Exciting new movies hitting theaters in 2024 | Digital Trends

Summer may be over, but Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is playing like a blockbuster despite arriving in one of the slowest months of the year. September doesn’t tend to get many big releases, which may explain why the Beetlejuice sequel blew past everyone’s expectations. This weekend, the horror movie Speak No Evil is expected to have a very down-to-earth opening of about $10 million. Suffice it to say, it won’t be defeating Beetlejuice Beetlejuice with those numbers.

Two animated movies are coming later this month — Transformers One and The Wild Robot — which may be able to breathe some life back into the post-summer box office. But for now, it should be fairly quiet in theaters for the next few weeks.

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.

September 2024

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?

Transformers One

Release date: September 20

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.

Wolfs

Release date: September 20

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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.

November 2024

Here

Release date: November 1

Robert Zemeckis has made some big swings before, and not all of them have been home runs. But he’s still trying something new with Here, a film that reunites him with Forest Gump stars Tom Hanks and Robin Wright. It’s based on a single-page comic, with a story expanded to cover 100 years in a single room, where the camera angle never changes in all of that time.

Hanks and Wright will be de-aged with CGI, and aged up as the story calls for it, as we see snapshots from their life together. Some of those effects look a little suspect in the trailer, but it’s possible the final film will be more convincing. It’s too soon to say how Here will be received, but it will be interesting to see if Zemeckis can make it work.

My Dead Friend Zoe

Release date: November 1

There isn’t a trailer yet for My Dead Friend Zoe, but it’s got a cast that may get some attention when the film arrives in November. Star Trek: Discovery’s Sonequa Martin-Green stars as Merit, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan who is haunted by an apparition of Zoe (Natalie Morales), who was her best friend in the army.

This doesn’t appear to be a horror movie, so the haunting is likely just in Merit’s mind. The brief description of the film says that Merit will go “head-to-head with her Vietnam vet grandfather at the family’s ancestral lake house.” We’re not sure if her grandfather is played by Ed Harris or Morgan Freeman, but both actors have significant roles in this movie as well.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Release date: November 8

Christmas comes early this year with The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, an adaptation of Barbara Robinson’s children’s novel. Grace (Judy Greer) and her husband, Bob Bradley (Pete Holmes), are among the townspeople putting on the annual Christmas pageant about the Nativity story. This year’s performance has been hijacked by the Herdman children: Imogene (Beatrice Schneider), Ralph (Mason D. Nelligan), Claude (Matthew Lamb), Leroy (Ewan Wood), Ollie (Essek Moore), and Gladys (Kynlee Heiman).

These kids are the troublemakers in town, and they’re not exactly familiar with the roles they’re supposed to be playing. Through their willingness to learn more, the Christmas pageant might take on new significance for both the children and the town that wrote them off as bad kids.

Conclave

Release date: November 8

The Vatican becomes the scene of a religious thriller in Conclave. The Pope is dead, and ordinarily, the process of selecting his successor would be straightforward. However, Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) has stumbled upon a secret that could disqualify several of the candidates to be the next Pope, and it might even be big enough to unleash a scandal in the church itself.

With time running out, Cardinal Lawrence must discover the truth before a new Pope is elected. The film has a very impressive supporting cast, including Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Isabella Rossellini, and Lucian Msamati, which may help its chances during next year’s awards season.