The 45 Most Anticipated Movies of 2024 (2024)

Jeymes Samuel—writer and director of 2021 visionary western The Harder They Fall—lassoes another quintessential cinematic genre, the biblical epic, with The Book of Clarence. This time, the action features LaKeith Stanfield, James McAvoy, and David Oyelowo, with Stanfield playing the titular character, a streetwise hustler who feigns divinity to reap the spoils that will free him from debt.

In theaters January 12.

In 2004, Mark Waters soaked the dark side of social hierarchy and high school’s survival of the hottest in several shades of pink. With the help of a brilliant adapted screenplay by Tina Fey, the film was a huge hit that eventually found its way to Broadway. Now—20 years later—we’ve been gifted with the movie version of the queen-bee musical, starring Reneé Rapp as Regina George.

In theaters January 12.

This convoluted action film is actually a lot of fun. Even if a complex espionage narrative isn’t really your thing, go for the eye candy: Bryce Dallas Howard, Henry Cavill, Sam Rockwell, Dua Lipa, Ariana DeBose, and Claudia Schiffer’s Scottish Fold all star in this adventure comedy with lots of spies, lies, and questionable allies from Schiffer’s husband, Matthew Vaughn.

In theaters February 2; streaming March 5.

Mads Mikkelsen stars in this sweeping historical drama set in 18th-century Denmark. He plays Ludvig Kahlen, a real-life war hero who takes on the impossible mission of settling the Jutland heath. Beyond the peninsula’s rugged landscape—which is more than a little challenging to cultivate—there are outlaws, warfare, and danger mounting with every gust of wind and failed potato crop. But it’s a Mads world out there, and his performance as the captain will whisk you away.

In theaters February 2. Streaming now.

They were late to the nuances of Jennifer’s Body. Is it possible they’re missing the point with Lisa’s monster, too? Our point: Don’t let critical reviews deter you from seeing this mash-up of ’80s nostalgia and gory rage from writer Diablo Cody and director Zelda Williams. A horror rom-com about a girl, a corpse, and the morbid body puzzle they put together, this reanimated creature feature is a treat.

In theaters February 9.

Reinaldo Marcus Green takes the helm here with a screenplay cowritten by Terence Winter (The Sopranos, The Wolf of Wall Street), the story of the late Bob Marley taking center stage. Over the course of his short life, the singer-songwriter overcame adversity, stood for what was right, and amassed a legacy, becoming the most legendary reggae singer of all time. One Love taps into that vibe.

In theaters February 14.

Not billed adjacent to his brother Joel here, Ethan Coen runs solo for this black comedy starring Margaret Qualley, Geraldine Viswanathan, Beanie Feldstein, Colman Domingo, Matt Damon, and Pedro Pascal. The script, a hilarious queer caper from Coen’s wife of 33 years, Tricia Cooke, who identifies as queer, follows two women (Qualley and Viswanathan) on a road trip to Tallahassee, Florida, with a slew of bumbling crooks on their trail.

In theaters February 23.

The massive, planet-hopping saga that swirls around Paul Atreides, Chani, and the Fremen continues with part two of Denis Villeneuve’s epic—and we mean E-P-I-C—adaptation of Frank Herbert’s classic 1965 sci-fi novel. In this installment, Paul, played by Timothée Chalamet, and Chani, embodied by the indomitable Zendaya, unite in mind, body, and spirit, with Paul assuming his position at the helm of a rebellion against their enemies.

In theaters March 1.

While Patrick Swayze may have perfected the art of the throat rip in the highly stylized late-’80s action flick, we didn’t expect to get more Road House. Then, news broke that Jake Gyllenhaal was getting shredded for a new role: Dalton, a hardcore bouncer with a heart of gold. This remake’s plot tweaks include giving Dalton a past as a UFC fighter and setting the dive bar in the Florida Keys, but director Doug Liman seems to have kept the camp, aggression, and gratuitous one-liners intact. So bring it on!

In theaters March 21.

Following the discovery of Phoebe and Callie Spengler’s connection to Egon in 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Frozen Empire kicks off with another adventure that reunites the new Ghostbusters with the old. This go-round, it’s summer in New York City, but an ancient artifact has transformed the world into a bone-chilling tundra. It’s an apocalypse only the Ghostbusters—and, of course, ’Buster-by-proxy Paul Rudd—can mend.

In theaters March 22.

She was a schoolteacher from Brooklyn. But she was also the first Black woman elected to Congress and the firebrand who ran for president in 1972. Shirley Chisholm, a powerhouse in American politics, is the latest trailblazer to get her own Netflix biopic. Starring legend-in-the-making Regina King (One Night in Miami), the film is directed by Oscar winner John Ridley (12 Years a Slave), so it looks like Chisholm is on her way to getting the screen story she’s due.

Streaming March 22.

Congress could learn a thing or two from the Titans in the next MonsterVerse installment, with sworn enemies Godzilla and Kong joining forces to defeat a monumental threat. As Dan Stevens’s Trapper says in the trailer: “They don’t have to like each other; they just have to work together.” Rebecca Hall, Fala Chen, and Brian Tyree Henry costar in this horror-action hybrid from mumblegore auteur Adam Wingard (The Guest, You’re Next).

In theaters March 29.

Dev Patel was doing everything but monkeying around on this film. Not only does the British-Indian actor star in this brutal, bare-knuckle action thriller, he also directed the project and produced it with Jordan Peele. Monkey Man marks the Green Knight star’s first time directing a full-length feature—and also playing a vengeful lone warrior out for blood, turning his enemies into maimed, pulpy versions of their former selves.

In theaters April 5.

In this near-future tension thriller from 28 Days Later writer and Ex Machina director Alex Garland, the United States are no longer united. Instead, they’re a powder keg of entrenched ideologies and polarized political convictions, where 19 states have seceded and an uprising threatens to shred the final thread from which society is hanging. Kirsten Dunst, Cailee Spaeny, Jesse Plemons, Nick Offerman, and Wagner Moura all star.

In theaters April 12.

Luca Guadagnino, whose impressive oeuvre (Call Me by Your Name, Bones and All) explores love in all its nuances, hits the clay court with Zendaya as his muse. She plays former tennis star Tashi, whose connection with two of the sport’s male greats, Art (Mike Faist) and Patrick (Josh O’Connor), culminates in the ultimate climactic courtside ménage à trois. Even though love means nothing in tennis, it means everything in Challengers.

In theaters April 26.

The director of The Big Sick and The Lovebirds, Michael Showalter, is back with another tale about human connection and the curveballs life can throw at you. Anne Hathaway stars as Solène, a single mother chaperoning her daughter’s trip to Coachella. While there, Solène falls into a situationship with Hayes Campbell, the 24-year-old frontman of a popular boy band. Nicholas Galitzine (Red, White & Royal Blue) plays said heartthrob. The film is set to hit theaters shortly after it closes SXSW.

In theaters May 2.

Two of Hollywood’s most-liked stars finally get to share the screen, and they’re doing so in David Leitch’s movie adaptation of the ’80s TV series that starred Lee Majors and Heather Thomas. We’re writing, of course, about Ryan Gosling, who plays Colt Seavers, a former stuntman who gets cast in a mega-movie, and Emily Blunt, who stars as Jody Moreno, the director of said movie. Cue the literal and figurative sparks flying.

In theaters May 3.

Amy Winehouse was a defining voice of her generation, and at 27, she left the world way, way too soon. Exploring the “genius, creativity, and honesty” of the vocalist behind the lyrics, this biopic from Sam Taylor-Johnson (Fifty Shades of Grey) stars Industry vet Marisa Abela as Winehouse and Jack O’Connell as Blake Fielder-Civil, her volatile other half. For more of what we know about the biopic, read this.

In theaters May 10.

Love it or loathe it, milking a franchise till the very last nickel is an American pastime. So no matter how many bows were tied and rebellions quashed in 2017’s War for the Planet of the Apes (the caboose in a trilogy that started with 2011’s Rise of and 2014’s Dawn of), the chronicle of these hairy-but-intelligent simians rolls on. Set some 300 years after the reign of those films’ hero Caesar, Kingdom tells the story of one young ape who begins to question everything he’s been taught about humankind, creating a chasm between him and his tribe. Maze Runner director Wes Ball directs.

In theaters May 10.

Imaginary friends become real-life comedic relief in this family-friendly charmer from writer-director John Krasinski. Ryan Reynolds and The Walking Dead’s Cailey Fleming lead an all-star cast (including the voices of Steve Carell, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and Awkwafina) as a father and daughter who befriend the IFs of childhoods past, reconnecting the make-believe buddies with the now-grown kiddos who once loved them.

In theaters May 17.