Many years ago, a band of muscular men emerged in the flickering darkness. They flexed, got their vests dirty and shot at stuff. They had many names, often diminutive – Sly, Arnie, Bruce – for they were beloved by the people. But their might could not withstand the capriciousness of man. The time came to pass when the people tired of pecs and bullets. They longed for novelty, for hobbits and American Pie.
Thus Hollywood moved on from action heroes, just as the movieverse now must move on from the age of the superhero. Saturation on every platform – cinemas, TV, streamers – coupled with well-worn plot lines can have only one outcome: audience fatigue. But memos can be missed, and even so it takes time for the Hollywood supertanker to change course. So the latest parade of second-tier comic-book heroes – Deadpool 3, Venom 3 and Kraven the Hunter – are still coming soon to a movie theatre near you.
The wheels came off other intellectual-property wagons, too, as with this year’s underperforming, underwhelming Indiana Jones instalment and the wildly protracted Fast X, which lost $146 million, or about €135 million. There are multiple reasons: poor scripts, vastly overinflated budgets, shortened streaming release windows, and – looking at you, Wicked: The Musical – the unnecessary splitting of movies into two parts.
More missed memos. So stay tuned for sequels to Godzilla x Kong and Inside Out, a threequel for Sonic the Hedgehog, tetraquels for Bad Boys and Despicable Me, prequels to A Quiet Place and Transformers, and an interquel for Alien. All landing in 2024.
Hands up anyone who was clambering for a follow-up to Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Anybody? Or a reboot of Garfield? You’re getting them, regardless. No matter. Against all odds – and the best efforts of studio executives – 2024 is going to be a fantastic year for cinema. Here are 50 reasons why.
All of Us Strangers
Andrew Scott’s lonely gay screenwriter encounters a handsome stranger (Paul Mescal) and returns home to find his parents at the age they were before they died in this second movie adaptation of Taichi Yamada’s novel. (January 26th)
All You Need Is Death
Young musicologists stumble across a cursed folk ballad sung in a forgotten ancient dialect by Olwen Fouéré. Monstrous consequences ensue in the veteran documentarian Paul Duane’s first narrative feature.
Argylle
A reclusive spy novelist (Bryce Dallas Howard) becomes embroiled in real-world espionage in Matthew Vaughn’s thriller. Henry Cavill and Bryan Cranston bring the muscle. Watch out for Claudia Schiffer’s cat. (February 2nd)
Back to Black
Sam Taylor-Johnson directs the newcomer Marisa Abela in this Amy Winehouse biopic. The Fifty Shades of Grey director insists the film will focus on Winehouse’s genius over the less savoury aspects of her life and tragic death. (April 12th)
Ballerina
John Wick returns to this spin-off interquel set between Chapters 3 and 4. Featuring Ana de Armas in the role once played by the actual ballerina Unity Phelan. (June 7th)
Beetlejuice 2
Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara return for Tim Burton’s sequel, 36 years after Michael Keaton’s poltergeist-for-hire debuted. Add Beetlejuice’s wife (Monica Bellucci) and Ryder’s on-screen daughter (the ubiquitous Jenna Ortega). (September 6th)
The Bikeriders
Austin Butler, Tom Hardy and Michael Shannon form a 1960s motorcycle club that slowly curdles into something more sinister in Jeff Nichol’s delayed drama.
Blitz
Saoirse Ronan is one of an intersecting group of Londoners during the bombing campaign of the title in Steve McQueen’s historical drama.
Borderlands
Promising and long-awaited adaptation of the classic video game with Eli Roth at the helm and Cate Blanchett and Jack Black on the screen. (August 8th)
The Brutalist
The brilliant Brady Corbet follows Childhood of a Leader and Vox Lux with a decades-spanning biopic of László Tóth, a Hungarian-born Jewish architect who survived the Holocaust. Adrien Brody stars.
A Different Man
Sebastian Stan plays a man with neurofibromatosis who undergoes reconstructive surgery, only to become obsessed with the actor playing him in a stage production based on his life.
Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
Romanian eccentric Jude Radu directs Nina Hoss and Uwe Boll in this madcap tale of economics and TikTok.
Dune: Part Two
Austin Butler and Florence Pugh join Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya as the Fremen people take on House Harkonnen. Hans Zimmer brings all the bongs. (March 1st)
The Fall Guy
Reboot of the long-defunct Lee Majors TV series starring Ryan Gosling as the ageing, mystery-solving stuntman of the title. John Wick codirector David Leitch takes the helm. (May 3rd)
The Front Room
Max and Sam Eggers, brothers of Robert Eggers – see Nosferatu – adapt Susan Hill’s supernatural tale of a Christian family who, in keeping with biblical exhortation to bring the homeless poor into your house, invite an evil presence into their home.
Furiosa
Charlize Theron is out, Anya Taylor-Joy is in for the first spin-off from Mad Max: Fury Road. (May 23rd)
Gladiator 2
Paul Mescal buffs up – and up – for Ridley Scott’s long-delayed sequel. Denzel Washington and Pedro Pascal join returning cast member Connie Nielsen 23 years on from Russell Crowe’s beat-’em-up. (November 23rd)
Green Border
Agnieszka Holland’s Venice prize-winning drama plays out against the contemporary immigration crisis on the boundary between Poland and Belarus.
Humane
Following environmental collapse, world leaders agree to reduce Earth’s population by 20 per cent in the feature debut from Caitlin Cronenberg, daughter – quelle surprise – of David Cronenberg.
I Saw the TV Glow
When their favourite TV show is cancelled, reality blurs for two teens in Jane Schoenbrun’s follow-up to the cult favourite We’re All Going to the World’s Fair.
Joker: Folie à Deux
Ooh. Intriguing musical sequel with returnee Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn. (October 4th)
[ Joker film review: Terrific, tear-out-the-follicles acting from Joaquin PhoenixOpens in new window ]
Kidnapped
Chilling, infuriating true-life drama about Edgardo Mortara, a young Jewish boy living in Bologna, who in 1858 was taken by the Vatican. (February 23rd)
King Frankie
Following the death of his father, the past catches up with Peter Coonan’s title character in Dermot Malone’s feature debut (which is bound for Dublin International Film Festival).
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Years after the fall of Caesar, a young ape goes on a quest that prompts him to question everything he’s been taught about the past. They didn’t blow it up? (May 24th)
Kneecap
Michael Fassbender stars in the origin tale of the west Belfast Irish-language hip-hop trio Kneecap. First Irish-language film to crack the Sundance programme.
Lion King 2
Animated sequel to the live-action remake of the Disney cartoon. Which was also animated. Barry Jenkins improbably directs. (December 20th)
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim
Miranda Otto and Brian Cox return for the story behind Helm’s Deep, set hundreds of years before the war of the original trilogy. In a franchise surprise, it’s only 130 minutes long. (December 12th)
Love Lies Bleeding
This 1980s-set romantic thriller from Rose Glass, the director of Saint Maud, stars Kristen Stewart as a gym employee who embarks on a destructive affair with a woman bodybuilder.
Love Me
Postapocalyptic romance between a satellite and a buoy – oh, yes – who meet online after humanity is gone. Starring Steven Yeun and Kristen Stewart (again).
Madame Web
The latest Spiderverse spin-off stars Sydney Sweeney. Hooray! From the franchise that brought you Morbius. Oh. (February 14th)
MaXXXIne
The final instalment of Ty West’s X trilogy follows the demented heroine (cocreator Mia Goth) to 1980s Hollywood. Expect a high body count and much slashing.
Me Captain
Matteo Garrone’s stirring immigration adventure is jollied along by an epic performance from newcomer Seydou Sarr. (March 21st)
Mickey 17
Robert Pattinson heads a starry cast as a regenerative clone on a mission to colonise a faraway ice planet in Bong Joon-ho’s follow-up to Parasite. (March 28th)
Monster
A single mother quizzes a teacher when her son becomes sullen and withdrawn. Many mysteries follow in Kore-eda Hirokazu’s canny Cannes-winner. (Early 2024)
Mother Mary
David Lowery chronicles the fractious relationship between a fictional musician (Anne Hathaway) and a fashion designer (Michaela Coel).
The Movie Critic
Quentin Tarantino’s 10th film – maybe ninth? – concerns a cynical 1970s film critic (Paul Walter Hauser) who works for a porn magazine. He may or may not solve crimes. And the film may emerge in 2024. Or 2025. It may also be Tarantino’s last.
Nosferatu
Bill Skarsgård is the vampire of the title in this second remake of the 1922 German expressionist film, itself an unauthorised knock-off of Bram Stoker’s best-known creation. Willem Dafoe will throw the Van Helsing-sized shadows. Robert Eggers (The Witch, The Lighthouse) directs. (December 25th)
The Outrun
Saoirse Ronan plays a woman returning to the Orkney Islands to confront her troubled past in this adaptation of Amy Liptrot’s memoir. Directed by System Crasher’s Nora Fingscheidt.
Polaris
Lynne Ramsay reunites with busy bee Joaquin Phoenix for an 1890s supernatural thriller about a photographer who encounters the devil in Alaska. Phoenix’s real-life partner, Rooney Mara, costars.
Poor Things
Emma Stone plays a blinder as a woman with a baby-brain transplant, Willem Dafoe is the presiding mad scientist, and Mark Ruffalo is a moustache-twirling cad, in Yorgos Lanthimos’s riotous comedy. (January 12th)
Robot Dreams
Adorable animated 1980s New York saga of a lonely dog and his mail-order robot from Pablo Berger, the director of Blancanieves. You won’t see many better films next year. (March 22nd)
Speak No Evil
A dream holiday becomes a hellscape under Blumhouse’s remake of the 2022 Danish hit of the same name. James McAvoy and Mackenzie Davis star. (August 9th)
The Teachers’ Lounge
A nail-biting thriller spun from the unlikeliest of premises: when money goes missing at a German school, the fallout turns into a series of witch-hunts. Leonie Benesch is the besieged teacher. (March 8th)
Terrifier 3
Ari the Clown, Pennywise’s DIY-budget cousin, returns for a Christmassy killing spree in this follow-up to the surprise box-office smash Terrifier 2. (October 25th)
That They May Face the Rising Sun
The great documentary-maker Pat Collins brings John McGahern’s portrait of rural Irish life to the big screen.
Tuesday
Death arrives in the form of a strange talking bird for a mother (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and her teenage daughter (Belfastian Lola Petticrew).
Twisters
Baffling belated sequel to the ho-hum 1996 tornado-chasing summer blockbuster. Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell and Anthony Ramos get caught in the storm. (July 18th)
We Live in Time
Working from Nick Payne’s closely guarded script, John Crowley, the Brooklyn director, returns with this romance starring a shaven-headed Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield.
Wicked Part One
Split adaptation of the beloved stage musical in which the Wicked Witch of the West (Cynthia Erivo) is framed by the Wizard of Oz. Ariana Grande is the popular girl who becomes Glinda the Good. (November 24th)
The Zone of Interest
Jonathan Glazer’s chilling portrait of Rudolf Höss, the commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp, plays house to unmask evil. A much-needed corrective to the burgeoning good-Nazi subgenre of Natural Light and All the Light We Cannot See. (February 2nd)
