Have you ever seen a movie die before it reached audiences in theaters? We may be seeing that this weekend with Borderlands, Eli Roth’s video game adaptation, which is also a shameless Guardians of the Galaxy knock-off. It was already a bad idea to release this film so close to Deadpool & Wolverine, which is closing in on $1 billion worldwide and should be able to reach $500 million domestically very soon. Borderlands is not only trying to topple that juggernaut, it’s arriving with some of the worst reviews this side of Madame Web. There may be a new champion on the list of the worst films of 2024.
The one movie that might get some traction this weekend is It Ends With Us, the romantic drama starring Blake Lively, the wife of Deadpool & Wolverine star Ryan Reynolds. Lively has a cameo in the latter, which could put her in the rare position of being in both the No. 1 and the No. 2 films at the same time. It’s counterprogramming that may work, but we’ll have to wait until Sunday to know for sure. In the meantime, we’ve updated our roundup of the best new movies coming to theaters in 2024. Keep scrolling down for your guide to the rest of this year’s films.
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.
August 2024
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.
Transformers One
Release date: September 13
The last few Transformers movies haven’t exactly been blockbusters, so there is a real risk that audiences won’t show up for Transformers One, an animated film that is neither a musical nor aimed at young children. Instead, it seems to be aimed at older teens who may not have much idea why the Transformers live on a planet called Cybertron.
Transformers One is also taking the odd path of presenting the primary hero and villain of the franchise – Optimus Prime (Chris Hemsworth) and Megatron (Brian Tyree Henry) – and essentially turning them into buddy action heroes. The thing is, we know their friendship doesn’t last and they go on to lead warring factions against each other. So presumably, we’ll see some touch of tragedy that shatters their bond. Paramount also lined up a stellar voice cast for this flick, including Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Steve Buscemi, Laurence Fishburne, and Jon Hamm. If this movie fails to connect movie fans, it won’t be from lack of trying.
Speak No Evil
Release date: September 13
Don’t you just hate when you make vacation friends who invite you to their remote English estate and then they turn out to be complete psychos who try to kill you? No? Then perhaps Speak No Evil is a little bit too specific about the issue at hand.
Scoot McNairy and Mackenzie Davis play the hapless American couple, Ben and Louise Dalton, with Alix West Lefler as their daughter, Agnes. At first, the Daltons are completely charmed by Paddy (James McAvoy) and his wife, Ciara (Aisling Franciosi), as well as their mute son, Ant (Dan Hough).
But the more time that the Daltons spend with the family, the more they notice unsettling things about them. Young Ant even seems to imply that his parents cut his vocal cords to keep him from speaking ever again. If they’ll do that to their own kid, then what will they do with the innocent family they’ve lured into their trap?
Wolfs
Release date: September 20
Director Jon Watts has been directing feature films for a decade, and Wolfs is both his sixth movie and only his third non-Spider-Man flick. This flick is not lacking for star power either, with George Clooney and Brad Pitt in the leading roles as Jack and Nick, both of whom are criminal fixers. In other words, they’re lone wolf operators who get called in to clean up crime scenes and cover up criminal activity.
Of course, the plural of wolf is wolves, but the title of Wolfs is presumably misspelled because these two guys are not a team and they are not happy to be working together. Jack and Nick have both been summoned to take care of a murder scene, which only draws them into a mystery. If this unlikely duo wants to make it through the ordeal, they’ll have to get over themselves and find a way to coexist.
The Wild Robot
Release date: September 20
This year’s big DreamWorks Animation movie is based on Peter Brown’s The Wild Robot, and features Lupita Nyong’o in the title role. Nyong’o voices Roz, a robot who is trapped on a remote island without any signs of civilization. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of life. As Roz adjusts to life in the wild, she befriends a fox named Fink (The Last of Us 2 star Pedro Pascal), and she adopts a goose named Brightbill (Kit Connor).
The rest of the voice cast includes Catherine O’Hara, Bill Nighy, and Stephanie Hsu. The script was written by director Chris Sanders.
Never Let Go
Release date: September 27
There seems to be a lot of thematic similarities between Never Let Go and A Quiet Place, as well as Netflix’s Bird Box. This time, it’s Halle Berry’s turn to play a mom in a postapocalyptic world. Berry’s character is the mother of two boys, who are portrayed by Percy Daggs IV and Anthony B. Jenkins. For years, the mother has trained her sons to remain tied to their cabin or else evil will claim them.
But when one of the sons accidentally lets go of his rope, he understandably questions his mother and doubts her explanations. Is the mother crazy? Or has something unspeakable tricked this family into destroying themselves from within?
Megalopolis
Release date: September 27
Francis Ford Coppola has wanted to make Megalopolis for nearly five decades. When none of the Hollywood studios got behind him, Coppola raised the $120 million he needed to fund Megalopolis on his own. Even then, the major studios still didn’t bite. Only Lionsgate came forward to give this movie an actual theatrical release.
The story takes place in an alternate world where a city called New Rome has been nearly destroyed by an accident. Cesar Catilina (Ferrari‘s Adam Driver), an architect who can control time, wants to rebuild the city as a utopia for all of its residents. Mayor Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito) is against that because Cesar’s ideal city threatens the mayor’s ability to control it. Nathalie Emmanuel plays Franklyn’s daughter, Julia Cicero, who has romantic feelings for Cesar. Julia’s connection to both men may turn the fate of their city toward one or the other.
October 2024
Joker: Folie à Deux
Release date: October 4
If Joker hadn’t cleared $1 billion worldwide, it would have been hard to argue for a sequel considering that the young Bruce Wayne in the first film was at least 15 years away from becoming Batman. And Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) isn’t a very menacing Joker compared to the previous incarnations played by Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger. But that didn’t stop the Academy Awards from giving Phoenix the Oscar for Best Actor for his leading role.
Joker: Folie à Deux is introducing Lady Gaga as Harleen Quinzel, the woman who is destined to fall for the Joker and become his Harley Quinn. Their shared descent into madness and love is going to turn the Joker sequel into a musical. So it’s a good thing that Gaga can sing. We’re pretty sure that’s why she was cast in the first place.
White Bird
Release date: October 4
White Bird is a long-delayed sequel to Wonder that strangely enough, works as both a prequel and a sequel to the earlier film without too many links between them. For the present day sequences, Bryce Gheisar is reprising his role as Julian Albans, the bully from Wonder who is paying the price for his cruelty. To help Julian become a better person, his grandmother, Grandmère (Helen Mirren), shares the story of her life during World War II in occupied France.
That’s where the bulk of the movie takes place, as young Grandmère goes by her real name, Sara Blum (Ariella Glaser). As a Jewish girl, Sara’s life is in danger. And the only one who can save her is Julien Beaumier (Orlando Schwerdt), a teenager stricken with polio who was mercilessly bullied by her peers. Together, Sara and Julien may find a love that’s stronger than hate.
Piece by Piece
Release date: October 11
When is a Lego movie not a Lego movie? In this case, the answer is when it’s actually a music biopic for Pharrell Williams. Piece by Piece could probably have been told as a conventional film, but turning Williams’ life story into a Lego-style animated experience might bring in a much larger crowd. Especially if Joker: Folie à Deux is monopolizing the R-rated audience at the same time.
Gwen Stefani, Kendrick Lamar, Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Busta Rhymes, Jay-Z, and Snoop Dogg are also lending their voices and Lego likenesses to this flick, but it’s Williams’ story. We’re intrigued to see if this experiment works.
Terrifier 3
Release date: October 11
It’s Christmas in October with Terrifier 3, but more in a Black Christmas way than a Bing Crosby White Christmas. There won’t be much Christmas joy in Miles County this year because Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) is playing Santa … and you aren’t going to like what he leaves under the Christmas tree.
Every horror slasher flick needs a final girl, and in this case, Lauren LaVera reprises her role as Sienna Shaw from Terrifier 2. Sienna managed to defeat and slay Art the Clown the last time he went on a rampage. Can Sienna pull off a Christmas miracle and do it again? Because it’s not just her life on the line. Every minute that Art is still on the loose, another victim may fall.
Flight Risk
Release date: October 18
Mel Gibson has been partially let out of mainstream movie jail for his next thriller, Flight Risk, which is getting a full theatrical release from Lionsgate. Except Gibson is only directing this film, which gives Mark Wahlberg to go the full Colin Farrell as an assassin named Daryl Booth. Daryl has been hired to dispatch a criminal informant, Winston (That ’90s Show‘s Topher Grace), and the FBI agent who is escorting him, Madelyn Harris (Michelle Dockery).
While the trailer reveals that Madelyn and Winston survive their initial fight with Daryl, it leaves them in a bad spot on a plane that neither of them knows how to fly. They can’t trust Daryl to set the plane down safely, and he’s not the only one out to kill them.
Smile 2
Release date: October 18
When you’re smiling, the whole world smiles with you… except in the Smile franchise. The first Smile was a massive hit, especially for a horror film. That film established that there’s a curse that causes its victims to die with creepy smiles on their faces. And if you’re unfortunate enough to witness it, then you’re the next one on the curse’s hit list.
Naomi Scott headlines the sequel as Skye Riley, a very Taylor Swift-like pop star whose life is already cracking under the strain of fame. It’s only going to get worse for Skye when she becomes the curse’s next victim, and she witnesses unnerving smiles on the faces of people around her as something evil moves in for the kill.
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.
