With 2024 just around the corner, I'm interested to hear everyone's thoughts on what your predictions are for the year's movies. Some of the more-anticipated releases include: Mean Girls (January) Madame Web (February) Dune: Part Two (March) Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (March) Mickey 17 (March) Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (April) The Fall Guy (May) Furiosa (May) Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (May) Ballerina (June) A Quiet Place: Day One (June) Deadpool 3 (July) Borderlands (August) Kraven The Hunter (August) Transformers One (September) Joker: Folie à Deux (October) Terrifier 3 (October) The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (December) Myself, while I'm looking forward to Dune: Part II the most out of this list, I have a feeling it will perform below expecataions. I don't think there was enough love of the first installment to drive large amounts of ticket-buyers to the second. I hope I'm wrong. I'm also looking forward to Kraven The Hunter as I feel there is a lot to explore in this character, but if it's another effort with too much tongue-in-cheek jokes it could ruin it. Thoughts on these and any otther moviesscheduled to be released in 2024?
I was surprised to learn that Disney has only 3 movies lined up for 2024. New CNBC article on Disney's movie division https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/17/disney-box-office-flops-put-pressure-on-iger-bergman.html Disney CEO Bob Iger acknowledged last week that Disney’s films since the end of the pandemic haven’t met his quality standards. Disney hasn’t reported positive operating income in its “Content Sales/Licensing and Other” business unit, which includes theatrical, since the quarter that ended April 2, 2022. In 2024, Disney will release Marvel’s “Deadpool 3,” Pixar’s “Inside Out 2,” and “Mufasa: The Lion King.” In 2024, Disney will release Marvel’s “Deadpool 3,” Pixar’s “Inside Out 2,” and “Mufasa: The Lion King,” the prequel to 2019 remake of “The Lion King.” All three have blockbuster pedigree, based on the box office performances of their earlier films. “Deadpool 2” earned $785 million in global box office. “Inside Out” earned $859 million. “The Lion King” took in $1.6 billion in 2019, overtaking Disney’s “Frozen” to become the highest-grossing animated film ever
Might be a year where I only check out Deadpool and the animated LOTR flick. Need more info on Madame Web, such as a second trailer, before I can get invested, as that first trailer is fun but a mess. The Kraven film is going to have a real struggle standing up to the Kraven story from the recent Spider-Man PS5 game, at least for the nerds. The general public probably doesn't even know who that character is. I see where Sony's going with their villainverse (or maybe not going, if Morbius is any example) and I'm not sure who's really on board for that, except for maybe more Venom.
I’ve always felt a Kraven/Rhino story could be interesting from maybe a Rhino-goes-after-rhino-poachers (and the poachers are in to many other illegal things, maybe Hydra behind it) and runs in to Kraven the Hunter. But probably something best left to a graphic novel.
Dune 2 looked good from the cinema trailer I saw. I’m also looking forward in January to seeing Michael Mann’s Ferrari, though I think it officially opens on Boxing Day.
I can see that. I'm just not sure there's an audience for a Kraven story without Spider-Man. At least the Madame Web stories have spider-people in 'em. So far we've got Venom (built-in audience from anyone who remembers the Spider-Man 3 film), Morbius (only had any miniscule measure of success for the memes), and now we're getting Kraven's Solo Bad Guy Adventure, and now Madame WTF Is Madame Webb... not seeing a lot of legs (pun only mildly intended...gross) for stories that don't at least involve Spider-Man in some way.
As of right now, this is the only film you listed that I plan to see theatrically. Normally what I'd do is just wait until the home video release and buy the DVD or Blu-Ray and watch it at home. The reason I'll be seeing it at the theater is since The Mouse now owns the POTA property and they seem to be very stingy on releasing things to disc (if at all), the theater may be the only way I can see it.
Mean Girls (January) What? Is this a remake? A sequel? A reboot? A requel? When will Hollywood learn, people HATE remakes and reboots. So, it looks like this is an adaptation of a musical that adapted the first movie. Ugh. Just way too much incestuous remaking of the same thing going on there. Should've been a streaming movie. Musicals have been doing terribly godawful lately, so expect that trend to continue. Madame Web (February) I like superhero movies and haven't even bothered to watch the trailer for this one yet. This is another virtually unknown, and very unpopular character. Will struggle mightily to even match Morbius' box office. Dune: Part Two (March) I think the original was VERY well-received and this one is VERY anticipated. It should do as well as the original, and maybe a little better. People may forget that the original was a HUGE IMAX draw. Not on Oppenheimer's level, but Oppenheimer was probably the first movie since Dune 1 to have that high a proportion of IMAX attendance. Now that Oppenheimer generated excitement for IMAX again, some of that will spill over into Dune 2, since they'll no doubt market its IMAX format as being the "only" way to experience the movie. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (March) I don't like the March release month, but it is at least coinciding with the Easter holiday. Ultimately, the reaction to Afterlife was somewhat mixed. I think it did alienate some old school fans who still want the franchise to be more of a ribald adult comedy. This one looks like it's doubling down on remaking the brand into a children's franchise. Ghostbusters 2 aimed itself more at children than 1, and had much to regret about that decision. Supposedly this movie is now undergoing fresh reshoots, possibly because the writer's strike stopped them from ad-libbing on set before (which may be why the teaser trailer had almost no jokes in it). Making a Ghostbusters movie without ad-libbing is a bad idea. If they can come up with a better trailer, and lean into Slimer like Afterlife leaned into the mini Stay Pufts, this has a chance to do well. It looks like they've got almost nothing in their bag of tricks to be a draw in this movie except Slimer. I'd say just matching Afterlife's gross feels like the optimistic target. The foreign markets are going to be even less interested in this than Afterlife, no matter what they do. Mickey 17 (March) Mouse? Rooney? Spillane? Rourke? Never heard of it. OK, so it's a sci-fi movie by the director of an Oscar-winning movie that no one saw. And starring Robert Pattinson, an actor who no one actually really likes. Also sounds like a Gemini Man type of movie, but without an actor people actually like (at the time). Be lucky to do even what The Creator did. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (April) I think the last GVK already played this card and burned this bridge. It was a dumb movie, like the recent MCU stuff, too crammed with bad humor, self-parody and unconvincing effects with buildings tipping over like tinker toys. I think this whole Monsterverse franchise has been a failure to launch, with pretty poor gross numbers relative to their budgets. This will do worse than GVK, proving once again that 2021 movies were not hobbled by the pandemic anymore. People just didn't care about them that much (hence why F10 did the same exact biz as F9 and this year's DC movies bombed as badly as The Suicide Squad did). The Fall Guy (May) So we're doing obscure old TV show adaptations again? The A-Team movie bombed, so I don't see how this one does well. Hollywood needs to get smart, no pun intended, and make a MacGyver movie with Austin Butler. MacGyver is a truly remembered and beloved brand, and Austin is the first guy to come on the scene who could truly do justice to the role. Furiosa (May) Big, big mistake not having Charlize in it. And another prequel, ugh. Charlize is an actress people can get excited for. Anya Taylor-Joy is only a wet dream for fashion designers who like stick-figure women. And Chris Hemsworth, LOL! Does it get any more box office poison than that? The previous movie wasn't as huge a hit as people like to think. George Miller is still a good director. But expect a significant decline in gross from Fury Road. You just don't make a second movie about a popular character by recasting the role. Stupid, stupid, stupid. He would've been better off making a Mad Max movie with all-new characters. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (May) The recent Apes trilogy again did not do quite as well as people might remember. The second one had a nice surge in gross, but the third dropped right back down to where part 1 was, but on almost double the budget. The trilogy feels fairly forgotten now, to the point where it's shocking it only ended 6 years ago. I have no idea how this one ties into the previous ones, or if it does. Apes is still a solid brand name though. If this can give some sense that it's doing something new for the franchise, it could do alright. If it depends too much on the lore of the previous trilogy, that'll be bad, since people were clearly getting bored with it. I would bet on it not reaching the gross of any of the previous trilogy's movies. Ballerina (June) OK, this is a Wick spin-off with Ana de Armas. I'm not a Wick guy. Never seen them. I love Ana de Armas though. I like Charlize Theron too, but her Atomic Blonde movie just did okay, even for its low budget. I'll say this does better than Atomic, but not as well as Wick. It would be lucky to land between Wick 2 and 3's grosses, so hopefully they budgeted accordingly. A Quiet Place: Day One (June) Another series that never interested me. The second one held up VERY WELL against the first in gross, even as an early post-pandemic release. The cast change is NOT good though. I feel like Blunt and Krasinski were KEY to the success of this franchise. They are very underrated and underappreciated actors, who people REALLY connect with on screen. And it's ANOTHER prequel, yikes. People are going to revolt against all this prequel whiplash, having to remember that every movie they're watching takes place before another one. Probably going to see a significant decline from the others, a la the new Hunger Games. Deadpool 3 (July) HUGE HUGE HUGE! When Deadpool 1 was HUGE, and Deadpool 2 came out and was EQUALLY HUGE, this trend will continue. There has been ZERO decline in the character's popularity. He's only become MORE popular with the movie exposure. On top of that, you're adding Hugh Jackman as Wolvie, an IMMENSELY POPULAR actor/character combo, who wisely avoided the final "bad" X-Men movies. ON TOP OF THAT, you have a nice, big, healthy gap since the 2nd to build up demand, as well as a year that will be nearly BARREN of superhero movies (not counting the Sony ones, which just don't count, because no one gives a crap about them). The first year they won't be overexposed in almost a generation. BILLION-DOLLAR BLOCKBUSTER! When will Hollywood realize, YOU HAVE TO BRING BACK THE SAME ACTORS IN THEIR SAME ICONIC ROLES TO HAVE A SUCCESSFUL FRANCHISE! No recasting or replacing! That JUST DOESN'T WORK! Borderlands (August) I never played the game. Wiki says it's a comedy? Was the video game a comedy? I don't like Eli Roth as the director. I don't think he is a mainstream director. Some of the cast looks good, but Cate is a carryover from his The House with a Clock in Its Walls, which didn't do that well at all. This feels like it's going to be another miss, probably grossing similar to that one...or so it hopes. Kraven The Hunter (August) I guess it'll do marginally better than Morbius and Madame Web. But it's still Sony trying to reproduce the success of Venom without realizing that Venom is a unique case because he's freaking enormously popular as a cultural icon for anyone under the age of 50. These other characters are not. Bottom line, they should be doing an Amazing Spider-Man 3 with Andrew Garfield FIGHTING Kraven. (And a Tobey Spider-Man 4 with Hobgoblin.) That's what these villains were meant to do. Those retro sequels would be easy money, and with the multiverse firmly established, they can easily get away with it and explain it. If they hitch themselves to the MCU, they run the risk of going down with that sinking ship. And are just paying way too much money to Disney that they do NOT need to do. Garfield and Maguire are what made No Way Home a hit, not the irritating little shrimp who plays Spidey in the MCU. Transformers One (September) Some fans might like it, but Spider-Verse is NOT going to break the trend of action-oriented animation being a hard sell in America. This will be lucky to perform as well as the recent TMNT animated movie. And replacing Peter Cullen as the voice of Optimus is a HUGE MISS. Joker: Folie à Deux (October) HUGE HUGE HUGE! The original movie was a cultural BEHEMOTH. Joaquin Phoenix gave a master class in acting in it. Lady Gaga is an incredible talent with an absolutely loyal and sophisticated fan base. Harley Quinn is a tremendously iconic and popular character (who was utterly wasted in James Gunn's The Suicide Squad movie, by being turned into a dumb sitcom blonde). This is a BRILLIANT and VERY MARKETABLE marrying of a star with a character. People LOVE dark superhero stories. Now more than ever, after all this childish comedic crap for little babies has worn out its welcome. The Boys was one of the top ten most viewed streaming shows of last year. People want sex, violence, drugs and rock 'n roll in their superhero movies, and this will deliver. Everyone who saw the original Joker will want to see this, and an army of Little Monsters will be the "plus one" to top it off. Now, it is very hard to make a sequel that matches a "phenomenon" movie that really had no business doing as well as it did. This MIGHT not make a billion, but it shouldn't be far off. The critics ALREADY kind of hated the first one (with 69%...the critics are the only people who don't like serious superhero movies), so it's somewhat critic-proof. But there still is the chance it's a misfire, and not an actually good movie. My hope springs eternal that it's as good as the original, while doing it in a different, unique way. It will definitely have a GIGANTIC opening, much bigger than the first, and maintain huge interest overseas. Joaquin is very exportable. And I think Gaga is too. The fact that it sounds even weirder than the first COULD turn some people off though, so it probably won't quite reach a billion this time. In its favor, it isn't a TRUE musical, where people just sing for no reason, as I understand it. It will be like A Star is Born, I think, where the people are actually singing right there in real life. It's the former kind of musical that people seem to hate, not the latter. Terrifier 3 (October) I don't care much about horror, and definitely don't care about or follow these movies. The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (December) Should've been live-action. The LOTR fan base is absolutely rabid and insane. I've seen how they still line up at conventions for the LOTR actors like nobody does for anyone else. A prequel to Jackson's films that was able to tie in some of the elves with the same actors, would've made it a massive hit. LOTR is already set in the past, so people can more easily accept a prequel in that situation, especially if near-immortal characters are able to reappear. Again, this idea of serious, action-oriented animation just isn't going to take off outside Japan. Western culture doesn't go for it. Spider-Verse is an exception to the rule and will remain so. So, again, the TMNT animated movie from this year is the optimistic target.
RE Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, my hopes are on Godzilla Minus One as I don’t really care for the US-ish treatment of him. Godzilla Minus One came out a few weeks back in Japan to very favorable reviews and box office and opens in under two weeks here. It’s in Japanese and will have limited US release so it won’t do anything big but it’s the Godzilla film I’m most looking forward to.
I actually liked Godzilla King of the Monsters, to a point. GVK was a cringe-inducing disaster though. I don't recall anything in GVK even being the least bit scary or awe-inspiring. The power of the monsters was completely diminished. They seemed very small, weak and insignificant.
Here are some big, or big-budget 2024 movies the OP missed: Argylle (February) By Matthew Vaughn. Terrible release date, but the cast looks INSANE, led by one of the few male sex symbols in movies today, Henry Cavill. The premise also looks genuinely amusing. Probably will get good reviews, but it's got a LONG haul to make back its $200 million budget. So probably will be another bomb in the end. Inside Out 2 (June) Mufasa (live-action) (December) I think the originals were so popular that those two have a very good chance of succeeding. Most likely some comedown from what the originals made, but they can afford to come down a bit. Kung Fu Panda 4 (March) Should be a hit with the kiddies, and maybe even get good reviews, like Puss in Boots 2 did. Despicable Me 4 (July) HUGE. Maybe not another phenomenon like the last Minions, but this series is RIDICULOUSLY popular, makes a massive cultural impact, and is extremely frugal on the budgets. Beetlejuice 2 (September) Feels like another sequel no one asked for. I never liked the original Beetlejuice, but Keaton was definitely memorable in the role. If the sequel totally centers around him, then maybe it could be good. But it better be low-budget if they expect to make any money. If people were willing to ignore Keaton as Batman this year, are they really going to come back to see him as Beetlejuice? Garfield (May) Not expecting much from this, LOL. I'm seeing other stuff on the list I'm looking at, but not even sure if these are accurate or not: Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Karate Kid, Gladiator 2, Alien: Romulus, Twisters (yes, a sequel to Twister), The First Omen. All franchise continuations. Just don't know enough about these iterations yet to form a solid opinion. Sonic 3 is definitely a safe bet. If Alien wants to succeed, they need to bring back Sigourney Weaver, period. And make Alien 3 and 4 a bad cryo dream.
I think folks are far past Disney burn out. They have really squandered their name. Iger needs to retire, bring in new blood and try and save the brand because it’s seriously now tarnished. They need to stop releasing films for a while and regroup imo. If they continue to simply issue regards they are truly finished in their current state. I have no interest is seeing any of those 3 films. I miss their original idea days. You would sit in wonderment when a new Pixar film was released. That is gone when you keep repeating films disguised as sequels, and they haven’t even been good lately imo.
I'm looking forward to Godzilla vs Kong, Despicable Me 4, Inside Out 2, Beetlejuice 2, Mufasa, Ordinary Angels, Garfield and Juror No. 2 if it ever finishes filming.
It does tie in to the previous trilogy moving the story forward several generations, apes are now in full control. It's getting closer in the timeline to the 1968 movie, it's not clear yet how close they are. Director Wes Ball breathes new life into the global, epic franchise set several generations in the future following Caesar’s reign, in which apes are the dominant species living harmoniously and humans have been reduced to living in the shadows. As a new tyrannical ape leader builds his empire, one young ape undertakes a harrowing journey that will cause him to question all that he has known about the past and to make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike. “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” is directed by Wes Ball (the “Maze Runner” trilogy) and stars Owen Teague (“IT”), Freya Allan (“The Witcher”), Kevin Durand (Locke & Key”), Peter Macon (“Shameless”), and William H. Macy (“Fargo”). The screenplay is by Josh Friedman (“War of the Worlds”) and Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver (“Avatar: The Way of Water”) and Patrick Aison (“Prey”), based on characters created by Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver, and the producers are Wes Ball, Joe Hartwick, Jr. (“The Maze Runner”), Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Jason Reed (“Mulan”), with Peter Chernin (the “Planet of the Apes” trilogy) and Jenno Topping (“Ford v. Ferrari”) serving as executive producers.
2024: Apes / quiet place 3. And thats all.. maybe Kraven. thank you Hollywood…not. List ? appalling selection
Why so negative? if the big budget fare doesn't catch your eye look towards the smaller indie titles, hundreds of those released every year and most of them are cape free .
Mean Girls is an adaptation of the popular musical, that was based on the film. Sort of a reflection of a reflection. Still, it has the potential to do well with female audiences.
I'm definitely not it's intended audience, since I hate the original Mean Girls and can't see how turning it into a musical of all things could magically turn that movie into something halfway decent. But then again people flocked like drones to see Barbie, so nothing's impossible at the box office anymore, lol.
My daughter got me to watch ' Mean Girks' with her many tears ago and....I liked it. It captured that mean teenage vibe and was a suprisingly entertaining watch. People flocked to see the mew Indiana Jones movie and it sucked.
After loving Edwards' Godzilla and Dougherty's G:KotM, I had to put on my sad mask for GvK. It has its moments, action-wise, but the narrative's appalling and MechaGodzilla, one of Big G's mightiest opponents, is utterly wasted. It felt more like Journey to the Center of the Earth featuring King Kong than a Godzilla movie. They tried to make up for it with three big action set pieces, but the shorter running time stifles a legitimate recovery.
Exactly. If Minus One lives up to early reviews, it will make the entire Monster Universe miscalculations seem even dumber. If that's possible.
But Vidiot offer informed, relevant and reasoned perspective. I respect what he brings to these threads because he's inside but doesn't seem to have an axe to grind. Likes a good movie as much as the rest of us, and doesn't make excuses for the bad ones. so, just want to say: Thanks Vidiot!
