2024 will be a tumultuous year for the world at a whole, so the upcoming comedy movie slate will need to get us through some (knock-on-wood) eventful times. Thankfully, there will be plenty of fun films up heading to our screens, from returns of beloved animation franchises to swoon-worthy rom-coms starring Hollywood's biggest stars. Below, read on for our list of the comedy movies to watch out for throughout the year.
'Mean Girls: The Musical'
Release Date: January 12, 2024
Starring: Angourie Rice, Reneé Rapp, Auliʻi Cravalho, Christopher Briney, Jacquel Spivey, Bebe Wood, Avantika, Tina Fey, Jenna Fischer, Busy Phillips, Tim Meadows, and Jon Hamm.
The beloved 2004 comedy is getting a musical makeover this year, with an adaptation of the Broadway version based on Cady and the Plastics. Hope you kept your Barbie looks, 'cause on Wednesdays, we wear pink.
Trailer: HERE
'The Book of Clarence'
Release Date: January 12, 2024
Starring: LaKeith Stanfield, RJ Cyler, Omar Sy, Anna Diop, David Oyelowo, Micheal Ward, Alfre Woodard, Teyana Taylor, Caleb McLaughlin, James McAvoy, and Benedict Cumberbatch.
This year The Harder They Fall filmmaker Jeymes Samuel is putting his own revisionist spin on a classic Hollywood Biblical epic. Clarence (Stanfield), an ordinary man living in 29 A.D. Jerusalem, tries to capitalize on the rise of Jesus Christ by claiming to be a new Messiah sent by God, in an attempt to free himself of debt and gain a life of glory.
Trailer: HERE
'Fitting In'
Release Date: February 2, 2024
Starring: Maddie Ziegler, Emily Hampshire, Djouliet Amara, D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, and Ki Griffin.
This semi-autobiographical dramedy by writer-director Molly McGlyn follows 16-year-old Lindy (Ziegler), who is "who is unexpectedly diagnosed with a reproductive condition, MRKH syndrome. The diagnosis upends her plans to have sex, her presumptions about womanhood and sexuality, her relationship with her mother, and most importantly, herself," per the film's description.
Trailer: HERE
'Lisa Frankenstein'
Release Date: February 9, 2024
Starring: Kathryn Newton, Cole Sprouse, Liza Soberano, Henry Eikenberry, Joe Chrest, and Carla Gugino.
Writer Diablo Cody's monstrous rom-com is about a gloomy high schooler named Lisa (Newton) and her love interest, a long-ded Victorian corpse (Sprouse). "After horrific circumstances bring him back to life, the two lovers embark on a murderous journey to find love, happiness, and a few missing body parts along the way," reads the synopsis. Sounds romantic.
Trailer: HERE
'Drive Away Dolls'
Release Date: February 23, 2024
Starring: Margaret Qualley, Geraldine Viswanathan, Beanie Feldstein, Colman Domingo, Pedro Pascal, Bill Camp, and Matt Damon.
In this comedy road trip from Ethan Coen, free spirit Jamie (Qualley) and her calm bestie Marian (Viswanathan) set off on an "impromptu road trip to Tallahassee, but things quickly go awry when they cross paths with a group of inept criminals along the way," per the film's description.
Trailer: HERE
'Problemista'
Release Date: March 1, 2024
Starring: Julio Torres, Tilda Swinton, RZA, Isabella Rossellini, Greta Lee, Spike Einbinder, Laith Nakil, Larry Owens, and Meg Stalter
Comedian Julio Torres writes, directs, and stars in this surrealist comedy about an aspiring toymaker from El Salvador who takes a job with unhinged artist Elizabeth (Swinton) in order to keep his visa and stay in the U.S.
Trailer: HERE
'Ricky Stanicky'
Release Date: March 7, 2024
Starring: Zac Efron, John Cena, Jermaine Fowler, Andrew Santino, Lex Scott Davis, and William H. Macy
A trio of friends have been running a longtime con: They came up with a fake friend, named Ricky Stanicky, to use whenever they need an excuse for their immature antics. When the ruse goes too far and their partners demand to meet Ricky, the men hire a washed-up actor (Cena) for "the role of a lifetime." Things quickly go off the rails in this return to the classic raunchy R-rated comedy.
Trailer: HERE
'Kung Fu Panda 4'
Release Date: March 8, 2024
Starring: Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, James Hong, Bryan Cranston, Ian McShane, Awkwafina, Viola Davis, and Ke Huy Quan.
2024 will be a big year for beloved animated franchises making a return. The fourth Kung Fu Panda film (and the first in the franchise since 2016) will follow Po (Black) as searches for his successor as the Dragon Warrior while fighting a new villain called "The Chameleon."
Trailer: HERE
'The American Society of Magical Negroes'
Release Date: March 15, 2024
Starring: Justice Smith, David Alan Grier, An-Li Bogan, Drew Tarver, Michaela Watkins, Aisha Hinds, Tim Baltz, Rupert Friend, and Nicole Byer.
Writer-director Kobi Lobii's satirical send-up of the Magical Negro trope turns the stereotypical media cliché into an actual society of sorcerers devoted to making white people feel comfortable by any means necessary. When new inductee Aren (Smith) finds himself in a love triangle with his first client (Tarver) and their co-worker (Bogan), he begins to question whether he should put white comfort ahead of his own happiness.
Trailer: HERE
'Irish Wish'
Release Date: March 15, 2024
Starring: Lindsay Lohan, Ed Speleers, Alexander Vlahos, Jane Seymour, Elizabeth Tan, and Ayesha Curry
Lohan's latest Netflix holiday film is an Ireland-set rom-com arriving just in time for St. Patrick's Day. The star plays Maddie, a shy book editor whose world is rocked when the love of her life gets engaged to her best friend. She puts her crush aside to serve as a bridesmaid at their wedding, but days before the event, she "makes spontaneous wish for true love and finds herself in an alternate reality where a chance encounter shows her that sometimes you need to be careful who you wish for," per the film's description.
Trailer: HERE
'Música'
Release date: April 4, 2024
Starring: Rudy Mancuso, Camila Mendes, J.B. Smoove, Francesca Reale, and Maria Mancuso
Why It's Worth Watching: Real-life couple Mancuso and Mendes star in this fantastical rom-com loosely based on the former's life (and co-starring his real mom). "Música is a coming-of-age love story that follows an aspiring creator with synesthesia, who must come to terms with an uncertain future, while navigating the pressures of love, family and his Brazilian culture in Newark, New Jersey," per the film's description.
Trailer: HERE
'How to Date Billy Walsh'
Release date: April 5, 2024
Starring: Charithra Chandran, Sebastian Croft
Why It's Worth Watching: Amelia (Chandran) and Archie's (Croft) lifelong friendship is threatened when Amelia falls for American transfer student Billy Walsh, despite Archie being secretly in love with her.
Trailer: HERE
'The Idea of You'
Release Date: May 2, 2024
Starring: Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine
You're probably more familiar with this as "the Anne Hathaway movie that may or may not be based on Harry Styles fanfic." Officially, it's a rom-com adaptation of Robinne Lee's 2017 novel of the same name. It follows Solène (Hathaway), a single mother in her 40s, who has a secret relationship with the lead singer of a band (Red, White, and Royal Blue's Galitzine) after they meet at a concert.
Trailer: TBA
'Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story'
Release Date: May 3, 2024
Starring: Jerry Seinfeld, Melissa McCarthy, Jim Gaffigan, Amy Schumer, Hugh Grant, Max Greenfield, Christian Slater, Bill Burr, Daniel Levy, James Marsden, Jack McBrayer, Thomas Lennon, Bobby Moynihan, Adrian Martinez, Sarah Cooper, and Fred Armisen
Seinfeld writes, directs, and stars in this star-studded comedy biopic about the "cutthroat and breakneck race to invent the Pop Tart." Per the film's description, "Kellogg’s and Post, sworn cereal rivals, race to create a pastry that will change the face of breakfast forever. A tale of ambition, betrayal, sugar, and menacing milkmen."
Trailer: TBA
'Mother of the Bride'
Release Date: May 9, 2024
Starring: Brooke Shields, Miranda Cosgrove, Benjamin Bratt, Rachael Harris, Sean Teale, Chad Michael Murray, Michael McDonald, Wilson Cruz, Tasneem Roc, and Dalip Sondhi
This comedy stars Shields as Lana, a mother going through her worse wedding nightmare: Not only is her daughter Emma (Cosgrove) getting married in one month(!) in Thailand(!), her fiancé is the son of Lana's ex(!!!).
Trailer: TBA
'My Ex-Friend's Wedding'
Release date: May 3, 2024
Starring: Ariana DeBose, Amanda Seyfried, Megan Stalter, Lisa Koshy, and Chloe Fineman
Why It's Worth Watching: This description sounds like a recipe for belly laughs: "Four childhood best friends [who] get a drunken voicemail from their former best friend on the eve of her wedding day—confessing that she thinks she’s making a mistake—set out to stop her wedding and rekindle the friendship they once shared."
Trailer: TBA
'IF'
Release Date: May 17, 2024
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, John Krasinski, Cailey Fleming, Fiona Shaw, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Louis Gossett Jr., Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Maya Rudolph, Jon Stewart, Bobby Moynihan, Sam Rockwell, Sebastian Maniscalco, Christopher Meloni, Richard Jenkins, Awkwafina, and Steve Carell.
This year, director John Krasinski's is switching gears from the terrifying Quiet Place franchise to an adorable magical adventure. After a young girl named Bea (Fleming) gains the ability to see imaginary friends (called "IFs" for short) who have been abandoned by the kids they helped, she and her father (played by Reynolds) start working to reconnect the forgotten IFs with their kids.
Trailer: HERE
'Babes'
Release Date: May 17, 2024
Starring: Ilana Glazer, Hasan Minhaj, Michelle Buteau, and John Carroll Lynch.
This rom-com, which is co-written by Broad City star Glazer and serves as Pamela Adlon's directorial feature debut, "follows the aggressively single Eden (Glazer), who becomes pregnant from a one-night stand and leans on her married best friend (and mother of two), Dawn (Buteau), to guide her through the gestation and beyond," per Deadline.
Trailer: TBA
'The Garfield Movie'
Release Date: May 24, 2024
Starring: Chris Pratt, Samuel L. Jackson, Hannah Waddingham, Ving Rhames, Nicholas Hoult, Cecily Strong, Harvey Guillén, Brett Goldstein, and Bowen Yang.
Here's another movie with Chris Pratt voicing an update on already iconic cartoon character. (To be fair, the last one did end up pretty great.) The latest adaptation of the lasagna-loving, Monday-hating cat will see Garfield...reuniting with his absent father, voiced by Samuel L. Jackson. OK, call me intrigued.
Trailer: HERE
'Inside Out 2'
Release Date: June 14, 2014
Starring: Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Lewis Black, Tony Hale, Liza Lapira, and Maya Hawke.
In this sequel to the beloved 2015 coming-of-age film, Riley is now 15 and going through a lot, so Joy (Poehler), Sadness (Smith), and the rest of the emotions we met via the then-11-year-old have to make way for a whole new set of feelings taking over the controls. So far we've only met one new emotion, Anxiety (voiced by Maya Hawke), and I truly cannot wait for more.
Trailer: HERE
'Despicable Me 4'
Release Date: July 3, 2024
Starring: Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Pierre Coffin, Miranda Cosgrove, and Steve Coogan.
Details are still under wraps for the fourth film following Gru (Carell), Lucy Wilde (Wiig), and their girls, but one thing we know: there will be Minions.
Trailer: TBA
'The Fabulous Four'
Release date: July 26, 2024
Starring: Susan Sarandon, Bette Midler, Megan Mullally, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Timothy V. Murphy, and Bruce Greenwood
Why It's Worth Watching: This friendship comedy follows three lifelong besties (Sarandon, Mullally, and Ralph) who "travel to Key West, Florida to be bridesmaids in a surprise wedding of their college girlfriend Marilyn (Midler). Once there, sisterhoods are rekindled, the past rises up again in all its glory, and there are enough sparks, drinks and romance to change all their lives in ways they never expected," per the film's description.
Trailer: TBA
'My Old Ass'
Release date: August 2, 2024
Starring: Maisy Stella, Aubrey Plaza, Maddie Ziegler, Maria Dizzia, and Percy Hynes White
Why It's Worth Watching: During a mushroom trip in the summer before college, Elliot (Stella) "comes face-to-face with her older self (Plaza), who gives her words of wisdom and a warning: don’t fall in love with a boy named Chad," per the Sundance hit's description.
Trailer: HERE
'Wicked Part 1'
Release Date: November 27, 2024
Starring: Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, with Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Jeff Goldblum, and Michelle Yeoh.
This long-awaited film adaptation of the iconic Broadway musical puts a new spin on The Wizard of Oz. Before Dorothy touched down, before they became the Wicked Witch and the Good Witch, Elphaba and Glinda were just two young women who formed an unlikely friendship in Oz.
Trailer: HERE
'A Family Affair'
Release Date: TBA
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Zac Efron, Joey King, Liza Koshy, and Kathy Bates.
This rom-com follows the ambitious Zara (King), her widowed mother (Kidman), and her narcissistic movie star boss Chris Cole (Efron). When Zara finally decides to quit, she discovers her attempt to cut ties with her boss didn't work, since he's started dating her mom.
Trailer: TBA
