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From engagements to mergers and box office heroes to unlikely chart toppers, 2025 was filled with memorable moments in Hollywood. As the year comes to a close, The Hollywood Reporter is taking a look back at the moments that defined 2025 in entertainment.

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00:00From engagements, to mergers, and box office heroes, to unlikely chart-toppers,
00:052025 was filled with memorable moments in entertainment.
00:09As the year comes to a close, The Hollywood Reporter is taking a look back at the moments
00:13that defined 2025 in Hollywood. First, let's talk about how DC finally ate Marvel.
00:20DC's Superman grossed about $616 million worldwide, outpacing Marvel's Fantastic Four
00:26First Steps, Captain America Brave New World, and Thunderbolts. Superman was the highest-grossing
00:32superhero movie of the year, marking Marvel's first loss at the box office since the MCU era began.
00:38Hey buddy, eyes up here.
00:42But perhaps the most unexpected hit of 2025 was this one.
00:50Huntrix went global, with Netflix and Sony Pictures' K-pop Demon Hunters, an animated fantasy
00:55about a fictional girl group who topped the charts by day and slayed demons by night.
01:00It became a full-blown phenomenon, with the film's soundtrack and infectious anthem Golden
01:04topping the Billboard 200 and Hot 100 charts IRL.
01:13Horror movies also had a major moment this year. As aging franchises and familiar reboots
01:18sputtered at the box office, a pair of original horror films scared up hundreds of millions
01:23of dollars in ticket sales.
01:24I love you, brother. Be careful. I will.
01:29Ryan Coogler's Sinners grossed $367.8 million worldwide on a $90 million budget, and improbably
01:37emerged as an awards season contender. And the small-town Nightmare Weapons grossed $268.2 million
01:43globally on a $38 million budget.
01:46Where are our children?
01:47We have a lot of emotional parents here. I think it's best if you keep some distance
01:53from this place.
01:54There were also late-night jitters, and Kimmel survived, but Colbert didn't. Late-night TV
01:59is long doubled as a political battlefield, but in 2025, the casualties became unmistakably
02:05real. The most dramatic hit came in July when Stephen Colbert announced during a taping of
02:09The Late Show that CBS would end the franchise in May. The timing raised eyebrows as CBS parent
02:15company, Paramount Global, was seeking government approval for its Skydance merger. With Colbert
02:20on the way out, the spotlight shifted to Jimmy Kimmel, and briefly, his future looked shaky.
02:25ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live! was put on indefinite suspension in September after a comment Kimmel
02:29made following the assassination of Charlie Kirk. But Kimmel ended up back on the air just
02:34three nights later thanks to widespread backlash. By December, ABC had renewed Kimmel for another
02:39year.
02:39And there was the moment Tilly Norwood almost got an agent. Hollywood discovered a new thing
02:44to panic about in 2025. An actress who doesn't eat, sleep, or negotiate because she isn't real.
02:50Tilly Norwood, an AI-generated performer, went from eerie experiment to industry flashpoint,
02:55the moment it emerged that talent agencies were circling her for representation.
02:59Needless to say, the backlash from real actors and the public was immediate.
03:04Meanwhile, Zaslav got the last laugh after all. Amidst the Netflix paramount tug-of-war over
03:09Warner Bros. Discovery in early December, Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav was suddenly
03:14in possession of the one company everyone wanted. But the battle for Warner Bros. Discovery isn't
03:19just another merger skirmish, as it represents a fundamental question about what the entertainment
03:24business is becoming. However, you could say the true merger of the year was Taylor Swift and
03:29Travis Kelsey. The pop superstar and Kansas City chief's tight end announced their engagement
03:33after two years of dating in August of 2025. The shared Instagram post revealing the news
03:39received 37 million likes. The news came ahead of Swift releasing her 12th studio album,
03:44The Life of a Showgirl, in October.
03:51And in 2025, Butch Cassidy and Annie Hall left the stage. The near-simultaneous deaths of Robert
03:58Redford and Diane Keaton rocked the industry this year. But it wasn't just the loss of two beloved,
04:03iconic stars. It felt like a double confirmation that an entire idea of Hollywood had finally
04:08slipped out of reach. For THR's full list of the 25 moments that defined 2025, head to THR.com.
04:15This is The Hollywood Reporter News.
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