For the most part, the movie industry has recovered from the truly awful early months of the year, including the lackluster first month of summer that had Hollywood panicking about the future of cinema. Since then, Deadpool & Wolverine was a massive blockbuster, but the state of comic book cinema is suchthat even Venom: The Last Dance severely underperformed. It’s also poised to be unseated this weekend by Heretic, a low-budget horror movie that’s getting big-time buzz for Hugh Grant’s performance.
There are plenty of predictions in the movie business, but few crystal balls. Fortunately, there are still great movies coming to theaters before the end of 2024. And it’s our job to point you to them, even as the year is winding down.
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November 2024
Heretic
Release date: November 8
Hugh Grant embraces his sinister side in the new horror movie Heretic. Outwardly, Mr. Reed (Grant) is an unassuming Englishman who seems willing to engage two Mormon missionaries, Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East), in a theological discussion about God and religion. The young women are looking for potential converts, and they don’t realize until it’s too late that they’re in terrible danger.
Once Reed has trapped the two women, he instills his twisted beliefs upon them and attempts to crush their faith before taking their lives. The sisters are going to need more than just prayers to escape from Reed. And even divine intervention may not be enough to save them.
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.
Red One
Release date: November 15
Can Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson save Christmas? Not by himself, he can’t! Red One teams the former wrestler with ex-Captain America actor Chris Evans to rescue Santa Claus (J. K. Simmons). Who has the magic or technology needed to capture Santa in the first place? That’s what North Pole’s security chief, Callum Drift (Johnson), needs to discover.
Bounty hunter Jack O’Malley (Evans) gets pulled into this Christmas insanity because he’s supposedly the best tracker in the world. Those skills will be put to the test, as he and Callum reluctantly team up to face down the threat to the holiday season. Ho, ho, ho.
Ghost Cat Anzu
Release date: November 15
Never underestimate the appeal of Japanese anime in theaters, especially a family-friendly pic like Ghost Cat Anzu, which embraces a retro style of 2-D animation that includes rotoscoped performances. That’s a very old-school animation technique. The story is about a young girl named Karin, who has been abandoned by her father in rural Japan. Now, only Karin’s grandfather is left to look after her until she meets Anzu, the titular ghost cat.
Karin doesn’t particularly like or trust Anzu, but they’re stuck together on this bizarre adventure that will determine both of their fates and whether they will remain together.
Gladiator 2
Release date: November 22
Are you not entertained? The original Gladiator came out 24 years ago, and Ridley Scott only got around to making a sequel within the past few years. Gladiator 2 picks up roughly two decades later, with Lucius Verus (Paul Mescal) no longer a little boy who could inherit the Roman Empire. Instead, Lucius has rejected Rome and its ways while starting his own family in another country. But, Lucius cannot escape Rome’s grasp, especially when his adoptive home, wife, and child are taken by General Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal).
It’s pretty far to fall from nobility to slave, but Lucius watched Maximus rise from nothing in the first film to get his revenge. Now, it’s Lucius’ turn to become a gladiator and fight in the arena while looking for a way to bring down the entire empire around him.
Wicked
Release date: November 22
Almost everyone knows the story of The Wizard of Oz. But the smash Broadway play Wicked shed new light on the Wicked Witch of the West. The upcoming Wicked film will only cover the early part of the play while saving the rest for an inevitable sequel. Cynthia Erivo stars as Elphaba Thropp, the young witch who isn’t wicked … yet. However, people treat her so terribly that it’s no wonder she went bad.
The lone light in Elphaba’s life is her friendship with Galinda Upland (Ariana Grande). They have a strong bond, but their connection will be tested as Elphaba and Galinda are torn in opposite directions as they come into their magical powers.
Moana 2
Release date: November 27
The original Moana was a hit for Disney and an even bigger hit on Disney+. So much so that the planned Moana streaming series was reworked into Moana 2 at lightspeed, at least as fast as animated films go. Three years have passed since the first film, and Moana (Auliʻi Cravalho) has emerged as a leader for her people. She also dotes on her new younger sister, Simea (Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda).
However, Moana’s desire to reunite all of the people of the ocean is threatened by the emergence of the goddess Matangi (Awhimai Fraser). Fortunately, Moana knows a god of her own … or at least a demigod, Maui (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson). Even with Maui’s help, Moana is greatly outmatched by Matangi, and the fate of her people is at stake.
December 2024
Werewolves
Release date: December 6
Ironically, Werewolves is hitting theaters on the same day as a similar movie, which has an expletive in the title that we can’t say on this site. Whereas that other film is a horror comedy, Werewolves is an unapologetic horror action flick pitting the title creatures against genre veteran Frank Grillo.
The premise of the film is that a supermoon turned millions of people into werewolves one year before the events of the story. It’s about to happen again, unless two scientists figure out how to stop the mutation from occurring. In the meantime, Wesley Marshall (Grillo) has to keep the scientists alive long enough to complete their work, even if it means going up against an army of werewolves.
Kraven the Hunter
Release date: December 13
Listen, we know that Kraven the Hunter is going to be a flop, and you probably know it too. When Joker: Folie à Deux is a massive bust and even Venom: The Last Dance can barely interest comic book movie fans, there’s really no hope that a second-string Spider-Man villain can hold down his own movie and bring in a big crowd. But we’ll say this: If Kraven is half as hilariously awful as Madame Web, then we have to see it for the unintentional comedy alone.
Two-time superhero actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson comes back to the genre for a third time as Kraven, whom the film inexplicably reenvisions as a hero with a vendetta against his brutal father, Nikolai Kravinoff (Russell Crowe). The trailer makes it look like Kraven was bitten by a radioactive lion that gave him superhuman senses and strength. Let’s just say that’s quite a departure from the source material. We’re still morbidly curious to see just how far this film is willing to run with that.
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim
Release date: December 13
Here’s the biggest reason why Kraven the Hunter will flop: It’s going up against The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. This is a full-length anime set in the world of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, approximately 183 years before the events of the novels. You may recall the epic battle of Helm’s Deep that closed out The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. The War of the Rohirrim tells the history of that fort, as well as the man who built it, Helm Hammerhand (Succession‘s Brian Cox).
Helm’s kingdom is under assault from an army of Dunlendings, wild men who threaten to overthrow his family and spread terror throughout the land. We’re not going to spoil any specific details about the story, but let’s just say that there are reasons why statues of Helm Hammerhand are prominently featured in the live-action movies.
