Happy New Year, That Park Place readers! Editor in Chief Marvin Montanaro here to reflect with you all on what 2025 meant in Hollywood and the entertainment landscape as we look forward into what 2026 might bring.
For years, Hollywood executives insisted audiences were the problem. Viewers were told they were behind the times, resistant to progress, or simply misunderstanding what creators were trying to say. When films failed, the blame was rarely placed on the product itself. Instead, it was shifted onto the audience. “A small but vocal minority” was their favorite refrain.
2025 put an end to that narrative.
Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards in Fantastic Four: First Steps – YouTube, Marvel Entertainment
This was the year ideological projects didn’t just underperform—they failed outright. Big-budget films built around messaging rather than storytelling collapsed at the box office, not because audiences were confused, but because they were uninterested. Snow White, Captain America: Brave New World, and Fantastic Four: First Steps weren’t rejected quietly. They were rejected decisively.
These weren’t niche experiments. They were legacy brands backed by massive studios and enormous marketing budgets. When audiences chose not to show up anyway, the message couldn’t be ignored: people are tired of being lectured by their entertainment.
Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Captain America in Marvel Studios‘ CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD. Photo by Eli Adé. © 2024 MARVEL.
Just as telling as what failed was what succeeded.
Movies that prioritized story, spectacle, and broad family appeal thrived. Lilo & Stitch, Zootopia 2, A Minecraft Movie, Avatar: Fire and Ash, and a whole bunch of smaller budget horror films proved that blockbusters are still very much alive when filmmakers focus on delivering what audiences actually want. These films didn’t treat viewers as students in a classroom or participants in a social campaign. They treated them as customers looking for escapism, adventure, and heart.
The contrast was impossible to miss.
Stitch and Nick Wilde – Disney
2025 wasn’t the year Hollywood “lost relevance.” It was the year Hollywood was forced to confront a truth it had spent years denying: audience goodwill is not infinite. When studios repeatedly put ideology ahead of storytelling, viewers respond by staying home.
And yet, the year also provided a warning.
As 2025 came to a close, Stranger Things demonstrated that the underlying mindset hasn’t disappeared. In a season centered on apocalyptic stakes and supernatural threats, the penultimate episode paused the narrative to elevate a teenager’s sexuality as the emotional centerpiece. For many viewers, it felt emblematic of the same creative priorities audiences had just rejected elsewhere.
Noah Schnapp as Will Beyers in Stranger Things 5 – Netflix
The backlash wasn’t rooted in confusion or intolerance. It was rooted in fatigue. Once again, storytelling momentum was sacrificed to make a point. Once again, audiences were told what they should feel instead of being allowed to experience a story naturally.
That moment served as a reminder: 2025 didn’t cure Hollywood’s ideological problem. It merely exposed it.
The real lesson of the year wasn’t victory—it was leverage. Audiences proved they still have power when they vote with their wallets. Box office numbers, streaming engagement, and audience scores made it clear that people don’t want ideology, DEI frameworks, or identity politics woven into their entertainment at the expense of narrative and character.
But that power only matters if it’s used consistently.
Review scores for Stranger Things Season 5 on December 29, 2025 – Rotten Tomatoes
If audiences don’t want lectures embedded in movies and television, they have to keep sending the same unmistakable message they sent in 2025. Don’t buy tickets. Don’t tune in. Give honest reviews. Don’t reward projects that ignore viewer preferences.
Hollywood understands one thing above all else: revenue.
The view count and dislike ratio for the second trailer for Disney’s live action Snow White starring Rachel Zegler – YouTube, Disney
2025 showed that when audiences speak clearly enough, even the biggest Hollywood studios have to listen. Whether that lesson sticks in 2026 depends entirely on whether viewers continue to hold the line.
Happy New Year from all of us at That Park Place!
UP NEXT: Netflix Buckles Under Demand as Stranger Things Finale Triggers Another Platform Crash
