After the turmoil of the last few years at the box office, 2024 felt very much like a rebuilding year. Covid is now becoming a distant but still haunting memory, and Hollywood for now has settled it’s fights with labor after the crippling strikes of last year. But even still, the blow of those back to back crises have taken their toll on Hollywood and especially with movie theaters. The hope was that after being rattled for nearly half a decade that the movie theater industry would finally see a rebound. But, with the strike pushing back so many productions in the pipeline, there was a fear that the backlog would cause the preceding year, 2024, to feel very empty. Movie theaters needs an abundance of product in order to survive, and because of Hollywood’s internal problems, the theatrical market was looking to have a possibly light year. However, some surprising things did happen. One was the resurgence of Disney, who bounced back big after a disastrous 2023, which saw many of their films crash hard at the box office. This year, they managed to be the first studio to cross the $3 billion box office mark this decade, thanks to mega hits like Inside Out 2 (2024), Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) and Moana 2 (2024), as well as with modest hits like Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024) and Alien: Romulus (2024). And that’s quite the feat considering that they didn’t even release a single film in the Spring. The other studios managed to fare well with some of their tentpoles too, with Universal scoring big with Wicked Part One (2024) and Warner Brothers doing well with sequels like Dune: Part Two (2024) and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024). There were however some shocking flops as well, with once believed to be sure fire hits like Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024) and Joker: Folie a Deux (2024) both becoming massive flops. And while there are positive signs of recovery, movie theaters are still expressing concern about the lack of consistent business throughout the year, and are hoping that Hollywood ramps up their production line once again to help keep the lights on at the movies.
As 2024 comes to an end, it is now that time once again to look ahead at what the next year brings. With the re-building year that we experienced these past twelve months, which saw fewer movies but in general stronger performance from those that did stand out, the hope is that the groundwork has been set for an even bigger rebound in 2025. Like past years, I will be taking a look at the upcoming movie of the Early 2025 season. This includes my picks for the Must Sees, the ones that have me worried, as well as the movies that are worth skipping. My choices don’t always pan out like I initially thought they would, so there might be a few surprises here. My previews are purely my own gut readings about these movies based on how much interest I have in them based on the effectiveness or lack thereof of their marketing. So, with all that said, let’s take a look at the movies of Early 2024.
MUST SEES:
CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD (FEBRUARY 14)
You can always count on Marvel to deliver spectacle on the big screen, and given that they found some of their mojo again in 2024 thanks to the success of Deadpool & Wolverine, the hope is that they can carry some of that momentum into the new year. 2025 is going to be a major year for Marvel Studios, with three big tent-poles planned. We will have to wait until the summer for Thunderbolts and The Fantastic Four: First Steps, but this winter season we do get a new chapter in the Captain America franchise started on the big screen. Post Avengers: Endgame (2019), the dynamic of the character has completely changed, with Chris Evans retiring from the role of Steve Rogers (the original Cap) and the superhero known as the Falcon now picking up the Shield and assuming the role, with actor Anthony Mackie now getting that top billing. It will be exciting to see how well Mackie does under the new title. We already saw a glimpse of him as Captain America in the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier where he managed to pull the part off pretty well, especially with the falcon wings now combined with Captain’s red white and blue uniform. But what is interesting with this film is that it’s signaling a return for Marvel to a more hard edge thriller style for the franchise, like what we saw with Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). There are some interesting new elements they are bringing in, like Harrison Ford assuming the role of Thaddeus Ross, which had previously been played by the late William Hurt. Here, we finally see the payoff of the Red Hulk plot-line for Ross that was made famous in the comic books, and it’s pretty impressive so far from what we’ve seen of Harrison’s transformation into a Hulk from the trailers. The effects used for Anthony Mackie’s flying moments also look intense and visceral as well. I’m also interested in seeing how they finally pay off the return of Tim Blake Nelson’s villainous Leader, 17 years after he was first introduced in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk. Hopefully Marvel starts the year off strong with this blockbuster return of one of their most important Avengers.
PADDINGTON IN PERU (FEBRUARY 14)
A very different change of pace from the latest from Marvel Studios. The first two Paddington movies have managed to earn the reputation of being some of the best family films ever made. Some would even claim Paddington 2 to be one of the best sequels ever made, period. Given that, the expectations are very high for this third film in the series. The lovable marmalade eating bear returns once again, but this film has him returning to the place he originally came from; the jungles of Darkest Peru. It’s a refreshing way to change up the formula for these movies, and hopefully the same good humor that defined the first two movies translates over as well. Unfortunately, this film did not carry over the director of the first two, Paul King, who was busy at work creating the hit musical Wonka (2023). It did carry over much of the same cast though. Ben Whishaw continues to give Paddington his warm and disarmingly kind voice. Hugh Bonneville is also once again on board as the frustrated but kind Mr. Brown. This movie does bring in some exciting newcomers into the cast, including the always charming Olivia Colman as a singing nun, and Antonio Banderas as a river boat captain. The only worry I have with this film is that the last movie maybe has set expectations too high, and that this threequel may not live up to what has come before. Hopefully the film still remains entertaining. It’s that rare movie that is meant for kids, but is so clever in it’s execution that it also provides a lot of entertainment for adults as well. I think as long as they remain true to the heart of the characters and their story, this third Paddington movie should still manage to be a fun time at the movies. And taking him out of his comfortable domestic life in England and putting him back into the perils of the jungle may just be the exciting little adventure this series need to keep itself going.
MICKEY 17 (MARCH 7)
So here is a movie that I already talked about at length over a year ago. The reason I’m talking about it again is because shortly after my last preview, Mickey 17 got pushed back a full year and more from it’s original release. Now closer to the actual release, we actually have a lot more information about what kind of movie we are getting, and it’s a bit of a surprise. Oscar-winning director Bong Joon-ho is known for making films with a darker tone, so it’s surprising that with this new sci-fi film that it appears he’s making a comedy. It’s certainly not what you’d expect as the follow-up to something like Parasite (2019). But, at the same time, it looks like it’s going to be a fun movie as well. What really gets me in this trailer is the performance that Robert Pattinson is giving. Pattinson has been spending the last decade trying to shake off his Twilight past, and he’s managed to make it work out by taking on all these quirky character roles, and his work here in Mickey 17 is very much a huge departure from his Twilight films. I love the weird, high pitched voice he’s giving Mickey here, because it sounds like nothing you’d expect someone like him talk like. The fact that he’s so jaded about dying, because he keeps being replaced with new clone bodies, also is a hilarious aspect he’s added to this character. But the question will be if Bong Joon-ho manages to nail the tone of this film. He’s had comedic moments in this movies before, but I don’t think he’s embraced this kind of level of absurdism. It’s definitely an experiment for the groundbreaking director that’s worth checking out. I’m also excited to see how actors like Mark Ruffalo, Toni Colette, and Steven Yuen also work within this story. Hopefully the extra year of waiting was worth it, and the extra information we now have about this movie gives it a whole new level of intrigue that I hope makes this a truly unique film experience.
SINNERS (APRIL 18)
Perhaps the most mysterious movie lined up for release in the next couple of months, this new film from Black Panther director Ryan Coogler looks to be a very provocative cinematic experience. Sinners reunites Coogler with his frequent leading man Michael B. Jordan (whose appeared in all of his movies so far) and shows him playing a man desperately trying to survive some evil presence in what looks to be the Prohibition Era American South. What the characters are up against remains vague so far; Zombies, vampires, we haven’t been told yet. But Coogler is certainly paying homage to horror movies of the past like Night of the Living Dead (1968) with some of the visuals he has shown briefly so far in the trailers. Coogler has proven himself to be a capable genre director in the past, with his Black Panther movies perfectly displaying his command of the super hero genre. It will b really interesting to see how well he applies his skills to horror. It’s also interesting what film stocks he’s using here. The movie looks like it’s being shot on film with large formats in mind. The dramatic scenes appear to have been shot with 70mm Panavision, giving that extra bit of super widescreen like what we saw with Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight (2015). And meanwhile, the action scenes have been filmed in 70mm IMAX. So, with those two large formats being used, it seems like Ryan Coogler wants this movie to be a major spectacle, and I am excited to see the finished results on the biggest screen possible. It’s a good move trying to sell this movie on it’s atmosphere and sense of mystery, rather than just spelling out what kind of danger is lurking in the shadows. And hopefully that fruitful collaboration between Coogler and Jordan continues to yield success for both of them here. Let’s hope that when this mystery unravels that it makes for one hell of a scary movie in the end.
WOLF MAN (JANUARY 17)
One of the best decisions that Universal Studios has made in the last 10 years was to abandon their DOA Dark Universe plans, and hand off their stable of classic movie monsters over to more capable hands in the horror genre. Blumhouse has become the beneficiary of the classic Universal monsters, and they began their successful collaboration in 2020 with their adaptation of the Invisible Man. The modern day re-imagining of the classic movie monster created one of the best horror movies of the last few years and it showed Universal that you don’t need to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into this kind of franchise in order to create a cinematic universe. All you really need to do is make your movies scary, and as Blumhouse has demonstrated with their own house style, less can be more. The director of The Invisible Man, Leigh Whannell, has been granted yet another classic Universal monster to work with; the Wolf Man. Just like what he did with Invisible Man, Whannell is stripping the story down to just the basics and using all of his tricks in building suspense and atmosphere in deliver the scares. I like the fact that the movie is a simple cabin in the woods story focusing solely on a single family. Christopher Abbott is the father whose bloody encounter with the monster leads him to go through a terrifying transformation, causing him to become the titular Wolf Man. It’s a smart way to tell this story, by keeping things personal, with the father coming to the horrible realization that he’s slowly loosing his humanity, and his wife (Julia Garner) becoming increasingly terrified that the man she loves is becoming more and more a threat to the safety of her and their daughter. I hope that Leigh Whannell manages to deliver again with this re-imagining of the Wolf Man story, and that both Universal and Blumhouse continue to work with their remaining stable of characters in this same simple but effectively creepy manner.
MOVIES THAT HAVE ME WORRIED:
SNOW WHITE (MARCH 21)
This remake of Disney’s very first feature length animated film has been contentious to say the least. It’s coming out at a time when audiences are generally growing tired of Disney’s trend of remaking their old classics, viewing many of them as shameless cash grabs. Currently, the sequel to one of those remakes, Mufasa: The Lion King (2024) is struggling at the box office, showing that the era where these kinds of movies were able to mint money for Disney may be over now. At the same time, this movie has been plagued with production woes, which caused the budget to swell out of control and led to a delay of over a year from it’s originally planned Spring 2024 release. It’s been said that in order to recoup their costs, Disney will need this movie to gross over $600 million, which is going to be difficult given that audiences seem to have moved on from the Disney remakes. And if all that weren’t bad enough, this movie has become a hot potato subject in the annoying present “culture war” debates, purely because the film’s star, Rachel Zegler, has been outspoken about her feelings about what it means to be a Disney Princess in the modern era. Zegler is certainly entitled to her opinion, and I honestly have no problems with the things she has said, but there are plenty of other bad faith critics out there online who are grinding their axes anxiously waiting to tear this movie apart. I myself have a lot of worries about this film, mainly due to my own lack of enthusiasm for the Disney remakes trend. But, at the same time, I also had these same worries about their The Little Mermaid (2023) remake last year, and ended up being pleasantly surprised and charmed by that movie. My hope is that Snow White will surprise me in the same way. I like Rachel Zegler as a performer and I think she can pull off the role of Snow White well enough, especially as a singer. The casting of Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen also looks to be interesting. Can’t say I admire the CGI dwarves though; hopefully they work better in the final film. Things may turn out bad for this one, and I’m dreading the discourse around it. After the good year that Disney had in 2024, I don’t want to see them end up with another black eye at the box office.
DOG MAN (JANUARY 31)
One thing that has bothered me in recent years is the inconsistency that we’ve seen from Dreamworks Animation. Once one of the vanguard studios in the animation industry, the brand has taken a hit with quite a few misfires in recent years; much more so than their rivals Disney, Pixar, and Illumination. Sure they still put out a hit film every now and then, like Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022) and this year’s The Wild Robot (2024), but these hits will often be offset by a lackluster sequel like Trolls: Band Together (2023) or a full on flop like Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken (2023). My worry is that this will also be the case for their next film, Dog Man. Based on the popular children’s book series, this new film copies the illustrated look from the novels, which does look appealing enough. But it also seems like it retains the same entertainment level of the books as well, which is mainly catering first and foremost for kids. There’s nothing wrong with choosing that as the target audience, but Dreamworks Animation at their best doesn’t just make movies for younger audiences; they make them for all ages. As stated before, there are movies like the Paddington films that transcend their G-rated appeal and are able to give enough entertainment to audiences no matter their age. Many Dreamworks movies in the past have done that as well too. But with movies like Dog Man, they seem to be pandering to a specific audience, and that to me says that they are limiting their creativity in the process. I could be wrong, and this movie may in fact have just as much humor and charm to appeal to both the parents and their kids. It’s just not coming across like that in the advertisement. My hope is that Dreamworks manages to find that spark again to bring them up to the level of Pixar and Disney, especially at a time when both of those studios are delivering billion dollar movies again.
LOVE HURTS (FEBRUARY 7)
It has been pleasing to see the career revival of Ke Huy Quan in recent years. The former child actor famous for playing Data in The Goonies (1985) and Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) has made a remarkable comeback as an adult, especially with his Oscar-winning turn in Everything, Everywhere, All at Once (2022). Now, he gets to be a top billed star in his own action movie. Having worked as a stunt coordinator for several years, Ke Huy Quan is no novice when it comes to performing action scenes, and it appears that many of the set pieces in this upcoming film feature him doing many of his own stunts, which is impressive. I think another plus is him putting a upbeat, happy-go-lucky spin on the character, which could make it a fun time. It’s also great to see in the trailer that Ke’s fellow Goonie Sean Astin has a supporting role in this film, possibly marking the first time they’ve actually been in a movie together since The Goonies almost 40 years ago, which would be quite the reunion. The only thing I worry about is that this kind of genre may have been played out too much already. The John Wick films constantly has to refresh itself with every film to keep the premise from growing stale, and the plot for this film feels a little too close to the Bob Odenkirk film Nobody (2021). Hopefully, Quan’s magnetic charm is able to carry this film. It’s not so much the performance that I worry about but rather the action scenes themselves. Hopefully, given that this movie is from the same production company behind Nobody and Violent Night (2022), they are going to keep things fresh and make the action set pieces unique and fun to watch. They definitely have the right actor in place, who knows a thing or two about fight choreography, and he’s at a point in his career where people are excited to see him on the big screen again. He’s long overdue for a starring role, and hopefully Love Hurts is that fun kind of violent spectacle that lives up to the high standards of the genre.
THE LEGEND OF OCHI (FEBRUARY 28)
When it comes to A24, you certainly take a risk with what kind of movie you’re going to end up watching. And that has been the appeal of A24, the fact that they do make the kinds of movies that no one else will make, mainly due to so many of them being just so insanely weird. But, not all of their movies are home runs. Sometimes you do get that odd movie that just doesn’t land. This new fantasy film sees the studio launching into a more family friendly territory than what we usually see from them. The movie definitely takes it’s inspiration from family adventure films like E.T. The Extraterrestrial (1982), but with a much more art house flavor to it. There are things that I find really appealing about this film. One, you can’t go wrong with Willem Dafoe in your cast. And second, I like the fact that the creature in this film looks to be a physical puppet instead of a CGI creation. It’s nice to see one practical effect used in this film. The only thing that bothers me is that there seems to be a vaguely AI art feel to the film, particularly with the impressionistic environments. I’m hoping that this is an intentional artistic choice, and not the filmmakers trying to cut corners using AI in place of actual hand made effects. The practical effect of Ochi tells me that this film is leaning more into real effects than CGI, so hopefully it’s just a coincidence that the art style looks like AI art. The problem is that AI art is at a phase where it creates this odd blended look to it that softens the image and makes it feel in a way soulless, because it’s created by algorithms and not by a trained artistic eye. It unfortunately reflects bad on a movie like this, where a softer look is probably intentional. My hope is that the visuals work more cohesively in the finished film, because it does look like a charming movie, and another example of A24’s commitment to unique visions in cinema.
MOVIES TO SKIP:
A MINECRAFT MOVIE (APRIL 4)
It’s kind of insane how many movies based on video games have included actor Jack Black in them. He played Bowser in The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) and also voice Claptrap in this year’s Borderlands (2024), and neither film was very good. The same seems to likely also be the case with this adaptation of the popular block building game, Minecraft. Given that the game itself is just an open world sandbox, there isn’t much of a narrative to draw from, so the makers of this movie just decided to copy the Mario Bros. formula instead. Jack Black plays the avatar character of the game, Steve, who we learn here came from the real world and has been living in the Minecraft world because of reasons we don’t know about yet; nor really care either. The film also brings in a weird assortment of supporting characters, including the additions of Jason Mamoa and Danielle Brooks to the mix. Jack Black is there to be his same old persona, which I guess you’re getting what you paid for with that. He’s a fine comedic presence sometimes, but man I wish he would stop taking paycheck roles like this and actually make something that better uses his talents as an actor. I get the feeling that too many of the jokes in this movie will fly over the heads of people who have never played the games. The re-imagining of the world itself even feels off, adding more textural detail to a game whose mass appeal is it’s retro simplicity. Coming off of the massive failure that was Borderlands, Jack Black probably doesn’t want to be associated with yet another failed adaptation of a video game, but that’s sadly what may end up being the case again here. And this time, he can’t hide himself behind a CGI animated character anymore.
FLIGHT RISK (JANUARY 24)
Another film that I talked about before in a preview, before it got switched to a later release date after I published the article. In general, my feelings towards this movie hasn’t changed in the interim. I still see it as a major step down for both Mark Wahlberg and director Mel Gibson. Gibson continues to burn through all the good will he may have had left in Hollywood with his self-indulgent choices as an actor and filmmaker, and it seems like this is the only kind of movie he’s now capable of making. He’s gone from the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind Braveheart (1995) to making a B-movie action thriller. Mark Wahlberg is also seeming to be an actor just spinning his wheels as a performer, taking safe familiar roles that coast on his name rather than actually doing anything challenging. Hopefully both men get out of their own bad habits and actually make movies that are better suited for their talents. This movie looks like it’s dead on arrival, and it doesn’t surprise me at all that Lionsgate pushed it out of the competitive Fall Season and left it in the dumping ground that is late January. We’ll see if it’s better than it looks on the surface, but something tells me that this one is not going to be lighting up the box office, and hopefully it makes the two men behind it become more reflective of how their talents are being wasted.
NOVOCAINE (MARCH 14)
In contrast with Love Hurts, here we have an action comedy example of trying too hard. The film’s premise is that the main character feels no pain, so he’s able to fight without the experience of pain affecting his state of mind. Jack Quaid is a likable enough actor, but here I don’t quite buy into him being a capable action star the same way that I do with Ke Huy Quan. With Quan, you already know going in that he has martial arts training and a background in stunts. Here, Quaid definitely is not the one doing the stunts. What you have to rely upon then for this film’s premise to work is it’s sense of humor, and again judging by this trailer, that seems to be lacking as well. This kind of premise could work, but it requires more believable stunts as well as an actor with a bit more of a off-kilter personality. Jack Quaid seems to be playing this character as too much of a milquetoast every-man. Perhaps there might be a bit more to this movie, but it just looks to be playing it too safe. This needed a far more absurdist take on the material. In a genre now dominated by the John Wick’s of the world, your action comedies need to stand out more, and that requires taking a whole lot more chances.
So, there you have my preview of the movies coming out in Early 2025, pending any last minute release date changes. One thing that’s noticeable is the lack of major tentpoles in the month of March. Sure, there’s Mickey 17 and Snow White set for release, but it’s a noticeably emptier month than what we have usually had. It’s the key Spring Break period of the year, so the studios have used March as a way of generating some early box office wins while people on on their holiday. This past year we saw this as the place where blockbusters like Dune: Part Two and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024) were able to find their audiences and generate some strong box office. But this year, things feel a lot less bountiful in the Spring. This might be the residual effect of the strikes, as the backlog of projects has created a gap in the pipeline of movie releases, and Hollywood no longer has any movies left available that they were able to delay until the strikes were over. Hopefully, this doesn’t leave the rest of the year in a weaker state. 2024 was a year with a lot of positive signs of recovery for the theatrical business, and the hope is that this momentum will continue into 2025. Big movies like Marvel’s Captain America: Brave New World and Ryan Coogler’s Sinners should help give the box office a boost, but movie theaters will need many more movies to outperform expectations going into the new year. The hope is that by the time Summer rolls around that things will especially begin to sizzle at the box office and that hopefully movie theaters will able to endure what may be a lighter than usual Spring season. In any case, there are a lot of movies that I personally am looking forward to in 2025, and in some cases I won’t have to wait too long as some of my Must Sees are definitely found in these early months ahead. So, have a Happy New Year and let’s all have a fun time going to the movies in 2025.