One movie, from one venue, cracked the top 10 highest-grossing films of 2025. That sounds impossible until you realize that the specific venue charges almost 10 times what other theaters charge for that movie and has way, way more seats.
The movie is 1939’s The Wizard of Oz, and the venue is the Sphere in Las Vegas, Nevada. A new report claims that the highly controversial re-release of the film in the expansive, immersive venue grossed $260 million in 2025, and it did so in basically only four months, having opened in late August. That places it number 10 on a list of highest-grossing domestic film releases in 2025.
Of course, movies like How to Train Your Dragon (number nine at $262 million) or The Fantastic Four: First Steps (number eight at $274 million) charge roughly $15 depending on where or when you see them, while tickets for The Wizard of Oz at Sphere generally start around $100, and the venue is considerably larger than most movie theaters, seating over 18,000. So it’s not exactly a fair comparison, but it’s still kind of interesting.
With the news of the grosses, as well as a new Sphere opening up near Washington D.C., Sphere CEO James Dolan revealed that an Oz 2.0 would be coming later this year, with all new effects, and that there are no plans for the film to stop playing anytime soon. “What’s the lifespan of Wizard of Oz? It wouldn’t surprise me if we were showing Wizard of Oz 10 years from now,” Dolan said.
When the first images and video of this new version of The Wizard of Oz were released, the online backlash was quick and merciless. Many complained about how the new effects and remastering completely changed the look of the original film. Then, once it was revealed that AI was used to help expand some of the images for the experience, it got even worse. Nevertheless, it sure seems like that fervor hasn’t done anything to dial back interest from Las Vegas tourists.
I was in Las Vegas a few weeks ago, and the crowds in and around the Sphere for The Wizard of Oz were surprisingly large. I even saw fans attending shows dressed up as the characters from the movie. Plus, you can’t get discounted seats like other Las Vegas shows. It’s still popular and making money. A lot of money. Real Hollywood blockbuster money. And, if it keeps going at this rate, it’s going to join the likes of Avatar and the Avengers in the billion club and then some.
As for what movies could next make the jump to Sphere, nothing is official. Rumors have run rampant about mega franchises like Star Wars or Harry Potter, but none of that is official. Dolan did reveal a movie called From the Edge was in the works, made by the team behind Free Solo and it “chronicles extreme sports athletes.” However, while that film would be done later this year, there are no plans to stop showing The Wizard of Oz anytime soon. “We plan on basically running Wizard of Oz until we see the demand start to fall off,” Dolan said. “That could be a lot longer than a year.”
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