--- description: From prequels like A Quiet Place: Day One and Furiosa to fun summer romps like Babes and HIt Man title: The 31 Most Anticipated Movies of Summer 2024 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf30ec17fa66fe771/698a571116d884aca9c3ead2/Summer-TV-Shows-2024-6.png?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [movies](/tag/movies/) ## movies Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # The 31 Most Anticipated Movies of Summer 2024 ## Video: Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga - Trailer [Watch (HLS stream): Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga - Trailer](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/nW7fWkRh.m3u8) (2:26)  _Published 2024-05-15. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga - Trailer_ by [Ben Rosenstock](/author/ben-rosenstock/) ## Ben Rosenstock Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rosenstock is a contributor for TIME. May 21, 2024 7:51 PM CUT  Illustrations by Kyle Victory for TIME by [Ben Rosenstock](/author/ben-rosenstock/) ## Ben Rosenstock Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rosenstock is a contributor for TIME. May 21, 2024 7:51 PM CUT It’s been over a year now since the beginning of the [Writers Guild of America strike](https://time.com/4744831/hollywood-writers-strike-what-know/ "undefined"), and needless to say, the film industry still has a long way to go, between the [rising AI problem ](https://time.com/6277158/writers-strike-ai-wga-screenwriting/ "undefined")and the continued domination of scripts based on IP—along with the devaluing of smaller productions that deserve a wide release but instead [get dumped on VOD](https://time.com/6971121/the-idea-of-you-anne-hathaway-fantasy-essay/ "undefined") or streaming too early. Still, even with another summer full of [prequels](https://time.com/6978271/furiosa-review/ "undefined") and sequels and adaptations (oh my!), there’s more than enough here to look forward to, both on the studio side and the indie side. Let’s dive in. ## **_Babes_** **(May 17, wide release June 4)** Pamela Adlon has more than proven her chops as a writer and director, especially on her FX series _Better Things_. But _Babes_, a pregnancy comedy about the friendship between perpetually single Eden (co-writer Ilana Glazer) and settled-down Dawn (Michelle Buteau), is actually her feature directorial debut. We need more R-rated mid-budget studio comedies, and this is one of the most promising of the year. **Read more:** [Babes _Creators Say the Pregnancy Comedy Is Not ‘Raunchy.’ It’s ‘Realistic’_](https://time.com/6978815/babes-interview-ilana-glazer-pamela-adlon-michelle-buteau/ "undefined") ## **_Hit Man_** **(May 24 in theaters, June 7 on Netflix)** Richard Linklater’s link-latest feature—his first thriller since _A Scanner Darkly_ and probably his most action-y comedy ever—could be one of the most entertaining movies of the summer, if the reviews are to be believed. [Inspired by a true story](https://time.com/6313456/hit-man/ "undefined"), _Hit Man_ stars [Glen Powell](https://time.com/6970141/anyone-but-you-netflix-shakespeare/ "undefined") (who also co-wrote) as a professor with a side job posing as a hit man for the New Orleans Police Department in order to catch people trying to hire him. ## **_Furiosa_** **:** **_A Mad Max Saga_** **(May 24)** _Mad Max: Fury Road_ was one of the most widely loved blockbusters of the 2010s, fueled by director George Miller’s inventive world-building, the kinetic one-long-chase structure, and Charlize Theron’s performance as the instantly iconic Furiosa. Now, Miller is back for Furiosa’s origin story, with Anya Taylor-Joy stepping into the role for another epic of heart-pumping intensity and unexpected emotional resonance. **Read more:** [_George Miller Can’t Quit Mad Max_](https://time.com/6975716/george-miller-furiosa-interview/ "undefined") ## **_Robot Dreams_** **(May 31)** Based on Sara Varon’s 2007 comic of the same name, Pablo Berger’s animated feature _Robot Dreams_ received widespread critical acclaim when it screened at festivals and came out in Spain and France last year. Now a larger audience will be able to see this touching tale of a lonely dog who assembles a robot in ’80s Manhattan—and appreciate its entirely dialogue-free script. ## **_I Used to Be Funny_** **(June 7)** This dark debut by writer-director Ally Pankiw is the latest star vehicle for Rachel Sennott, who has recently proven her potential with funny turns in _Bodies Bodies Bodies_ and the movies of Emma Seligman (_Shiva Baby_, [_Bottoms_](https://time.com/6308103/bottoms-review/ "undefined")). Here, Sennott plays Sam, a depressed comedian dealing with some secret baggage in her recent past related to Brooke (Olga Petsa), a girl she used to nanny. ## **_The Watchers_** **(June 7)** M. Night isn’t the only Shyamalan with a big movie this summer. His daughter Ishana’s directorial debut _The Watchers_ feels like a premise straight out of her dad’s filmography: when an artist’s truck breaks down and she’s stuck in the middle of the forests of western Ireland, she’s forced to take shelter with three strangers being tormented by creatures in the night. Dakota Fanning stars as Mina, with Georgina Campbell, Oliver Finnegan, and Olwen Fouéré playing the other strangers. ## **_Inside Out 2_** **(June 14)** [_Inside Out_](https://time.com/3925611/inside-out-pixar-movie-review/ "undefined") was an instant Pixar classic upon its release in 2015; the brilliant idea to anthropomorphize the confusing, warring emotions in the brain of a young girl made other recent Pixar efforts feel weightless by comparison. In the sequel, Riley is now a teenager, and with maturity comes with new emotions—including Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos), and Embarrassment (Paul Walter Houser). It’s a great opportunity to update the original movie for a new age range. ## **_Bread & Roses_** **(June 21)**  A still from the documentary Bread and Roses Courtesy of Apple TV+ Directed by Sahra Mani and produced by Jennifer Lawrence and Malala Yousafzai, this urgent documentary coming to Apple TV+ follows the lives of three Afghan women fighting for basic rights after the Taliban took over Kabul in 2021\. Its on-the-ground perspective of oppression serves as a crucial reminder of the importance of education—and the ways that eliminating school also curtails free thinking. **Read more:**[ _‘This Is a Film About the Women’s Resistance.’ What_ Bread & Roses _Reveals About the Feminist Fight Against the Taliban_](https://time.com/6973820/bread-and-roses-documentary-afghan-women/ "undefined") ## **_The Bikeriders_** **(June 21)** It’s been eight years since the premiere of [_Loving_](https://time.com/4341168/loving-movie-review-cannes/ "undefined"), the most recent film by Jeff Nichols (who also directed _Mud_ and _Midnight Special_, among others). So the arrival of _The Bikeriders_ is highly anticipated, especially after being pushed back six months during the SAG-AFTRA strike. Nichols’ newest, which stars [Austin Butler](https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people-2023/6268725/austin-butler/ "undefined") and Tom Hardy as members of a fictional Chicago motorcycle club called the Vandals MC, is based on the 1967 photobook of the same name, which explored the day-to-day lives of the motorcycle club The Chicago Outlaws. ## **_Fancy Dance_** **(June 21 in theaters,** **June 28** **on Apple TV+)** These days, [Lily Gladstone](https://time.com/collection/time100-next-2023/6308495/lily-gladstone/ "undefined") in a starring role is reason enough to check out a movie. In Native American filmmaker Erica Tremblay’s feature narrative directorial debut—she’s mainly known for documentary filmmaking—Gladstone stars as Jax, who raises her 13-year-old niece Roki (Isabel DeRoy-Olson) on the Seneca–Cayuga Nation Reservation in the wake of her sister’s disappearance. ## **_Janet Planet_** **(June 21)** One of the buzziest titles out of Telluride last year was _Janet Planet_, the feature debut of playwright Annie Baker (who won the 2014 Pulitzer for _The Flick_). Julianne Nicholson stars as the titular Janet, a hippie acupuncturist living in western Massachusetts whose life revolves around her 11-year-old daughter Lacy (Zoe Ziegler). Will Patton, Sophie Okonedo, and Elias Koteas co-star. ## **_Kinds of Kindness_** **(June 21)** Fresh off 11 Oscar nominations and four wins with _Poor Things_, Yorgos Lanthimos is back—[with Emma Stone once again](https://time.com/6310400/poor-things-review-emma-stone/ "undefined") in a starring role. Unlike _Poor Things_, though, _Kinds of Kindness_ is a “triptych fable,” with three loosely connected stories sharing the same main cast members: Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, and Margaret Qualley. If Lanthimos’ previous work is anything to go by (and if early [reviews out of Cannes](https://time.com/6979467/kinds-of-kindness-review/ "undefined") are any indication), it should be surreal, darkly funny, and fiercely original. ## **_Thelma_** **(June 21)** It shouldn’t feel so novel to see an elderly woman in an action-star role, but Josh Margolin’s film _Thelma_ gives the 94-year-old [June Squibb](https://entertainment.time.com/2013/05/23/nebraska-alexander-paynes-america-plains-and-simple/ "undefined") an opportunity few older actresses are afforded. After Squibb’s Thelma Post gets tricked into sending $10,000 in bail money to a private P.O. box—the scammers pretended to be her grandson Danny (Fred Hechinger) and claimed he was in jail—she sets off on a road trip with her late husband’s friend Ben (the late Richard Roundtree) to recover the money and stop the thieves. ## **_I Am: Celine Dion_** **(June 25)** Over two years after singer Celine Dion publicly shared her diagnosis of [stiff-person syndrome](https://time.com/6239728/what-is-stiff-person-syndrome/ "undefined"), this Prime Video documentary offers an unusually personal, intimate look at her career, her music, and her struggles. That comes courtesy of Irene Taylor, the Oscar-nominated director behind 2009’s _The Final Inch_, a short about the eradication of polio. ## **_A Family Affair_** **(June 28)**  Nicole Kidman, Joey King, and Zac Efron Courtesy of Netflix The people want romantic comedies, so give them romantic comedies! Richard LaGravenese’s rom-com for Netflix, _A Family Affair_, stars Nicole Kidman as a woman who falls for the movie-star boss (Zac Efron) of her daughter Zara (Joey King). Kidman and Efron have played lovers before, in 2012’s _The Paperboy_, but this one should be a much lighter affair. ## **_Horizon: An American Saga_** **: Chapters 1 (June 28) and 2 (Aug. 16)** The first installment in Kevin Costner’s planned four-part passion project has garnered [mixed reviews out of Cannes](https://time.com/6980129/horizon-review-kevin-costner/ "undefined"), but you have to admire the man’s ambition: Costner spent $38 million of his own money to fund the movie, which he has been working on since 1988\. Set in the Old West during the Civil War, _Horizon_, which will release its first two chapters less than two months apart this summer, boasts a sprawling ensemble that includes the director himself, Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Giovanni Ribisi, and Danny Huston. ## **_A Quiet Place: Day One_** **(June 28)** Director Michael Sarnoski (_Pig_) takes over for John Krasinski in the third entry of the _A Quiet Place_ series, this one a prequel set during the initial alien invasion in New York City over a year before the events of the first two films. Our viewpoint characters this time around are Sam (Lupita Nyong’o) and Eric (Joseph Quinn), with Djimon Hounsou reprising his role from _Part II_. ## **_Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F_** **(July 3)** It’s been 40 years since the original _Beverly Hills Cop_ and 30 since its heavily panned third installment—but the fourth movie in the series has been in the works since the mid-’90s. For the Netflix film, Eddie Murphy once again reprises his star role as Axel Foley, a Detroit PD detective summoned to Beverly Hills to solve a crime—this time working alongside both his old partners Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and John Taggart (John Ashton) and new characters like his daughter Jane (Taylour Paige) and her ex-boyfriend (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). ## **_MaXXXine_** **(July 5)** Mia Goth has had an eventful few years, turning out great performances in arthouse films while finally breaking through with her double-performance as Maxine and Pearl in Ti West’s slasher films _X_ and _Pearl_. In the third installment, a direct sequel to _X_, Maxine continues to deal with the trauma of living through a massacre while pursuing an acting career, this time forced to evade the dangerous Night Stalker terrorizing 1985 L.A. ## **_Sing Sing_** **(July 12)** This film about prison inmates staging theatrical shows at the infamous max-security Sing Sing Correctional Facility in New York straddles the line between drama and documentary, taking heavy inspiration from the real-life Rehabilitation Through the Arts program. Two professional actors help anchor the story—recent Oscar nominees [Colman Domingo](https://time.com/6964710/colman-domingo-2/ "undefined") and [Paul Raci](https://time.com/5956164/oscar-nominations-2021-to-watch/ "undefined")—but director Greg Kwedar also cast men who were actually incarcerated and involved in the same program. ## **_Fly Me to the Moon_** **(July 12)** Greg Berlanti is a legend of television, having written on series from _Dawson’s Creek_ to _You_ and developed the Arrowverse that dominated The CW for the past decade. But _Fly Me to the Moon_ is his first project for the big screen since 2018’s [_Love, Simon_](https://time.com/5190982/love-simon-groundbreaking-gay-movie/ "undefined"). A romantic comedy set in the 1960s, the film follows a NASA director (Channing Tatum) at the head of Apollo 11 and a marketing specialist (Scarlett Johansson) assigned to rehab NASA’s public image—even if that means filming a fake moon landing, just in case. ## **_Twisters_** **(July 19)** The 1996 film _Twister_ is the latest to get the decades-later standalone sequel treatment, and Lee Isaac Chung ([_Minari_](https://time.com/5938842/minari-korean-american-farmers/ "undefined"))the latest director to follow the indie-drama-to-big-budget-blockbuster pipeline. Screenwriter Mark L. Smith incorporated the causes and effects of climate change into the plot of _Twisters_, speaking to climate experts to update this story for the 2020s. This time, the storm chasers are played by Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, and Anthony Ramos—and they’re dealing with twin tornadoes, not just the one. ## **_Deadpool and Wolverine_** **(July 26)** It was only a matter of time before Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) and Logan (Hugh Jackman) shared a movie together. Comic fans know that the two characters have a deep history, from their similar origins (both were experimented on by the Weapon X project) to the frenemies dynamic they developed over the years. Director Shawn Levy seems intent on preserving that relationship in _Deadpool and Wolverine_, which marks both characters’ official introduction to the MCU (a result of Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox in 2019). ## **_Dìdi_** **(July 26)** Sean Wang’s directorial debut _Dìdi_, a coming-of-age comedy-drama about a 13-year-old Taiwanese-American boy named Chris (Izaac Wang), won the Audience Award for U.S. Dramatic at Sundance this year. Set in 2008 and featuring an acclaimed performance by Joan Chen as Chris’ mother, the film has also gained attention for the way it captures the experience of growing up on the internet; it is a late-aughts period piece, after all. ## **_My Old Ass_** **(Aug. 2)**  Maisy Stella and Aubrey Plaza Courtesy of Prime Video Director Megan Park’s sophomore feature is a coming-of-age comedy revolving around Elliott (Maisy Stella), who meets her 39-year-old self (Aubrey Plaza) during a shroom trip on her 18th birthday. But when Future Elliott’s retrospective advice about growing up stands in the way of Young Elliott finding love, she becomes at war with herself … literally. **Read more:** [_Aubrey Plaza is the Low-Key Movie Star for Our Times_](https://time.com/6205410/aubrey-plaza-emily-the-criminal-little-demon/ "undefined") ## **_Good One_** **(Aug. 9)** This atmospheric indie coming-of-age drama by newcomer India Donaldson stars Lily Collias as a young woman on an awkward hiking trip with her father (James Le Gros) and his best friend (Danny McCarthy). Positive festival reviews have praised the performance of Collias and the naturalistic depiction of complex, shifting character dynamics among the trio. ## **_It Ends With Us_** **(Aug. 9)** [Colleen Hoover’s](https://time.com/6292991/colleen-hoover-interview-book-bonanza/ "undefined") 2016 novel _It Ends With Us_ has its fair share of detractors, particularly those who take issue with the book’s “romance” classification considering its [depiction of domestic abuse](https://time.com/6221457/colleen-hoover-trauma-it-starts-with-us/ "undefined"). Could the film adaptation, directed by Justin Baldoni, overcome those issues and deliver a nuanced, sensitive take on a painful subject? Baldoni stars alongside Blake Lively and Brandon Sklenar. ## **_Trap_** **(Aug. 9)** M. Night Shyamalan’s latest psychological thriller centers on Cooper (Josh Hartnett), a serial killer called “the Butcher” who accompanies his daughter to a concert by the artist Lady Raven (played, in this summer of Shyamalan daughters, by Saleka Shyamalan)—only to realize that the whole event is an elaborate trap set by law enforcement to catch him. It’s a classic high-concept premise for Shyamalan, and should ([maybe](https://time.com/5503232/glass-review/ "undefined"), [hopefully](https://time.com/6251987/knock-at-the-cabin-review/ "undefined")) contain yet another mind-bending plot twist for the ages. ## **_Daughters_** **(Aug. 14)**  A still from Daughters Courtesy of Netflix This Netflix documentary was directed by Natalie Rae and Angela Patton, the latter of whom made headlines after giving a TED Talk in 2012 about the annual father-daughter dance her non-profit Camp Diva organized for girls with fathers in prison. _Daughters_ focuses on four girls who participated in the program, charting the complex evolution of their feelings about their fathers in the lead-up and years-later aftermath of the dance. In addition to winning the Audience Award for documentary at Sundance, the film holds an important message about the necessity of love and basic human contact when it comes to rehabilitation. ## **_Jackpot_** **(Aug. 15)**  John Cena and Awkwafina Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios The new Prime Video action comedy from Paul Feig (_Bridesmaids_, _Spy_) has a high-concept premise: A contest in Los Angeles called the Grand Lottery allows competitors a day to hunt and kill the newest lottery winner to take the multi-billion-dollar winnings for themselves. In this case, Awkwafina plays jackpot winner Kate, with John Cena as her loyal amateur jackpot protector and Simu Liu as a rival protector with his own hopes to nab the commission. ## **_Blink Twice_** **(Aug. 23)** In Zoe Kravitz’s directorial debut, Naomi Ackie stars as Frida, a cocktail waitress who travels with a tech mogul named Slater King (Channing Tatum) to his private island. Based on its trailer, _Blink Twice_ is a comedy-thriller reminiscent of the _Knives Out_ movies, with an ensemble of quirky characters played by the likes of Christian Slater, Simon Rex, Kyle MacLachlan, Haley Joel Osment, and Alia Shawkat. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6980664/most-anticipated-movies-summer-2024/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6980664/most-anticipated-movies-summer-2024/"},"headline":"The 31 Most Anticipated Movies of Summer 2024","datePublished":"2024-05-21T19:51:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:48:53.247Z","description":"From prequels like A Quiet Place: Day One and Furiosa to fun summer romps like Babes and HIt Man","url":"https://time.com/6980664/most-anticipated-movies-summer-2024/","keywords":["movies","list","freelance","culturepod"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf30ec17fa66fe771/698a571116d884aca9c3ead2/Summer-TV-Shows-2024-6.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ben Rosenstock","jobTitle":"Rosenstock is a contributor for TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/ben-rosenstock/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf30ec17fa66fe771/698a571116d884aca9c3ead2/Summer-TV-Shows-2024-6.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Summer Culture Preview Movies","caption":"","creditText":"Illustrations by Kyle Victory for TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6980664/most-anticipated-movies-summer-2024/","name":"The 31 Most Anticipated Movies of Summer 2024"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga - Trailer","description":"Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga - Trailer","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/nW7fWkRh/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2024-05-15T19:43:28.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/nW7fWkRh.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/6980664/most-anticipated-movies-summer-2024/","duration":"PT2M26S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/6980664/most-anticipated-movies-summer-2024/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```