cameron — Box Office Mojo

The third installment in the Avatar series, widening the stage to Pandora's new tribes and the conflict they're caught in. It grossed $1.486 billion worldwide, making it James Cameron's fourth billion-dollar film. That said, its budget is reported around $400 million and its performance falls short of the two prior installments, prompting skeptical analysis about the franchise's next phase. In Korea it drew 6.7 million admissions, the second-highest box office of 2025.

Who'll love it — Audiences who go to theaters for the big screen and the format itself as the event. Who won't — Viewers who feel the story is thin relative to a runtime past three hours.

Where Streaming Overtook Theaters

In 2025 and 2026, the most-talked-about titles of the year emerged without ever playing in a theater. Two in particular.

KPop Demon Hunters

June 2025 · Co-directed by Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans · Produced by Sony Pictures Animation · Netflix — Netflix Tudum

An animated feature premised on a K-pop girl group, Huntrix, leading a double life as demon hunters, while their rival boy group, the Saja Boys, turn out to actually be demons. Released on Netflix on June 20, 2025, it racked up a cumulative 648.7 million views to become Netflix's most-watched film ever, and it was still on Netflix's film chart a full year later, in July 2026.

At the 98th Academy Awards it won Best Animated Feature, making Maggie Kang the first Korean woman to win in that category, and its theme song "Golden" became the first K-pop track to win Best Original Song. A sequel has been confirmed.

Who'll love it — Viewers curious how animation digests the visual grammar of K-pop. Who won't — Viewers uneasy with how Korean cultural elements get processed through an American studio's conventions.

Stranger Things Season 5

November 2025-January 2026 · Netflix — Variety viewership coverage

The series' final season, released by Netflix in staggered installments. The finale was released simultaneously on December 31, 2025, and screened in select theaters as well, drawing more than 1.1 million theatrical viewers in the US alone. It logged 31.5 million views in its release week, setting a New Year's Day viewership record for Netflix, and its cumulative 105.7 million views ranks 9th all-time among English-language series. Even so, it didn't surpass Season 4's numbers, and reaction to the ending was sharply divided.

Who'll love it — Viewers who've followed the show for close to a decade, and those who want the shape of the finale itself to be an argument. Who won't — Viewers weary of recent Netflix tentpole scheduling, where each episode's runtime keeps growing.

Series — What the Emmys Told Us

The 77th Primetime Emmy Awards, held September 14, 2025, belonged to three shows. And the 2026 nominee list shows the landscape shifting again.

The Pitt

January 2025 · HBO Max · Starring Noah Wyle — Britannica entry

A medical drama that follows a 15-hour shift in a Pittsburgh emergency room in real time. Because each episode corresponds to one hour, events carry over unresolved into the next episode, and that unresolved quality is what gives the show its rhythm. At the 77th Emmys it won 5 awards including Best Drama Series, and Noah Wyle won Best Actor. Season 2 premiered January 8, 2026, set against the backdrop of Independence Day, and led the 2026 Emmy nominations with 25.

Who'll love it — Viewers who want to see the reality of labor rather than romance in a medical drama. Who won't — Viewers who find the show's level of ER depiction hard to take. There's very little cushioning here.

The Studio

March 2025 · Apple TV · Starring Seth Rogen, Catherine O'Hara, Kathryn Hahn — Apple Newsroom

A comedy about a film studio head constantly stumbling between what the company demands and his own desire to make good movies. It takes the inner workings of Hollywood as its subject, with real film people appearing as themselves in large numbers. At the 77th Emmys it was nominated in 23 categories and won 13, the most wins for a single season of a comedy series ever. Seth Rogen, who won Best Actor, also set the record for most individual wins in a single night.

Who'll love it — Viewers who enjoy catching industry in-jokes. Who won't — Viewers uninterested in Hollywood's self-referential comedy about itself.

Severance Season 2

January 2025 · Apple TV — 77th Primetime Emmy Awards winners list

The continuing season of the story of employees who've surgically split their work memories from their personal ones. It had been three years since the show returned, and Britt Lower won Best Actress in a Drama Series at the 77th Emmys. Best Series went to The Pitt instead, but the particular sense of space this show builds through production design and cinematography is still hard to replace with anything else.

Who'll love it — Viewers who come for the metaphors about labor and selfhood rather than the mystery of the premise. Who won't — Viewers who have trouble tolerating a structure that keeps deferring answers into a second season.

DTF St. Louis

March 2026 · HBO · Created by Steve Conrad · Starring Jason Bateman, David Harbour, Linda Cardellini — Deadline interview

A dark-comedy miniseries where a triangle among three adults leads to one person's death. It scrambles chronology and layers multiple points of view to make you reconsider events. It premiered March 1, 2026, and picked up 13 Emmy nominations.

Who'll love it — Viewers who know Steve Conrad's particular dry humor from something like Patriot. Who won't — Viewers for whom simply following a nonlinear structure is exhausting.

Beef Season 2

April 2026 · Netflix · Starring Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Youn Yuh-jung, Song Kang-ho — Netflix Tudum

A pivot to an anthology format, returning with a completely new story and cast. Structured around a millennial couple in a crumbling marriage triggering a chain reaction at an upscale country club, with Youn Yuh-jung and Song Kang-ho joining the cast. It was released April 16, 2026, and picked up 16 nominations in the Emmys' Limited Series category.

Who'll love it — Viewers who liked Season 1's anger and class commentary and are fine starting fresh with new characters. Who won't — Viewers who wanted Season 1's characters to continue.

First Half of 2026 — Theaters Got Big Again

The first half of 2026 was the best theatrical stretch in recent years. That said, the mix is a blend of original work and franchise entries.

The Odyssey

July 2026 · Directed by Christopher Nolan · Starring Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway — Wikipedia

An adaptation of Homer's epic, Nolan's first new film three years after Oppenheimer. It opened July 17, earning $124.5 million over its North American opening weekend — the best opening ever for a Matt Damon film and the top opening of 2026. Within two weeks of release it had reached $289 million in North America and $652 million worldwide.

Who'll love it — Audiences who treat a Nolan IMAX screening as an event in itself. Who won't — Viewers who feel the source epic's structure doesn't translate well into film grammar.

Project Hail Mary

March 2026 · Co-directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller · Starring Ryan Gosling — Variety box office coverage

Based on Andy Weir's novel, this is science fiction about a man who wakes up with no memory, an enormous distance from Earth, and finds himself tasked with saving humanity. It opened March 20, earning $80 million over its North American opening weekend, the biggest opening in Amazon MGM's history, and reached a cumulative $655.7 million worldwide, the second-highest box office of the first half of 2026. In Korea it also drew 2.91 million admissions.

Who'll love it — Audiences who love hard sci-fi where the process of problem-solving is the fun itself. Who won't — Readers who expect the density the source novel's first-person narration provides.

Michael

April 2026 · Directed by Antoine Fuqua · Starring Jaafar Jackson — Official site

A biopic covering Michael Jackson's life, with his nephew, Jaafar Jackson, playing the lead role. It opened April 24, setting the record for the biggest opening ever for a music biopic, and streaming begins on Starz from August 10. That said, the total box office figure is reported differently across outlets — some in the $600 million range, some in the $1 billion range — and hasn't settled into one number. Given the nature of the subject, what the film would and wouldn't cover was a subject of ongoing debate even before release.

Who'll love it — Audiences going to theaters for the recreation of performance scenes and the music itself. Who won't — Viewers critical of how the biopic handles its subject's controversies.

The Devil Wears Prada 2

May 2026 · Directed by David Frankel · Starring Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci — 20th Century Studios official

A sequel arriving 20 years later, with Andy returning to Runway while Miranda has to find the magazine's place again inside a changed media landscape. It opened May 1, earning more than $600 million on a $100 million budget, and is currently available on Hulu and Disney+. Reception was mixed, with repeated notes that the original's edge had dulled.

Who'll love it — Audiences for whom simply seeing the original characters again is the whole point. Who won't — Viewers who wanted the sequel to keep the original's coldness intact.

The List at a Glance

One thing worth adding: Adolescence, which won the Limited Series category at the 77th Emmys, is a Netflix release, but it was produced in the UK. That's why it isn't included in this list.

Closing — The Year Original Work Won, Which Made It an Uneasier Year, Too

The single most striking thing across these 17 titles is what happened in 2025. Both the film with the most Oscar nominations and the year's single biggest talking point came from outside any franchise. Sinners was an original-screenplay, R-rated vampire film; One Battle After Another was an adaptation of a Pynchon novel; KPop Demon Hunters was a debut feature from first-time directors.

Look at the top of the box office for the first half of 2026, though, and the picture shifts back. Game adaptations, a sequel 20 years in the making, a bestseller adaptation, a biopic — these filled the ranks in turn. Original work's success was probably the exception, not a turn in the industry's direction.

The series side tells a similar story. After The Studio set the record for most wins by a single season of a comedy, the 2026 nominee list put a new anthology season and a miniseries back in front. It suggests the structure has shifted from one where a single show is beloved for years, to one that needs a fresh name every year. For the people making the work, that means more chances. For viewers, it means less to hold on to.