Dropped by Atlantic, Chappell Roan returned with a Grammy
Atlantic dropped Roan in 2020 after "Pink Pony Club" underperformed. In 2025 she won best new artist at the Grammys. The song later reached UK number one.
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Luis Enrique won PSG the Champions League after Mbappé left
PSG chased Europe's top prize from 2011, when Qatari owners arrived. In 2025, a year after Kylian Mbappé left, they won it with a 5-0 final over Inter.
Slot won Liverpool's 20th English title with Klopp's squad
Jürgen Klopp called his squad a good base to hand on. Arne Slot added one player, changed the daily routine and won the 2024-25 Premier League.
China's Gang of Four were called to a meeting and arrested
On 6 October 1976, a month after Mao died, Hua Guofeng had Jiang Qing and three allies seized one by one. Their fall ended China's Cultural Revolution.
Claude will join Gemini in watermarking text, and users object
Gemini already hides a pattern in its word choices that only a secret key shows, and Claude will follow. Users fear it cannot tell editing from writing.
Banner ads on a Magic card site paid for Blue Prince
Tonda Ros funded eight years of work on Blue Prince with ad revenue from a Magic: The Gathering card site. It became one of 2025's indie breakouts.
Joe Russo called it a passion project. Critics called it a dud.
Netflix spent a reported $320 million on The Electric State. Three much cheaper films each beat its three-day viewing figures.
A Ubisoft employee's side project became Game of the Year
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 began as one Ubisoft developer's after-hours demo. A team found on Reddit and SoundCloud turned it into a Game of the Year.
Mickey 17 needed $300m to break even. It was never close
Warner Bros gave Bong Joon Ho final cut, $118m and a $4m playoff ad for Mickey 17. The film he wanted reached cinemas, and it lost money.
Ne Zha 2 took $2.26bn, almost all of it in China
Ne Zha 2 became 2025's biggest film and the top-grossing animation ever, yet about 1% of its $2.26bn came from outside China.
Sinners is North America's biggest original hit since Inception
Ryan Coogler's original vampire film, set in 1932 Mississippi, drew doubters, then broke box office and Oscar records. It began with an uncle's blues records.
Zach Cregger's horror Weapons opened well ahead of forecasts
Zach Cregger sold the horror script for Weapons in an afternoon. The film then opened more than $10 million ahead of expectations.
KPop Demon Hunters became Netflix's most-watched title ever
Sony capped its return at roughly $20 million when it sold the film to Netflix. Young fans then did the marketing, and it passed Squid Game.
Kendrick Lamar started GNX long before the Drake feud
Producer Sounwave says the earliest GNX songs were recorded in late 2022 and early 2023, long before the Drake feud began.
Onyx Storm sold 2.7 million copies, or 1.3 million, in a week
Rebecca Yarros's first novel found no publisher. Onyx Storm later broke a fiction sales record, and the New York Times and Circana still disagree on its size.
A Minecraft Movie out-opened Barbie despite poor reviews
A Minecraft Movie scored 48% on Rotten Tomatoes and spent a decade in development. A young crowd still made it a $163 million opening weekend.
Disney's Snow White opened to $43m in North America
Disney's live-action Snow White spent nine years reaching cinemas, took fire from both political sides, and failed to earn back its $250m to $270m budget.