Original material is excluded from Fandango’s yearly list of the most anticipated films in favour of a long list of sequels.Large franchise films mostly fell short of expectations in 2023, but a recent Fandango survey suggests that 2024 is already shaping up to be another year of much awaited franchise and sequel releases. Deadpool 3 is at the top of the list, which is undoubtedly going to relieve Marvel Studios and Disney.
More than 80% of respondents to a Fandango study of over 8,000 ticket buyers said they were more excited about the films coming out in 2024 than they were about the ones that came out in 2023. Considering that this year featured a number of high-profile releases, like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, The Flash, and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, the box office results of all of these and more fell short of what the studios had anticipated and expected.
In terms of lost income, the DCEU and MCU were two of the largest losers, with the majority of their releases failing to turn a profit. Now, all eyes are turning to 2024 as a possible return to form with some big sequels dominating the most anticipated movies of the year.
The Top Ten list reads:
- Deadpool 3
- Beetlejuice 2
- Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
- Dune: Part Two
- Venom 3
- Despicable Me 4
- Inside Out 2
- Lord of the Rings: The War of Rohirrim
- Gladiator 2
- A Quiet Place: Day On
The list provides an interesting insight into exactly what people are looking forward to, and it seems that original movies have been completely edged out by a list entirely made up of sequels, a prequel and an animated Lord of the Rings movie.
Fandango looks at a lot of different categories in addition to the films that people are itching to see in the upcoming year.
Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds as Wolverine and Deadpool, Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn in Joker: Folie à Deux, and Michael Keaton’s comeback as Beetlejuice in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice 2 are a few of the top picks in categories that focus on the characters people want to see the most.
Naturally, the poll results are not always indicative of huge box office successes, and any of these films, regardless of how much anticipation they have, have the same potential to fail as many of the biggest releases of 2023. It is difficult to envision Hollywood in 2024 going much worse after the COVID epidemic shutdowns, the writer and actor strikes, and a general lack of interest in the theater experience.
