It’s not the end of the world that Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga came in well under expectations at the box office. But it’s not good either. For all of the flak that superhero and sci-fi movies received in 2023, it’s almost as if people forgot how successful they were for a long time. Action films also struggled alongside comic book movies last year, and we may have to wait for Deadpool and Wolverine to wake up the summer box office. And if that film tanks, then we’re all in trouble.
In the meantime, Furiosa has a strong chance to maintain its crown unless The Garfield Movie surges past it, or a new Disney bio pic, Young Woman and the Sea, can pull off an upset. Star Wars sequel trilogy leading woman Daisy Ridley is headlining that film, and the role of Trudy Ederle seems to suit her well. Yet, it’s also not the kind of movie that tends to finish at No. 1 during the summer.
We still maintain that the best movies of 2024 so far were almost all theatrical, even if not enough people watched them on the big screen. If you want to stay on top of the best new movies coming to theaters in 2024, just check back here every week as we update this roundup.
Need more recommendations? Try the best new movies to stream on Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, Max (HBO), and more and the best new shows to stream on Netflix, Hulu, (HBO) Max, and more.
May 2024
Young Woman and the Sea
Release date: May 31
Since the final weekend of May doesn’t have many new movies of note, Daisy Ridley’s new period flick, Young Woman and the Sea, could potentially do well at the box office — assuming it’s not crowded out by Furiosa and The Garfield Movie from last week. Ridley plays Trudy Ederle, a young woman who attempts to swim the English Channel.
Robot Dreams
Release date: May 31
Strangely enough, Robot Dreams was nominated for Best Animated Feature at this year’s Oscars, even though it didn’t get a theatrical release in the U.S. until this year. This may not be an animated film for very young fans, as there’s no dialogue.
The story follows Dog, an anthropomorphic canine who is chronically lonely. The cure to Dog’s dilemma is Robot, a companion he literally puts together. Their bond is adorable, but once they’re separated, it’s an open question as to if they can come back together.
June 2024
Bad Boys: Ride or Die
Release date: June 7
Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) have been putting criminals behind bars for three decades. But in Bad Boys: Ride or Die, Mike and Marcus find themselves on the wrong side of the law after being framed by a master criminal. They’re going to have to watch their backs and protect their families while trying to clear their names.
The Watchers
Release date: June 14
M. Night Shyamalan‘s daughter, Ishana Night Shyamalan, is making her directorial debut with The Watchers. Here’s hoping that she didn’t inherit her father’s bad habit of relying on twist endings. Dakota Fanning stars in the film as Mina, a young woman who comes across a seemingly idyllic forest in Ireland.
Unfortunately for Mina, once she arrives, she can’t easily leave because enigmatic creatures surround the area at night. Three strangers, played by Georgina Campbell, Oliver Finnegan, and Olwen Fouéré, are stuck alongside Mina. Now, Mina has to wonder whether she can trust her new companions.
Inside Out 2
Release date: June 14
Disney would very much like to print money. And maybe it will with Inside Out 2, the sequel to one of Pixar’s best, most successful original movies. Although as a sequel, it’s now just regular IP. As before, a good deal of the movie takes place inside the mind of Riley Andersen (Kensington Tallman), a teenager who has no idea that her emotions are anthropomorphized beings that control her responses.
Now that she’s older, Riley is experiencing even more complex emotions, as embodied by Anxiety (Stranger Things season 5 star Maya Hawke), Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Boredom (Passages star Adèle Exarchopoulos), and Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser). Joy (Amy Poehler) is probably already freaking out.
The Bikeriders
Release date: June 21
Jodie Comer’s new drama, The Bikeriders, may be a surprise sleeper hit at the box office this summer. Comer’s character, Kathy, provides the perspective as she witnesses a motorcycle club called The Vandals slowly transform over the course of the 1960s from a social group of bikers into a feared group of outlaws played by Austin Butler (Dune: Part Two), Tom Hardy, Michael Shannon, Mike Faist (Challengers), Norman Reedus, and Boyd Holbrook.
Fancy Dance
Release date: June 21
Killers of the Flower Moon‘s Lily Gladstone is back this summer in Fancy Dance, an original movie produced by Apple Studios that will get a theatrical release. Gladstone will portray Jax, a woman who is taking care of her niece, Roki (Isabel Deroy-Olson), because her sister is missing. Jax and Roki want to stay together, while Roki’s grandfather, Frank (Shea Wigham), wants sole custody of his granddaughter. The only solution that Jax and Roki see is to find Roki’s mother, if they can.
Kinds of Kindness
Release date: June 21
Yorgos Lanthimos, stop being weird. The director of Poor Things has a follow-up film that has a confusing premise. As far as we can tell, almost every member of the cast is playing three different characters from separate anthology stories. At the very least, Lanthimos didn’t have any trouble attracting A-list talent, including Poor Things stars Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe, as well as Jesse Plemons, Margaret Qualley, and Hong Chau.
A Quiet Place: Day One
Release date: June 27
Now this is more like it: A summer release that’s both a sci-fi film and a horror story. A Quiet Place: Day One acts as a prequel to the first two films by showing what happened when the aliens invaded New York City. In just a short period of time, a city of millions is cut down to just a handful of survivors, including Sam (Lupita Nyong’o) and Eric (Joseph Quinn).
They’ve both smart enough to realize that the aliens can only hear them. Yet that knowledge may not be enough to save them when New York City is sealed off from the rest of the state.
Horizon: An American Saga
Release date: June 28
Kevin Costner really loves Westerns. So much so that he put up his own money to write, direct, and star in Horizon: An American Saga, which will hopefully play out over the course of four movies. Only two of the films have already been shot, and both are coming out this year.
Story details are still a bit hard to come by, but Costner is playing a man who is leading a group of settlers west so they can build new lives for themselves after the Civil War.
July 2024
Despicable Me 4
Release date: July 5
It’s been seven years since the last Despicable Me movie, and the Minions have since launched a film franchise of their own. But everybody is back together this summer for Despicable Me 4.
This time, Gru (Steve Carell) and his family have new adversaries: Maxine Le Mal (Will Ferrell) and Valentina (Sofia Vergara). Unfortunately for Gru, he badly underestimated his foes, and the family will have to stay one step ahead of these latest villains.
MaXXXine
Release date: July 5
Mia Goth returns as Maxine Minx in MaXXXine, the sequel to X and Pearl. This time, the film is set in Los Angeles in 1985, as Maxine finally takes a real shot at achieving her dreams of stardom. However, Maxine hasn’t lost her talent for attracting big trouble, and she will have to contend with the Night Stalker.
Director Ti West has put together an impressive cast that includes Giancarlo Esposito, Bobby Cannavale, Michelle Monaghan, and Elizabeth Debicki to close out his trilogy of terror.
Fly Me To The Moon
Release date: July 12
Fly Me To the Moon gets points for originality if nothing else. How many other romantic comedies get to play off the race to put a man on the moon in the ’60s? Channing Tatum plays Cole Davis, the man in charge of NASA’s moon landing project, while Scarlett Johansson portrays Kelly Jones, a marketing specialist who crafts NASA’s public image. Somewhere along the way, they fall in love.
Twisters
Release date: July 19
Twister was not really a film that needed a sequel 28 years later, but when has that ever stopped Hollywood before? Twisters has cast the new Superman, David Corenswet, to star alongside Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, and Anthony Ramos as the latest generation of storm chasers. Together, they go looking for trouble – and they’re gonna find it.
Deadpool & Wolverine
Release date: July 26
If anything is going to break Marvel’s box office slump, it’s Deadpool & Wolverine. Getting Hugh Jackman to reprise his role as Wolverine after two decades of X-Men movies was just the boost that the film formerly known as Deadpool 3 needed. Ryan Reynolds practically willed this movie to happen, and it’s Marvel’s best defense against superhero fatigue.
As for the plot, who cares?! It’s got Deadpool and Wolverine beating each other up before teaming up to fight the villain. That’s good enough for us.
August 2024
Harold and the Purple Crayon
Release date: August 2
There have been plenty of children’s’ books that have been turned into movies, but Harold and the Purple Crayon may be the first that’s actually a sequel to the book that inspired it. Zachary Levi (Shazam! Power of the Gods) plays Harold, a guy who lived his entire life in a book making his dreams come true with his magical purple crayon. Now, Harold has used the crayon to enter the real world, and he became a real man in the process. Harold has a lot to learn about being an adult, but his magic crayon still works in this world.
Trap
Release date: August 9
M. Night Shyamalan is back with a new movie this summer called Trap. Oppenheimer‘s Josh Hartnett plays Cooper, a man who brings his daughter, Riley (Ariel Donoghue), to see Lady Raven in concert. Think of Lady Raven as Taylor Swift on a much smaller scale. But after arriving with his daughter in tow, Cooper realizes that the entire concert is a trap to lure a serial killer called The Butcher into police custody.
And since Cooper is The Butcher, the real question is how far he’s willing to go to escape now that he’s sealed in with his daughter and thousands of unsuspecting music fans.
Borderlands
Release date: August 9
August is usually where the summer movies wind down a month early. Director Eli Roth (Thanksgiving) is looking to buck that trend with his adaptation of the Borderlands video games. Cate Blanchett leads the cast as Lilith, the leader of an intergalactic group of mercenaries that includes Roland (Kevin Hart), Kreig (Florian Munteanu), Tiny Tina (Barbie‘s Ariana Greenblatt), Tannis (Jamie Lee Curtis), and Claptrap (Jack Black). If this reminds you of Guardians of the Galaxy, it’s not a coincidence.
It Ends With Us
Release date: August 9
Not every romance is a fairy tale. That’s a lesson that Lily Bloom (Blake Lively) learns the hard way in this adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novel. Lily thought she found the man of her dreams in Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni). Ryle’s a surgeon, he’s handsome, and he’s fabulously rich. Unfortunately for Lily, Ryle is also abusive toward her. Now, Lily will have to summon the strength to leave Ryle behind, if she can.
Alien: Romulus
Release date: August 16
We’ll all be screaming in space when the Alien franchise revisits its horror roots in Alien: Romulus. All we’ve seen so far is a teaser trailer that even makes the face huggers scary. We can only imagine what director Fede Álvarez is going to do with the xenomorphs themselves as he unleashes the lethal aliens on a young cast that includes Cailee Spaeny, Isabela Merced, Archie Renaux, and David Jonsson.
The Crow
Release date: August 23
James O’Barr’s The Crow was a popular indie comic book before the 1994 film adaptation starring Brandon Lee. That character has since been overshadowed by Lee’s tragic death on the set of what turned out to be his final film. Three decades later, director Rupert Sanders is reimagining the franchise with Boy Kills World star Bill Skarsgård taking over the lead role from Lee.
Eric (Skarsgård) and his fiancée, Shelly (British singer FKA Twigs), are young lovers who are cut down in the prime of their lives by heartless murderers. However, Eric is given the opportunity and the power to rise from his grave and avenge their deaths as The Crow. And he’s coming to get his revenge on their killers.
Blink Twice
Release date: August 23
Zoë Kravitz (The Batman 2) is making her directorial debut with Blink Twice, but she resisted the urge to cast herself in a leading role. Instead, Naomi Ackie plays the main character, Frida, a waitress who becomes enamored with Slater King, and not just because he’s played by Channing Tatum. King is also an incredibly wealthy man who wants Frida to come to his own private island for a party that she’ll never forget.
However, Frida may soon wish that she could forget the experience, as she finds herself feeling out of place among the rich and powerful. More alarming, Frida’s sense of reality is starting to break down as she is forced to wonder if the strange things that start happening around her are real.
September 2024
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Release date: September 6
We can thank Netflix’s Wednesday series for getting the Beetlejuice sequel out of development hell a mere 36 years after the original movie. Wednesday director Tim Burton cast the leading actress of the show, Jenna Ortega, as Astrid Deetz, the teenage daughter of Winona Ryder’s Lydia Deetz from the first film. Wednesday showrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar also co-wrote the script.
Michael Keaton is reprising his role as Beetlejuice, and we don’t know what he’s been up to for the last few decades. But we do know that Astrid will accidentally let Beetlejuice back into the land of the living. And once the juice is loose, it may not be possible to keep him from causing all kinds of trouble.
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