Locally filmed crime shows were everywhere, theaters opened but didn’t (thankfully) close, and Colman Domingo was (rightfully) ubiquitous. All that and more, in our roundup of movies in Philadelphia in 2025.
Year of the Philly crime show
There’s a good chance 2025 will be remembered as the Year of the Philly Crime Show. Three such shows, HBO Max’s Task, Apple TV’s The Dope Thief, and Peacock’s Long Bright River, aired on streaming services during 2025. Task, the big breakout of the three, was renewed for a second season.
The year was lighter on Hollywood movie productions shooting in town, but among them was a basketball movie with Mark Wahlberg, at various times given the titles Cheesesteak and Weekend Warriors. I Play Rocky, a movie about the making of the original 1976 Rocky, also filmed in the city.
Gearing up for Rocky 50
It wouldn’t be a year in Philly film without Rocky making its way in.
I Play Rocky is expected to arrive in theaters in 2026, in what will likely serve as one of many commemorations of the 50th anniversary of Rocky.
Also, Rocky was among the many movies and area film institutions included in Films Shaped by a City, a new mural by Marian Bailey, that debuted in October on Sansom Street, on the back of the Film Society Center. Mural Arts Philadelphia, BlackStar Projects, and the Philadelphia Film Society had worked on the project for more than two years.
The Film Society’s big year
The new mural on the back of its building was part of an eventful year for the Philadelphia Film Society, which completed a big new entrance and lobby renovation of the Film Society Center.
The Philadelphia Film Festival, in October, welcomed 33,000 attendees, which PFS calls its highest turnout ever, while the three theaters welcomed 200,000 customers throughout the year, also a record.
The very busy Colman Domingo
It was another eventful year for the Temple alum and West Philly native, who was nominated for the best actor Oscar for the second straight year, for last year’s Sing Sing. In 2025, he was in four movies — Dead Man’s Wire, The Running Man, and voice roles in The Electric State and Wicked: For Good. He also appeared in the TV series The Four Seasons — created by and costarring Upper Darby’s Tina Fey — and Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. He even guest-judged on RuPaul’s Drag Race and cochaired the Met Gala.
In 2026, Domingo is set to appear in both the Michael Jackson biopic Michael and Steven Spielberg’s new sci-fi film, Disclosure Day. He’s also at work on his feature directorial debut, Scandalous!, and said at PFF that he hopes to finish the film in time to bring it to next year’s festival.
Local actors and filmmakers shine
The Philadelphia-born Penn alum David Corenswet debuted as Superman this summer, a film that also featured a small appearance by Jenkintown’s Bradley Cooper. Cooper directed and played a supporting role in In This Thing On?
Mount Airy native and Temple alum Da’Vine Joy Randolph followed up her Oscar win by appearing in three movies, Shadow Force, Bride Hard, and Eternity — the latter of which also starred Downingtown’s Miles Teller — and continuing on Only Murders in the Building.
Willow Grove’s Dan Trachtenberg directed not one but two films in the Predator franchise, the animated Predator: Killer of Killers and the live-action Predator: Badlands. Penn alum Gavin O’Connor directed The Accountant 2. In addition to creating Task, Berwyn’s Brad Ingelsby wrote the movies Echo Valley and The Lost Bus, both for Apple TV.
West Philadelphia’s Quinta Brunson continued to star in Abbott Elementary, which had her filming in Citizens Bank Park the night of Kyle Schwarber’s historic four home runs. She also played a voice role in Zootopia 2.
No theater loss
Philadelphia, in a rarity, did not lose any movie screens in 2025.
The January abandonment of the 76 Place arena project meant that Center City’s only multiplex, the AMC Fashion District, gets to continue in its current location.
Then, in August, it was announced that the Riverview movie theater on Columbus Boulevard, which has sat empty since 2020, would reopen in 2026 under the auspices of Apple Cinemas, with the city’s only IMAX screen. However, recently it didn’t appear that any construction work had begun there yet, and the Riverview’s impending return had also been announced in 2024.
In February, an effort was announced to revive the Anthony Wayne Theater in Wayne. Ishana Night Shyamalan, the film director and daughter of M. Night, is a member of the board seeking to bring the theater back.
In November, the first-ever Netflix House “fan destination” opened in King of Prussia, and it includes a theater that will feature such special events as Netflix’s NFL games on Christmas Day and the Stranger Things series finale on New Year’s Day.
And about two hours north of the city, in the town of Wind Gap, the Gap Theatre reopened in March after it was closed for five years. The theater shows more than 50 films a month, mostly sourced from the collection of Exhumed Films.
Indie-delphia
It was also an eventful year for local independent film.
Delco: The Movie, which was in the works for several years, had its premiere in January. Two other films, both of which premiered at the 2022 Philadelphia Film Festival, finally saw their release this year: The Golden Voice, directed by Brandon Eric Kamin, and Not For Nothing, from Tim Dowlin and Frank Tartaglia, who died in 2022.
Mike Macera’s Alice-Heart, featuring a cast and crew full of Drexel and Temple alumni, premiered at PFF and won the Filmadelphia Best Local Feature Film Award.
Documenting sports stars
There were, once again, several prominent sports documentaries about Philadelphia athletes of the past and present. CNN aired Kobe: The Making of a Legend, about Lower Merion’s Kobe Bryant, to coincide with the fifth anniversary of his death. To mark the 40th anniversary of the 1985 death of Flyers goalie Pelle Lindbergh, the documentary The Swede of Philadelphia opened in area theaters in November.
Amazon’s Prime Video premiered Saquon, which followed the Eagles’ Saquon Barkley for several years, in October. This year’s Eagles team is featured on HBO’s Hard Knocks for the first time as part of the currently-airing Hard Knocks: In Season with the NFC East.
Remembering David Lynch
The January death of David Lynch, who lived in Philadelphia as a young art student and was inspired by the city in his work, was commemorated locally with everything from a new mural in the “Eraserhood” to showings of his movies at most area theaters that feature repertory fare.
When the Film Society Center reopened after the renovation, the first showing was a 35mm screening of Lynch’s Callowhill-inspired Eraserhead.
