Germain Lussier is a senior reporter covering entertainment on the io9 section of Gizmodo. He lives in Los Angeles, specializes in film coverage, and is also our lead film critic. You can follow his coverage here, and email story ideas and tips to germain.lussier@gizmodo.com.
The movies of 2024 bring with them more uncertainty than we’ve seen in a very long time. After over a decade of superhero and franchise dominance, 2023 broke the mold. Of the top 10 highest-grossing films of the year, only half were sequels, and one of those, Avatar: The Way of Water, was a carryover from the year before. Films based on either new IP or wholly original takes dominated the box office and pop culture conversation, from Barbie and Oppenheimer, to The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Sound of Freedom. Taylor Swift even proved that movies could be mega hits without going the normal release route, as her concert film came out without traditional marketing or distribution. At each and every turn, 2023 had a surprise in the cinemas. So will those trends continue into 2024 or was it all just an enigma?
Conventional wisdom is that sequels suck. And with so, so many sequels coming out in 2024, the safest bet is to believe that trend will continue. However, look at the filmmakers involved here: Frank Miller, Denis Villeneuve, Tim Burton, Ridley Scott, etc. We have a feeling this year, many of these questionable sequels will actually be good. Not all of them, just more than expected.
I’ve been talking about it the whole time and now, it’s time to double down. Last year I said the highest-grossing film of the year wouldn’t be DC or Marvel, and that was correct. What I didn’t guess is that that film would be Barbie and it would also be in contention for all the awards. So, we’re going to kind of play the middle here and say that one of this year’s big sequels—maybe Dune, maybe Alien, maybe Joker, maybe Gladiator, maybe Furiosa—will be a huge hit, it’ll be a major award contender coming this time next year too.
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Source: Gizmodo