Will ‘Zootopia 2,’ ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ and Other Holiday Hopefuls Salvage the 2025 Box Office?

There’s mounting pressure on a trio of holiday releases—Wicked: For Good and Disney’s animated Zootopia 2 at Thanksgiving, as well as James Cameron’s sci-fi epic Avatar: Fire and Ash at Christmas—to salvage the wildly inconsistent 2025 box office.

Exhibitors are aware they need to offer something that audiences can’t get at home. The Lindsay has tried to make moviegoing feel like an event. To celebrate Wicked, employees are decking out the theater with pink and green balloons and Instagram-worthy photo displays. For Zootopia, a wildlife wrangler from the Pittsburgh Zoo will stop by with an animal friend.

“It makes all the difference when we go the extra mile,” says Linsday CEO Carolina Pais-Barreto Thor. “It’s the personal touch that differentiates us from multiplexes and keeps people coming back.”