Hollywood in 2024: Marvel turns low-key, sequels dominate – Godzilla, Inside Out, Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn – and Parasite director goes sci-fi

Studios shouldn’t expect 2024 to bring a rebound – forecasts suggest receipts this year will be worse than in 2023. Why? Because the strikes forced a reshuffle of studio’s forthcoming releases.

Films including Pixar’s alien saga Elio, Marvel’s Captain America: Brave New World and the latest Mission: Impossible movie will now be released in 2025. It’s the sort of news to leave cinema exhibitors quaking as they worry where the next blockbuster hit comes from.

Already, some analysts are eyeing live-action prequel Mufasa: The Lion King – not due out until December 2024 – as the film most likely to triumph. But that is a long time to wait.

2. IP still rules Hollywood

Last year, the box office failure of Gareth Edwards’ The Creator (US$104 million takings worldwide) – an original science fiction film, purely from the mind of the director – undoubtedly reinforced the notion that Hollywood prioritises existing intellectual property above all else. It’s easy to package, and easy to sell.

John David Washington in a still from “The Creator”. Photo: 20th Century Studios

In that respect 2024 will be no different. Sequels once again dominate the schedules, from family films (Inside Out 2, Kung Fu Panda 4, Paddington in Peru) to comic-book staples (Deadpool 3, Venom 3, Madame Web) and horror movies (Saw XI, A Quiet Place: Day One, Nosferatu).

Long-running franchises are also back, with Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Monsterverse entry Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and Fury Road prequel Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.

If all those just make you sigh, at least Ridley Scott – on a high after his brilliant Napoleon – will deliver his long-awaited swords-and-sandals sequel Gladiator 2.

3. Superheroes stagnate

After a terrible year for Marvel Studios in 2023 as box office flops, the strikes and scandals rocked the company, 2024 will be very low key.

The only Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film to hit cinemas will be the Ryan Reynolds vehicle Deadpool 3, which may be a good thing given the superhero fatigue that clearly set in with audiences in 2023. True, there will be non-MCU films, including Venom 3 and Kraven the Hunter, but these are not likely to set the world alight.

Likewise, rival outfit DC Comics is also set for a quiet year – with only Todd Phillips’ sequel Joker: Folie à Deux ready to rock the big screen. Again starring Joaquin Phoenix as Batman’s nemesis, the cast now includes Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn. And it will be a musical. The mind boggles.

4. The British are coming (again)

This may well be the year that the British clean up at the Academy Awards.

Jonathan Glazer’s German-language Holocaust drama The Zone of Interest looks to be a shoo-in for the best international picture Oscar, capitalising on its Grand Prix prize in Cannes last year.

Christian Friedel in a still from “The Zone of Interest”. Photo: A24 via AP

Equally adored by critics, Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers is likely to see star Andrew Scott recognised for his performance, with co-star Paul Mescal also in with a chance of scoring a second career Oscar nod following Aftersun.

Also back is Alex Garland (Ex Machina) with Civil War, an apocalyptic tale starring Jesse Plemons and Kirsten Dunst, his life partner. Lynne Ramsay will return with Polaris, a period piece starring Rooney Mara set in the 1890s, and Steve McQueen, fresh from his documentary Occupied City, will bring us World War Two drama Blitz, headlined by Saoirse Ronan.

5. Music bios to sing the right notes

A guaranteed audience pleaser, the music biopic looks to be one healthy genre in 2024.

First off, Bob Marley: One Love sees Kingsley Ben-Adir play the reggae icon, under the direction of King Richard’s Reinaldo Marcus Green. With son Ziggy on board as producer, the film has the full backing of the Marley estate, which bodes well.

Likewise, the forthcoming Back to Black, a telling of the tragically short life of Amy Winehouse, is endorsed by her family. Starring Industry’s Marisa Abela as the singer, who died aged 27, the film is directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson and written by Matt Greenhalgh – the team that brought us John Lennon bio Nowhere Boy.

Marisa Abela as Amy Winehouse in a still from “Back to Black”. Photo: Dean Rogers/Focus Features

Also in the works is Beautiful, the story of “Tapestry” singer Carole King, starring Daisy Edgar-Jones (Normal People) and set to be directed by Lisa Cholodenko, who last made a feature film in 2010 (The Kids Are All Right).

6. The auteurs are not out of it

Originality may not be as highly valued in Hollywood as it should be, but 2024 will see the return of some major auteurs to the big screen.

Already the winner of the Golden Lion, Yorgos Lanthimos’ feminist Frankenstein tale Poor Things has many believing that it will take best picture at the Oscars in February.

Korea’s Bong Joon-ho will follow his own Oscar winner, Parasite, with his first science fiction movie, Mickey 17, starring Robert Pattinson as an employee sent to colonise an icy planet.

Robert Eggers ( The Northman) is back with a reworking of the classic vampire tale Nosferatu, featuring Willem Dafoe. Meanwhile, Jordan Peele ( Get Out) also has a secret, untitled project in the works, expected to hit screens on Christmas Day 2024.

7. AI is not going away

Mark Gatiss (left) and Charles Parnell in front of ‘The Entity’, one of the film’s main antagonists, in a still from “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1”. Photo: Paramount Pictures and Skydance

But it was not just on screen that AI made its presence felt, with striking actors and writers understandably concerned about the way studios intend to use it in moviemaking.

As the technology develops at an ever more rapid pace, it can only be a matter of time before the first AI-created movie is released. That will not be in 2024, but you can expect the chatter to increase around this most contentious topic.

8. Streamers struggle

As easy as it is to paint a bleak picture for theatrical releases, the streaming platforms certainly will not have it all their own way in 2024.

12 Hollywood movies we can’t wait to see in 2024, from Migration to Dune 2

The proliferation of platforms (Netflix, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime, Paramount + and Disney+ among many others) meant that, in 2023, consumers cut back on subscriptions. That trend is likely to continue into this year, with economic pressures meaning home entertainment is one of the first luxuries to go.

Instead, expect to see a rise in free, ad-supported content, as Fast (free ad-supported television) and Avod (advertising-based video on demand) products on platforms like Roku become ever more popular.

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