There’s only one more weekend left in the summer box office season before the fall movies start to arrive. And for all of the talk that fans were done going to the cinema, the best summer 2024 movies proved that there’s still a lot of life left at the box office. That whooshing sound you hear is Hollywood breathing a collective sigh of relief after some costly flops like Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and The Fall Guy failed to connect in May.
As much as the movie studios rely on the blockbusters to keep Hollywood afloat, two of our picks for the best summer 2024 movies didn’t have much box-office success at all. That just means viewers will have a chance to discover these films on streaming platforms. Our other three picks should still be playing in theaters now.
5. A Quiet Place: Day One
Neither of this summer’s alien-related movies could claim to be wholly original. But as enjoyable as Alien: Romulus was, A Quiet Place: Day One gets the nod over it for the sheer tension that it creates throughout its runtime. It’s also surprisingly adept at getting us to care about its two main characters, Samira (Lupita Nyong’o) and Eric (The Fantastic Four: First Steps‘ Joseph Quinn), neither of whom we’ve seen before.
Eric and Samira are also strangers to each other before the alien invasion begins. But as everyone else around them dies, all they have left is each other and Samira’s cat, Frodo. Since this doubles as both a sci-fi movie and a horror film, there’s always a feeling of dread that surrounds the two leads. Because we know what they don’t: There is no escaping this threat, and happy endings aren’t in the cards.
4. I Saw the TV Glow
I Saw the TV Glow is likely to be one of the cult movies of 2024, since barely anyone saw it in theaters. Justice Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine star as Owen and Maddy, a pair of teens who bond over their shared love for and obsession with a show called The Pink Opaque. The series follows two girls, Isabel (Helena Howard) and Tara (Lindsey Jordan), as they bend time and space while fighting Mr. Melancholy (Emma Portner).
Years after Maddy disappeared from his life, and also after the cancellation of their favorite show, Owen is reunited with her. However, Maddy’s claim about The Pink Opaque forces Owen to question his friend’s sanity … and his own when he sees something in the show that may be more real than his own mundane life.
3. Inside Out 2
Do you know why Pixar has had so many blockbuster animated films? It’s not just the top-of-the-line CG animation — it’s because Pixar movies have an uncanny ability to make people emotionally relate to the characters. Viewers want to feel moved by the the stories they consume, and Inside Out 2 recaptured the old Pixar magic by making that happen again. It’s not just the highest-grossing movie of 2024 — it’s now the highest-grossing animated movie ever.
This movie’s success comes down to the fact that viewers young and old care about the personified emotions living inside the head of a 13-year-old girl named Riley Andersen (Kensington Tallman). Most of the movie takes place in Riley’s mindscape, as Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Disgust (Liza Lapira), and Fear (Tony Hale) feel threatened by the arrival of new emotions including Anxiety (Stranger Things season 5 star Maya Hawke). Almost all of Riley’s internal conflict plays out between the emotions, and we get to see how that affects her in the real world as well.
2. Deadpool & Wolverine
There are much better movies than Deadpool & Wolverine, and it’s far from the greatest MCU film of all time. But it is the best time that you’ll have at the movies this summer, by way of being the best action flick and the best comedy of the season. Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman’s respective characters may not have the deepest plot to work with, but nobody cares about that. Marvel fans just wanted to see these two have a proper team-up, and that’s what they got.
The fact that Deadpool & Wolverine has once again clawed its way back to No. 1 at the box office in the penultimate weekend of the summer suggests that even the non-comic book movie fans loved this one. There’s also plenty of nostalgia bait for anyone who watched 20th Century Fox’s Marvel movies over the last 20 years. Regardless, Deadpool & Wolverine works on its own as the closest thing to a superhero Midnight Run-style buddy comedy that we’ve ever seen. This is going to quiet all talk about superhero fatigue until Kraven the Hunter inevitably flops later this year.
1. Hit Man
If you saw only one Glen Powell movie this summer, then you probably watched Twisters. But if you want to watch Powell’s only great movie of the summer, then head to Netflix. Richard Linklater’s Hit Man only had a limited theatrical release before going to streaming, but this movie deserved a better chance to break out.
Powell, much like his character, Gary Johnson, seems to be having a blast as he takes on numerous personas while working undercover for the police. Gary pretends to be a real hit man to trap people who want to hire a professional to kill someone. It’s a very effective sting until Gary meets Madison Figueroa Masters (Adria Arjona), a woman who wants him to murder her abusive husband. Gary is so taken by Madison that he pursues a relationship with her rather than sending her to prison. But since Gary’s connection with Madison is based on a lie, it’s inevitably going to come apart in this rom-com.
