I’ve said — early and emphatically — that 2005 was a historically bad year in cinema. There are of course any number of contributing factors, but I’d argue that the big one was 9/11. After all, it can take two or three years to make a film of Hollywood quality, and the industry is depressingly slow to respond to global and/or cultural changes. Four years after 9/11 feels like it’s right in the sweet spot after the film executives realized — too late — that we were never going back to the way things were before 9/11, but before anyone had figured out what new cultural paradigm was going to take its place.

That’s pretty much exactly where we were with 2024. Another historically bad year in cinema.

Yes, of course there were a great many factors. The AMPAS holdouts were a big one. This year brought us so much trash that might’ve gotten punted into January or February of 2025, or gone directly to streaming, if only the multiplexes weren’t in need of content to pad out the year. Instead, early 2025 became a tsunami of highly-anticipated films that weren’t ready for release in 2024. The end result was a 2024 loaded with mediocrities, disappointments, and historic bombs until somewhere around December.

And then of course there were the self-inflicted wounds that came from streaming. Yes, the economy is terrible and nobody has any money, but that was no less true in 2019. The difference is that now, we’ve got significantly more pressure from the corporate overlords to spend money at the box office while also spending money on streaming subscriptions. It’s more than the market can bear, and we’re all slowly waking up to that.

While the old streaming services are still around, it’s become perfectly obvious that they’re never going to be as huge as they were during lockdown. It remains unclear as to which streaming services are going to stay in the game and which companies are still losing out on viewers, money, and pop culture relevance post-COVID.

Consider this: Netflix is still the de facto biggest name in streaming. Without looking it up, can you name three Netflix original movies released in 2024 that weren’t documentaries? Could you do that with Amazon or Apple+ or Max or Disney+? Hell, could you name even one Hulu original movie released in 2024? I’d be impressed if you could.

And then of course there’s COVID. Just as we were with 9/11 back in 2005, we’re far enough out from COVID that we’ve yet to figure out where we’re going next, even as we’ve collectively figured out that we’re never going back. But that hasn’t stopped Hollywood from trying.

Recently, The Back Drop over on Second Wind came out with an excellent video detailing how 2024 was a disastrous attempt at trying to replicate the historic box office successes of 2019. There are many, many reasons why that attempt was doomed to fail. But the one that interests me the most is the notion that the biggest box office hits of that year were built to be capstones for series that had been going on for years by that point.

Avengers: Endgame was a cultural event a decade in the making. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was the culmination of a Star Wars sequel trilogy with years of build-up. The target demographic of Frozen 2 had spent pretty much their entire lives waiting for that sequel. Toy Story 4, Aladdin (2019), and The Lion King (2019) were all ideally placed for an audience nostalgic for their ’90s childhoods. Hell, Spider-Man: Far From Home piggy-backed off the success of Avengers: Endgame, and Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2021 was a nostalgic send-off to 24 years of Spider-Man movies, made for an audience that had grown up with those movies.

By comparison, look at the highest-grossing movies of 2024. Inside Out 2 and Moana 2 likely succeeded for the same reason Frozen 2 did. Likewise, Deadpool & Wolverine repeated the Spider-Man: Far From Home phenomenon.

Inside Out 2 and Deadpool & Wolverine were the only two movies in 2024 to break a billion dollars. In 2019, we got nine. Hell, the tenth highest-grossing movie of 2024 was YOLO, a Chinese film that barely got an American release.

So, what’s ahead in 2025? Honestly, I don’t know. Nobody does. Anyone who says they do is in for a rude awakening.

Seriously, Los Angeles is burning as I type this, Hollywood is literally in ashes, and the Oscar nominations announcements have already been postponed. Stephen King has called for the Oscars to be cancelled altogether this year, and I doubt he’ll be the only one.

The fires are still ongoing as of this typing, and hundreds of thousands have lost their homes. The entertainment capital of the world will need billions of dollars and years (maybe even decades) to rebuild or relocate. This is absolutely going to affect the film industry at least as much as the AMPAS holdouts did. Movies are going to be delayed over this. Movies are going to get cancelled over this. And honestly, coming off such a pathetically bad year for box office grosses, this might not be a bad time for the studios to rebuild themselves and their strategies from the ground up.

All of this to say that there’s no coming back from any of this. For better or worse, and whatever it looks like, the future is coming. But first, the time has finally come to look back on film in 2024.

For those unfamiliar with how we do things around here, the 2024 review will be separated into three lists.

• The Masterpieces. This is for the awards contenders. The films that inspire thought and intelligent conversation, the ones that make a sincere effort and notable accomplishments in advancing the medium of film. These are my choices for the movies most likely to be taught about in college courses.
• The Disappointments. This is NOT to be confused with a “worst of” list, because I make a genuine effort not to bother with a film when I know there’s no chance it could possibly be good. Instead, this is a list of wasted potential, the movies that could have and should have been so much better than the end result.
• The Wild Rides. This is for the movies that were just plain fun. They won’t be winning any Oscars (except for maybe the technical categories), but these are the action romps, the comedies, the horror films, and anything else that was just a damn good time at the movies. These are my favorites of the year.

Importantly, none of these are Top Ten lists and their entries are ranked in no particular order. Instead, films are grouped into loosely-defined categories and then I pick a “winner” from each one. So instead of ranking a film as number three or five or whatever, I can declare it the year’s “Best Action Film” or “Best Mindfuck” or something like that.

All of the lists and categories have their own little quirks and criteria, but they all adhere to the following rules.

1. Only movies that I’ve seen will be considered. Of course I didn’t get around to seeing every movie that came out this year — nobody did. And there were many, many noteworthy movies I didn’t get around to seeing for one reason or another. A partial list includes Mean Girls (2024), The Book of Clarence, Orion and the Dark, Imaginary, Bob Marley: One Love, Rebel Moon: Part Two, Boy Kills World, Back to Black, The Bikeriders, Sing Sing, Harold and the Purple Crayon, Watchmen: Chapter I and Chapter II (I know, break my heart), The Killer, Slingshot, Rebel Ridge, Speak No Evil (2024), The 4:30 Movie, Never Let Go, Salem’s Lot, Hellboy: The Crooked Man, Piece by Piece, The Apprentice, Hot Frosty, Red One, Queer, Y2K, and so on.

I deliberately passed on Despicable Me 4, Terrifier 3, and Bad Boys: Ride or Die, due to my own apathy and ignorance toward those respective franchises. No way am I going to dignify Horizon: An American Saga or Reagan, and I’m staying clear away from It Ends With Us. And I passed on Kraven the Hunter because why waste anyone’s time?

2a. Only movies released in 2024 will be considered. This sadly means that Evil Does Not Exist won’t be considered, as that movie was released overseas in December 2023. And of course this was a famously terrible year for films that got overseas releases or awards-qualifying runs in December 2024, but won’t get wide releases until deep into January, or even into February. I waited as long as I reasonably could, but there are still so many I can’t include here. (Seriously, if September 5 turns out to be my Best Masterpiece of 2024 when I finally see that movie, I’m going to be so pissed.)

2b. Festival premiere dates don’t count. Because movies have been known to change in post between festival screenings and public release, I don’t consider a movie to be truly completed while it’s on the festival circuit. To wit: The People’s Joker was touring all through 2022 and 2023, and some of that movie’s voice actors were replaced altogether for the limited release in 2024.

Alas, Whiskey Dixie and the Big Wet Country is still touring and the film isn’t publicly available outside those few limited engagements. (But the soundtrack is!) So as much as I personally loved that movie and I wish all the best to my friends in the cast and crew, I can’t put them into consideration here.

3. Only one award per film, and one award per category. I don’t want a situation in which one movie wins everything, and I don’t want to call any ties. That would be too easy, and frankly boring.

The Masterpieces list will be online shortly. Stay tuned!