The summer of 2024’s theatrical release lineup includes a bevy of sequels and prequels, as well as the much-anticipated team-up of the Merc with a Mouth and a fan-favorite, Adamantium-clawed X-Men. Emma Stone reunites with her Poor Things director for another weird indie, Kevin Costner hopes audiences are really into Westerns, and Eli Roth turned to Cate Blanchett to bring a popular video game to life on the screen.
2024’s summer season kicked off with Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, and David Leitch’s ode to stunt people, and will finish up with a dark comedy/thriller from first-time feature film director Zoe Kravitz. In between those bookends are new chapters in the Mad Max, The Strangers, Planet of the Apes, Bad Boys, Inside Out, A Quiet Place, Despicable Me, and Alien franchises.
Here’s a look at the most anticipated movies hitting the big screen this summer:
MAY 2024:
The Fall Guy – May 3rd
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, Winston Duke, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Stephanie Hsu, and Hannah Waddingham
The Plot: He’s a stuntman, and like everyone in the stunt community, he gets blown up, shot, crashed, thrown through windows, and dropped from the highest of heights, all for our entertainment. And now, fresh off an almost career-ending accident, this working-class hero has to track down a missing movie star, solve a conspiracy, and try to win back the love of his life while still doing his day job. What could possibly go right?
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes – May 10th
Starring: Freya Allan, Owen Teague, Kevin Durand, Peter Macon, and William H. Macy
The Plot: 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.
IF – May 17th
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Cailey Fleming, Jon Krasinski, Fiona Shaw, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Louis Gossett Jr., Alan Kim, Steve Carell, and Liza Colón-Zayas
The Plot: IF is about a girl who discovers that she can see everyone’s imaginary friends — and what she does with that superpower — as she embarks on a magical adventure to reconnect forgotten IFs with their kids.
The Strangers Chapter 1 – May 17th
Starring: Madelaine Petsch, Froy Gutierrez, Gabriel Basso, and Ema Horvath
The Plot: After their car breaks down in an eerie small town, a young couple (Madelaine Petsch and Froy Gutierrez) are forced to spend the night in a remote cabin. Panic ensues as they are terrorized by three masked strangers who strike with no mercy and seemingly no motive in The Strangers – Chapter 1, the chilling first entry of this upcoming horror feature film series.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga – May 24th
Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth, Alyla Browne, and Tom Burke
The Plot: Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth star in Academy Award-winning mastermind George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, the much-anticipated return to the iconic dystopian world he created more than 30 years ago with the seminal Mad Max films. Miller now turns the page again with an all-new original, standalone action adventure that will reveal the origins of the powerhouse character from the multiple Oscar-winning global smash Mad Max: Fury Road.
As the world fell, young Furiosa is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and falls into the hands of a great Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus. Sweeping through the Wasteland, they come across the Citadel presided over by The Immortan Joe. While the two Tyrants war for dominance, Furiosa must survive many trials as she puts together the means to find her way home.
JUNE 2024:
Bad Boys: Ride or Die – June 7th
Starring: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, Paola Nuñez, Eric Dane, and Ioan Gruffudd
The Plot: This summer, the world’s favorite Bad Boys are back with their iconic mix of edge-of-your-seat action and outrageous comedy but this time with a twist: Miami’s finest are now on the run.
The Watchers – June 7th
Starring: Dakota Fanning, Georgina Campbell, Oliver Finnegan, and Olwen Fouere
The Plot: The film follows Mina, a 28-year-old artist, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night. You can’t see them, but they see everything.
Inside Out 2 – June 14th
Starring: Amy Poehler, Lewis Black, Phyllis Smith, Diane Lane, Kyle MacLachlan, Liza Lapira, and Tony Hale
The Plot: Disney and Pixar’s Inside Out 2 returns to the mind of newly minted teenager Riley (Kensington Tallman) just as headquarters is undergoing a sudden demolition to make room for something entirely unexpected: new Emotions! Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust, who’ve long been running a successful operation by all accounts, aren’t sure how to feel when Anxiety shows up. And it looks like she’s not alone.
The Bikeriders – June 21st
Starring: Tom Hardy, Austin Butler, Michael Shannon, Mike Faist, Boyd Holbrook, and Norman Reedus
The Plot: The Bikeriders follows the rise of a midwestern motorcycle club, the Vandals. Seen through the lives of its members, the club evolves over the course of a decade from a gathering place for local outsiders into a more sinister gang, threatening the original group’s unique way of life.
Kinds of Kindness – June 21st
Starring: Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Jesse Plemons, Hong Chau, Joe Alwyn, Mamoudou Athie, and Hunter Schafer
The Plot: Kinds of Kindness is a triptych fable, following a man without choice who tries to take control of his own life; a policeman who is alarmed that his wife who was missing-at-sea has returned and seems a different person; and a woman determined to find a specific someone with a special ability, who is destined to become a prodigious spiritual leader.
Horizon: An America Saga – Chapter 1 – June 28th
Starring: Kevin Costner, Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Jena Malone, Owen Crow Shoe, Tatanka Means, Ella Hunt, Tim Guinee, Danny Huston, and Colin Cunningham
The Plot: In the great tradition of Warner Bros. Pictures’ iconic Westerns, Horizon: An American Saga explores the lure of the Old West and how it was won—and lost—through the blood, sweat and tears of many. Spanning the four years of the Civil War, from 1861 to 1865, Costner’s ambitious cinematic adventure will take audiences on an emotional journey across a country at war with itself, experienced through the lens of families, friends, and foes all attempting to discover what it truly means to be the United States of America.
A Quiet Place: Day One – June 28th
Starring: Lupita Nyong’o, Joseph Quinn, Alex Wolff, and Djimon Hounsou
The Plot: Experience the day the world went quiet.
JULY 2024
Despicable Me 4 – July 3rd
Starring: Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier, Madison Polan, Steve Coogan, Will Ferrell, Sofia Vergara, and Pierre Coffin
The Plot: Following the 2022 summer blockbuster phenomenon of Illumination’s Minions: The Rise of Gru, which earned almost $1 billion worldwide, the biggest global animated franchise in history now begins a new chapter as Gru and Lucy and their girls — Margo, Edith, and Agnes — welcome a new member to the Gru family, Gru Jr., who is intent on tormenting his dad. Gru faces a new nemesis in Maxime Le Mal and his femme fatale girlfriend Valentina, and the family is forced to go on the run.
MaXXXine – July 5th
Starring: Mia Goth, Elizabeth Debicki, Moses Sumney, Michelle Monaghan, Bobby Cannavale, Halsey, Lily Collins, Giancarlo Esposito, and Kevin Bacon
The Plot: In 1980s Hollywood, adult film star and aspiring actress Maxine Minx finally gets her big break. But as a mysterious killer stalks the starlets of Hollywood, a trail of blood threatens to reveal her sinister past.
Fly Me to the Moon – July 12th
Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum, Nick Dillenburg, Anna Garcia, Jim Rash, Noah Robbins, Colin Woodell, Christian Zuber, Donald Elise Watkins, Ray Romano, and Woody Harrelson
The Plot: Fly Me to the Moon is a sharp, stylish comedy-drama set against the high-stakes backdrop of NASA’s historic Apollo 11 moon landing. Sparks fly in all directions as marketing maven Kelly Jones, brought in to fix NASA’s public image, wreaks havoc on launch director Cole Davis’ already difficult task. When the White House deems the mission too important to fail, Jones is directed to stage a fake moon landing as backup, and the countdown truly begins.
Sing Sing – July 12th
Starring: Colman Domingo, Clarence Maclin, Sean San José, and Paul Raci
The Plot: Divine G (Colman Domingo), imprisoned at Sing Sing for a crime he didn’t commit, finds purpose by acting in a theatre group alongside other incarcerated men, including wary newcomer (Clarence Maclin), in this stirring true story of resilience, humanity, and the transformative power of art, starring an unforgettable ensemble cast of formerly incarcerated actors.
Twisters – July 19th
Starring: Glen Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Anthony Ramos, Brandon Perea, Sasha Lane, Daryl McCormack, Kiernan Shipka, Nik Dodani, and Maura Tierney
The Plot: Twisters stars Golden Globe nominee Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell as opposing forces who come together to try to predict, and possibly tame, the immense power of tornadoes. Edgar-Jones stars as Kate Cooper, a former storm chaser haunted by a devastating encounter with a tornado during her college years who now studies storm patterns on screens safely in New York City. She is lured back to the open plains by her friend, Javi (Ramos) to test a groundbreaking new tracking system. There, she crosses paths with Tyler Owens (Powell), the charming and reckless social-media superstar who thrives on posting his storm-chasing adventures with his raucous crew, the more dangerous the better.
As storm season intensifies, terrifying phenomena never seen before are unleashed, and Kate, Tyler, and their competing teams find themselves squarely in the paths of multiple storm systems converging over central Oklahoma in the fight of their lives.
Deadpool & Wolverine – July 26th
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin, Morena Baccarin, Rob Delaney, Leslie Uggams, Karan Soni, and Matthew Macfadyen
The Plot: An official synopsis hasn’t been released but Reynolds tweeted, “It took seven years and a lot of begging but my Deadpool 2 end credit dreams finally came true.”
AUGUST 2024
Borderlands – August 9th
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Ariana Gleenblatt, Florian Munteanu, Edgar Ramirez, and Jamie Lee Curtis
The Plot: Lilith (Blanchett), an infamous bounty hunter with a mysterious past, reluctantly returns to her home, Pandora, the most chaotic planet in the galaxy. Her mission is to find the missing daughter of Atlas (Ramírez), the universe’s most powerful S.O.B. Lilith forms an unexpected alliance with a ragtag team of misfits – Roland (Hart), a seasoned mercenary on a mission; Tiny Tina (Greenblatt), a feral pre-teen demolitionist; Krieg (Munteanu), Tina’s musclebound protector; Tannis (Curtis), the oddball scientist who’s seen it all; and Claptrap (Black), a wiseass robot.
Trap – August 9th
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Hayley Mills, and Allison Pill
The Plot: A father and teen daughter attend a pop concert, where they realize they’re at the center of a dark and sinister event.
Alien: Romulus – August 16th
Starring: Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, and Aileen Wu
The Plot: The sci-fi/horror-thriller takes the phenomenally successful Alien franchise back to its roots: While scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station, a group of young space colonizers come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe.
Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2 – August 16th
Starring: Kevin Costner, Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Jena Malone, Owen Crow Shoe, Tatanka Means, Ella Hunt, Tim Guinee, Danny Huston, and Colin Cunningham
The Plot: In the great tradition of Warner Bros. Pictures’ iconic Westerns, Horizon: An American Saga explores the lure of the Old West and how it was won—and lost—through the blood, sweat and tears of many. Spanning the four years of the Civil War, from 1861 to 1865, Costner’s ambitious cinematic adventure will take audiences on an emotional journey across a country at war with itself, experienced through the lens of families, friends and foes all attempting to discover what it truly means to be the United States of America.
The Crow – August 23rd
Starring: Bill Skarsgard and FKA Twigs
The Plot: Soulmates Eric (Skarsgård) and Shelly (FKA twigs) are brutally murdered when the demons of her dark past catch up with them. Given the chance to save his true love by sacrificing himself, Eric sets out to seek merciless revenge on their killers, traversing the worlds of the living and the dead to put the wrong things right.
Blink Twice – August 23rd
Starring: Channing Tatum, Naomi Ackie, Christian Slater, Adria Arjona, Kyle MacLachlan, Haley Joel Osment, Geena Davis, and Alia Shawkat
The Plot: When tech billionaire Slater King (Tatum) meets cocktail waitress Frida (Ackie) at his fundraising gala, sparks fly. He invites her to join him and his friends on a dream vacation on his private island. It’s paradise. Wild nights blend into sun-soaked days and everyone’s having a great time. No one wants this trip to end, but as strange things start to happen, Frida begins to question her reality. There is something wrong with this place. She’ll have to uncover the truth if she wants to make it out of this party alive.
Summer 2024 Streaming Premieres:
For those avoiding theaters and preferring to catch new releases on streamers, this summer serves up The Idea of You (May 2, Prime Video), Unfrosted (May 3, Netflix), Hit Man (June 7, Netflix), Fancy Dance (June 28, Apple TV+), Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (July 3, Netflix), and The Instigators (Aug 9, Apple TV+).
This post was last modified on May 9, 2024 12:15 pm