Do you remember those few glorious weeks when superhero fatigue was a thing of the past thanks to Deadpool & Wolverine? I figured we had at least until Kraven the Hunter‘s inevitable flop before that would come up again. But then Joker: Folie à Deux became an even bigger flop than The Marvels, and we’re right back where we started.
That brings us to this week, with Venom: The Last Dance poised to be the last successful comic book movie of the year. How successful remains to be seen. Current box-office projections have it hitting $65 million this weekend, which is well below the $90 million that Venom: Let There Be Carnage earned in 2021. There are definitely diminishing returns with this franchise, barring some unforeseen surge this weekend.
In the meantime, you can find all of the best new movies coming to theaters in 2024 below. There aren’t many weeks left in the year, and the number of good movies on the way is also dwindling. Before we know it, it’s going to be time to start looking ahead to 2025.
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. You can also stream the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, and the best movies on Amazon Prime Video.
October 2024
Venom: The Last Dance
Release date: October 25
Venom: The Last Dance will supposedly be the “final” Venom movie featuring Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock and his alien symbiote. Plot details have yet to be released, but from the trailer, we know that Chiwetel Ejiofor is playing a soldier who is trying to track down and capture Venom. Juno Temple plays a scientist with similar goals. Beyond that, we have no idea what’s going to happen, or if this film can stave off the inevitable collapse of Sony’s weak sauce Spider-Man-adjacent movies.
Your Monster
Release date: October 25
There aren’t a lot of horror rom-coms, but it’s not completely unheard of in Hollywood. Caroline Lindy wrote and directed Your Monster, which features Scream 5 and Abigail star Melissa Barrera as Laura Franco, a young woman who is dealing with a bad breakup and a potentially fatal cancer diagnosis.
Laura’s life takes a turn for the strange when she finds a literal monster in her closet, as played by Tommy Dewey. This monster may be the best man that Laura has ever met, and they start a romance together. But whether their love can survive their respective natures — and Laura’s prognosis — remains to be seen.
November 2024
Here
Release date: November 1
Robert Zemeckis has made some big swings before, and not all of them have been home runs. But he’s still trying something new with Here, a film that reunites him with Forest Gump stars Tom Hanks and Robin Wright. It’s based on a single-page comic, with a story expanded to cover 100 years in a single room, where the camera angle never changes in all of that time.
Hanks and Wright will be de-aged with CGI, and aged up as the story calls for it, as we see snapshots from their life together. Some of those effects look a little suspect in the trailer, but it’s possible the final film will be more convincing. It’s too soon to say how Here will be received, but it will be interesting to see if Zemeckis can make it work.
My Dead Friend Zoe
Release date: November 1
There isn’t a trailer yet for My Dead Friend Zoe, but it’s got a cast that may get some attention when the film arrives in November. Star Trek: Discovery‘s Sonequa Martin-Green stars as Merit, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan who is haunted by an apparition of Zoe (Natalie Morales), who was her best friend in the army.
This doesn’t appear to be a horror movie, so the haunting is likely just in Merit’s mind. The brief description of the film says that Merit will go “head-to-head with her Vietnam vet grandfather at the family’s ancestral lake house.” We’re not sure if her grandfather is played by Ed Harris or Morgan Freeman, but both actors have significant roles in this movie as well.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
Release date: November 8
Christmas comes early this year with The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, an adaptation of Barbara Robinson’s children’s novel. Grace (Judy Greer) and her husband, Bob Bradley (Pete Holmes), are among the townspeople putting on the annual Christmas pageant about the Nativity story. This year’s performance has been hijacked by the Herdman children: Imogene (Beatrice Schneider), Ralph (Mason D. Nelligan), Claude (Matthew Lamb), Leroy (Ewan Wood), Ollie (Essek Moore), and Gladys (Kynlee Heiman).
These kids are the troublemakers in town, and they’re not exactly familiar with the roles they’re supposed to be playing. Through their willingness to learn more, the Christmas pageant might take on new significance for both the children and the town that wrote them off as bad kids.
Conclave
Release date: November 8
The Vatican becomes the scene of a religious thriller in Conclave. The Pope is dead, and ordinarily, the process of selecting his successor would be straightforward. However, Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) has stumbled upon a secret that could disqualify several of the candidates to be the next Pope, and it might even be big enough to unleash a scandal in the church itself.
With time running out, Cardinal Lawrence must discover the truth before a new Pope is elected. The film has a very impressive supporting cast, including Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Isabella Rossellini, and Lucian Msamati, which may help its chances during next year’s awards season.
Red One
Release date: November 15
Can Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson save Christmas? Not by himself, he can’t! Red One teams the former wrestler with ex-Captain America actor Chris Evans to rescue Santa Claus (J. K. Simmons). Who has the magic or technology needed to capture Santa in the first place? That’s what North Pole’s security chief, Callum Drift (Johnson), needs to discover.
Bounty hunter Jack O’Malley (Evans) gets pulled into this Christmas insanity because he’s supposedly the best tracker in the world. Those skills will be put to the test, as he and Callum reluctantly team up to face down the threat to the holiday season. Ho, ho, ho.
Ghost Cat Anzu
Release date: November 15
Never underestimate the appeal of Japanese anime in theaters, especially a family-friendly pic like Ghost Cat Anzu, which embraces a retro style of 2-D animation that includes rotoscoped performances. That’s a very old-school animation technique. The story is about a young girl named Karin, who has been abandoned by her father in rural Japan. Now, only Karin’s grandfather is left to look after her until she meets Anzu, the titular ghost cat.
Karin doesn’t particularly like or trust Anzu, but they’re stuck together on this bizarre adventure that will determine both of their fates and whether they will remain together.
Gladiator 2
Release date: November 22
Are you not entertained? The original Gladiator came out 24 years ago, and Ridley Scott only got around to making a sequel within the past few years. Gladiator 2 picks up roughly two decades later, with Lucius Verus (Paul Mescal) no longer a little boy who could inherit the Roman Empire. Instead, Lucius has rejected Rome and its ways while starting his own family in another country. But, Lucius cannot escape Rome’s grasp, especially when his adoptive home, wife, and child are taken by General Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal).
It’s pretty far to fall from nobility to slave, but Lucius watched Maximus rise from nothing in the first film to get his revenge. Now, it’s Lucius’ turn to become a gladiator and fight in the arena while looking for a way to bring down the entire empire around him.
Wicked
Release date: November 22
Almost everyone knows the story of The Wizard of Oz. But the smash Broadway play Wicked shed new light on the Wicked Witch of the West. The upcoming Wicked film will only cover the early part of the play while saving the rest for an inevitable sequel. Cynthia Erivo stars as Elphaba Thropp, the young witch who isn’t wicked … yet. However, people treat her so terribly that it’s no wonder she went bad.
The lone light in Elphaba’s life is her friendship with Galinda Upland (Ariana Grande). They have a strong bond, but their connection will be tested as Elphaba and Galinda are torn in opposite directions as they come into their magical powers.
Moana 2
Release date: November 27
The original Moana was a hit for Disney and an even bigger hit on Disney+. So much so that the planned Moana streaming series was reworked into Moana 2 at lightspeed, at least as fast as animated films go. Three years have passed since the first film, and Moana (Auliʻi Cravalho) has emerged as a leader for her people. She also dotes on her new younger sister, Simea (Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda).
However, Moana’s desire to reunite all of the people of the ocean is threatened by the emergence of the goddess Matangi (Awhimai Fraser). Fortunately, Moana knows a god of her own … or at least a demigod, Maui (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson). Even with Maui’s help, Moana is greatly outmatched by Matangi, and the fate of her people is at stake.
December 2024
Werewolves
Release date: December 6
Ironically, Werewolves is hitting theaters on the same day as a similar movie, which has an expletive in the title that we can’t say on this site. Whereas that other film is a horror comedy, Werewolves is an unapologetic horror action flick pitting the title creatures against genre veteran Frank Grillo.
The premise of the film is that a supermoon turned millions of people into werewolves one year before the events of the story. It’s about to happen again, unless two scientists figure out how to stop the mutation from occurring. In the meantime, Wesley Marshall (Grillo) has to keep the scientists alive long enough to complete their work, even if it means going up against an army of werewolves.
