The Most Anticipated Movies of 2024

The production and release of several movies were delayed this year due to the ongoing strikes. But in 2024, things can move full steam ahead. From big-name musicals like Mean Girls, Joker: Folie a Deux and Wicked: Part One to romantic dramas and thrillers like Challengers and Love Lies Bleeding, here are the most anticipated films of 2024:

Mean Girls

Directed by: Arturo Perez Jr., Samantha Jayne

Starring: Angourie Rice, Reneé Rapp, Auliʻi Cravalho, Bebe Wood, Jaquel Spivey, Tina Fey, Tim Meadows, Jenna Fischer, Jon Hamm, Ashley Park

Premieres: January 12

We’re all exhausted by reboot mania, but the new Mean Girls movie isn’t actually a direct remake of Tina Fey’s classic 2004 comedy starring Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams. Though it’s not clear from the marketing, this is actually an adaptation of the stage musical Mean Girls, which itself was an adaptation of the film made for modern times. You can still expect Regina George (Renée Rapp) to be running North Shore High School, but she’ll be belting out a few tunes along the way.

How to Have Sex

Directed by: Molly Manning Walker

Starring: Mia McKenna-Bruce, Lara Peake, Samuel Bottomley, Shaun Thomas, Enva Lewis and Laura Ambler

Premieres: February 2

While Walker’s feature debut covers much of the ground many coming-of-age films do with a story about three British teenage girls spending a summer drinking, clubbing, and hooking up, it’s already been lauded for its authentic depiction of these rites of passages, winning the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes this year.

Lisa Frankenstein

Directed by: Zelda Williams

Starring: Kathryn Newton, Cole Sprouse

Premieres: February 9

Written by Diablo Cody (Juno), this 1989-set horror comedy film stars Kathryn Newton as “a misunderstood teenage Goth girl named Lisa Swallows, who reanimates a handsome corpse from the Victorian era (Cole Sprouse) during a lightning storm and starts to rebuild him into the man of her dreams by using a broken tanning machine in her garage. After going through a playfully horrific transformation, the romantic duo embarks on a murderous journey to find true love, happiness, and a few missing body parts along the way.”

Madame Web

Directed by: S.J. Clarkson

Starring: Dakota Johnson, Sydney Sweeney, Celeste O’Connor, Isabela Merced, Tahar Rahim, Emma Roberts, Mike Epps, Adam Scott, and Zosia Mamet

Premieres: February 14

The Spider-Man universe keeps on giving; in this case, Dakota Johnson stars as clairvoyant Madame Web in a female-centered, action-packed film whose cast also include Sydney Sweeney and Zosia Mamet.

Drive-Away Dolls

Directed by: Ethan Coen

Starring: Margaret Qualley, Geraldine Viswanathan, Beanie Feldstein, Colman Domingo, Pedro Pascal, Bill Camp, Matt Damon, Joey Slotnick

Premieres: February 23

Ethan Coen makes his solo directorial debut with comedy Drive Away Dolls. Per its description, the film follows Jamie (Margaret Qualley), an uninhibited free spirit bemoaning yet another breakup with a girlfriend, and her demure friend Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan) who desperately needs to loosen up. In search of a fresh start, the two embark on an impromptu road trip to Tallahassee, but things quickly go awry when they cross paths with a group of inept criminals along the way.

Dune: Part Two

Directed by: Denis Villeneuve

Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård

Premieres: March 1

The second installment of Denis Villeneuve’s epic space saga will be even longer than the first—which itself was Villeneuve’s longest film to date. That means even more Timmy + Zendaya, more Florence Pugh, more blue-eyed space adventures and yes, more space worms.

Problemista

Directed by: Julio Torres

Starring: Julio Torres, Tilda Swinton, RZA, Isabella Rossellini, Larry Owens, Greta Lee

Premieres: March 1 (limited release), March 22 (wide release)

Problemista is a surrealist comedy written, directed, starring, and co-produced by Julio Torres (Los Espookys). Torres plays Alejandro, an aspiring toy designer from El Salvador, struggling to bring his unusual ideas to life in New York City. As time on his work visa runs out, a job assisting an erratic art-world outcast (Tilda Swinton) becomes his only hope to stay in the country and realize his dream.

Love Lies Bleeding

Directed by: Rose Glass

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Katy O’Brian, Jena Malone, Anna Baryshnikov, Dave Franco and Ed Harris

Premieres: March 8

Kristen Stewart leads this lesbian bodybuilder crime drama—an electric, noir-feeling thriller involving car chases, gym rats, and lots and lots of guns.

Mickey 17

Directed by: Bong Joon-ho

Starring: Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Toni Collette, Mark Ruffalo, Steven Yeun

Premieres: March 29

South Korean director Bong Joon-ho follows up his Academy Award-winning film Parasite with this adaptation of the sci-fi novel Mickey7 by Edward Ashton. Robert Pattinson stars as a disposable employee—one whose body is regenerated with previous memories intact every time he dies—on a mission to colonize a distant world.

Challengers

Directed by: Luca Guadagnino

Starring: Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, Mike Faist

Premieres: April 26

Zendaya stars in Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers, a sexy tennis drama which centers on the relationships between between a tennis prodigy-turned-coach (Zendaya), her husband, who is currently a struggling former champion (Mike Faist) and his former best friend (Josh O’Connor)—who also happens to be her ex-boyfriend.

Civil War

Directed by: Alex Garland

Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Jesse Plemons, Nick Offerman

Premieres: April 26

Alex Garland’s (Ex Machina, Annihilation) fourth film sees the United States engaged in civil war, with married couple Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons leading the cast. Per a description, the provocative film charts a “race to the White House in a near-future America balanced on the razor’s edge.”

The Idea of You

Directed by: Michael Showalter

Starring: Anne Hathaway, Nicholas Galitzine

Premieres: May 2 on Prime Video

An adaptation of Robinne Lee’s novel of the same name, The Idea of You stars Anne Hathaway as a 40-year-old mother who has a romance with the 24-year-old singer (Nicholas Galitzine, in a role based on Harry Styles) of her 16-year-old daughter’s favorite band after they meet at Coachella. Enough said.

Back to Black

Directed by: Sam Taylor-Johnson

Starring: Marisa Abela, Jack O’Connell, Lesley Manville, Eddie Marsan

Premieres: May 10

Although early responses to first looks at the film haven’t been all positive, Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black is certainly highly anticipated. Industry star Marisa Abela will portray the late singer, who died at age 27 in 2011. Notably, the film has the full support of the Amy Winehouse estate.

The Bikeriders

Directed by: Jeff Nichols

Starring: Austin Butler, Jodie Comer, Tom Hardy, Michael Shannon, Mike Faist, Norman Reedus, Boyd Holbrook

Premieres: June 21

Jeff Nichols’s period drama is inspired by the 1967 photobook of the same name, and chronicles the rise of a Chicago motorcycle club over the course of a decade, through the lens of its members.

Joker: Folie á Deux

Directed by: Todd Phillips

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson, Zazie Beetz, Catherine Keener, and Jacob Lofland

Premieres: October 4

Director Todd Phillips is behind the follow-up to the massively successful film that earned Joaquin Phoenix the Best Actor Oscar for his take on Batman villain Joker. This time, Lady Gaga will join Phoenix as his love interest Harley Quinn—and will bring to life the most notable aspect of an already notable project, which is that it’s also a musical.

Wicked: Part One

Directed by: Jon M. Chu

Starring: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey

Premieres: November 27

Although on-set drama has been overshadowing its release, part one of the legendary Broadway musical is finally coming to the big screen. Director Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians, In the Heights) will bring audiences to Oz, with Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande playing Elphaba and Glinda, respectively.

Nosferatu

Directed by: Robert Eggers

Starring: Bill Skarsgård, Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin, Willem Dafoe

Premieres: December 25

Robert Eggers (The Witch, The Lighthouse) follows up his action epic The Northman with a longtime passion project—the remake of the classic 1922 vampire film of the same name. The film follows a young woman (Lily-Rose Depp) and the vampire (Bill Skarsgård) who is obsessed with her.

Mother’s Instinct

Directed by: Benoît Delhomme

Starring: Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain

Premieres: TBD 2024

Anne Hathaway will star in another movie this year—for what she’s called her “hardest role yet.” Mother’s Instinct is a remake of an award-winning 2018 Belgium film, itself based on Barbara Abel’s novel of the same name. The thriller features Hathaway and Jessica Chastain as best friends and next-door neighbors Celine and Alice, who are faced with tragedy when Celine’s son accidentally dies after falling from a balcony while Alice watches. What follows is a story of “guilt, suspicion and paranoia,” which “combine to unravel their sisterly bond, and a psychological battle of wills.”