'Superman,' 'The White Lotus,' and More Top IMDb's List of Most Popular Movies, Shows, and Stars of 2025 [Exclusive]

2025 is quickly drawing to a close, which means IMDb is looking back at the year that was in entertainment. The world’s go-to database for information on movies, television, celebrities, and more conducted its annual assessment of the most popular titles and stars from throughout the year based on its IMDbPro MOVIEmeter and STARmeter rankings. Compared to box office results or reviews, their lists pull from the page views of the over 250 million users of the website worldwide for a massive and diverse sample of what fans are interested in. Collider is excited to partner with IMDb to exclusively reveal the site’s findings, including its top ten films, television shows, stars, and breakout stars.

Topping the most popular film list was one of the features that defined the summer — Superman. The first cinematic entry of the new DCU under James Gunn was hotly anticipated from the moment it was first announced, as it also marked the first solo film for Clark Kent since Man of Steel. It ultimately delivered on its promise in the eyes of critics and audiences while earning a cool $616.7 million at the box office and supercharging a franchise that now has a follow-up film coming in 2027, spin-offs following fan-favorites like Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo) and Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi), and its next big outing, Supergirl, coming in June. Warner Bros. had a good year in general, taking up the top four spots, with Zach Cregger‘s horror epic Weapons, Ryan Coogler‘s Sinners, and Paul Thomas Anderson‘s One Battle After Another following the David Corenswet-led film. The rest of the list features mostly sequels and franchise fare, except for fan favorites Frankenstein and F1: The Movie, from Guillermo del Toro and Joseph Kosinski, respectively.

On the television side of things, The White Lotus‘s return for Season 3 in Thailand helped the show take the crown among IMDb visitors, beating out runners-up The Last of Us and Severance, which both debuted hotly anticipated sophomore seasons this year. Mike White‘s acclaimed anthology taking top honors isn’t necessarily surprising after it tied The Studio with 23 Emmy nominations earlier this year and featured a killer cast, including Leslie Bibb, Carrie Coon, Walton Goggins, Sarah Catherine Hook, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Jason Isaacs, and more. Half of the list was also dominated by Netflix shows, the highest being Wednesday in fourth place. While it was a big year for returning shows all the way down, there was one notable breakout on the list in Dept. Q, the crime thriller novel series adaptation starring Matthew Goode as DI Carl Morck.

The Biggest Titles Produced Even Bigger Stars

A glance at the most popular film and television lists also informs the results of IMDb’s star lists. Taking the crown overall as 2025’s most popular star was Isabela Merced, who not only joined the Justice Gang as Hawkgirl in Superman but also endured the horrors of The Last of Us Season 2 opposite Bella Ramsey. For her buzzy White Lotus romance with Goggins, meanwhile, Aimee Lou Wood finished in second and also topped the breakout star list, with Goode, who also finished third in the overall list, as her runner-up. Action legend Tom Cruise, fresh off wrapping his final turn as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, took fourth, followed by Sydney Sweeney, Britt Lower, Sydney Chandler, Goggins, Corenswet, and, last but not least, Vanessa Kirby.

Severance‘s Lower and Alien: Earth‘s Chandler also rounded out the top four of what was a varied breakout list featuring Adolescence co-creator and lead Stephen Graham at fifth and The Smashing Machine director and Happy Gilmore 2 star Benny Safdie in eighth. Between them at sixth and seventh are Mikey Madison and Mae Martin, with Jake Weary and Sophie Thatcher rounding out the bunch. When she learned she was IMDb’s Most Popular Star of 2025, Merced was just baffled that she was even up for the honor and credited Superman for her victory in a year full of stiff competition from established actors and fresher faces alike.

“Wow. I’m incredibly honored and just as confused. I didn’t realize this was even possible. Thank you to everyone who clicked on my IMDb page to confirm whether I was actually in Superman. Relieved I updated my profile picture just in time. And truly, thank you to the kind folks at IMDb. I appreciate this so much.”

IMDb has plenty more rankings and reflections on 2025 to check out on its Best Of page. Stay tuned here at Collider for more on the biggest film and television titles as we wrap up the year and look forward to the exciting things to come in 2026.