From Dune: Part Two to Inside Out 2 to the long-awaited Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, 2024 has delivered some truly great sequels that managed to live up to their classic predecessors. As Hollywood increasingly relies on familiar franchises to ensure audiences will come out to movie theaters, sequels are becoming even more common. And those audiences are turning up to prove the studios right — eight of the top 10 highest-grossing movies of 2024 were sequels — so sequels will probably continue to dominate multiplexes for years to come.
There have been some great prequels in 2024, too. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is an explosive new chapter in George Miller’s post-apocalyptic epic, The First Omen is a terrifying portrayal of the birth of Damien Thorn, and A Quiet Place: Day One went back to the day the sound-sensitive aliens landed. This year brought some sequels that divided fans and critics, like Joker: Folie à Deux and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, but there were just as many satisfying sequels that expanded on their franchises in really thrilling ways.
10 Twisters
Lee Isaac Chung’s Twisters is only tangentially connected to the original movie. It doesn’t share any of the same characters; it’s just another story about storm chasers in tornado season. But it is every bit the dazzling cinematic spectacle that the first film was. The real star of a disaster movie is the disaster itself, and Twisters, much like Twister, succeeds in giving its audience the thrill of experiencing a deadly tornado from the safety of a movie theater.
The romantic subplots usually detract from the blockbuster entertainment of a disaster movie, but Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones share such electric on-screen chemistry that their love story is just as thrilling as any of the tornadoes. Twisters demanded to be seen on the big screen. It’s an eye-popping moviegoing experience, just like the first one.
9 Paddington In Peru
From Hop to Sonic the Hedgehog, movies about CG animals wreaking havoc on a live-action everyman’s life tend to be mediocre, lukewarm family entertainment. But Paddington and Paddington 2 turned out to be two of the greatest movies of all time. Ben Whishaw’s amiable turn as the titular bear turned him into one of cinema’s most beloved icons, and Paul King’s earnest direction ensured that the films are witty, fast-paced, and wear their heart on their sleeve.
The 2024 threequel, Paddington in Peru, fell short of those two previous masterpieces. It suffered from not having King in the director’s chair; King ed the torch to first-time filmmaker Dougal Wilson while he moved on to Wonka. But just because it didn’t live up to two of the finest films ever made, it doesn’t mean it’s a bad movie. Paddington in Peru is still a fun, heartfelt adventure.
8 Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
Eddie Murphy reprised one of the most iconic roles of his career in 2024. Netflix brought back sharp-witted undercover cop Axel Foley for another action-packed adventure in Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F — and, thankfully, it turned out much better than Coming 2 America. Whereas the Coming to America sequel paled in comparison to the original film, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is easily the best Beverly Hills Cop movie since the first one.
The fourth film sends Axel back to Beverly Hills when his estranged daughter, now a powerful defense attorney, is targeted by a dangerous gang. Murphy recaptures the motormouth energy of his original performance as Axel, much more so than he did in his reprisal of Prince Akeem. Director Mark Molloy recaptures the original film’s perfect balance of action spectacle and laugh-out-loud hilarity.
7 Sonic The Hedgehog 3
From the “Ugly Sonic” controversy to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sonic the Hedgehog has faced every possible hurdle in its quest to become a blockbuster movie franchise. And against all odds, it’s managed to overcome those hurdles and become a smash hit. Each of the Sonic films has been better than the last. The first movie was an affable action comedy, the second one pushed the boat out with a bit more imagination, visual flair, and videogame lore, and the third one is the best of the bunch.
Shadow’s story is surprisingly emotional, and Keanu Reeves brings real depth to the character. Jeff Fowler’s direction is more bombastic and assured than ever. And the franchise’s M.V.P., Jim Carrey, gets twice as much time to shine in a dual role as Dr. Robotnik and his grandfather, Gerald.
6 Gladiator II
The case could easily be made that Ridley Scott’s Gladiator didn’t need a sequel. It’s a perfect swords-and-sandals epic whose mythic simplicity makes it a timeless masterpiece. But there’s no denying that Scott’s standalone sequel, Gladiator II, is one of the most impressive blockbuster spectacles of the year. Scott didn’t just pit men against men; he threw them in the arena with wild animals like monkeys, rhinos, and even bloodthirsty sharks.
Thanks to Denzel Washington’s scene-stealing turn as Macrinus, Gladiator II is a lot funnier than the first film. It’s also a more complex, more compelling political narrative about an iron-fisted tyrant usurping the throne of Ancient Rome. Gladiator II might not be the untouchable magnum opus that its predecessor is, but it is one of the most ionately entertaining big-budget movies of the year.
5 Deadpool & Wolverine
Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine isn’t a direct sequel to Deadpool 2. It does use Deadpool’s time crimes from that movie’s post-credits scene to instigate his conflict with the TVA, but it serves as more of a standalone movie integrating Deadpool into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Still, it deftly recaptures the meta mutant mayhem that made those first two Deadpool movies so much fun; the threequel might be even Deadpool-ier than its predecessors.
It was a joy to see Ryan Reynolds’ Merc with a Mouth back on the big screen, and his team-up with Hugh Jackman’s Logan — the perfect straight man to his wacky comic persona — made him even funnier. Deadpool & Wolverine is a delight from start to finish. It has some of the biggest laughs, biggest action sequences, craziest cameos, and best soundtrack needle-drops of the entire Deadpool trilogy.
4 Alien: Romulus
Wedged between Alien and Aliens, Fede Álvarez’s Alien: Romulus took the franchise back to its roots. Since delivering two of the greatest movies ever made with its first couple of entries, this series has had a very bumpy road. The sequels that followed got worse and worse, and the interim has been filled with crummy crossovers and polarizing prequels. But in 2024, Álvarez delivered the best Alien movie since Aliens — and it was long overdue.
Alien: Romulus combines the best elements of Alien and Aliens. The first half of the movie is a chilling haunted-house-in-space thriller like Alien, with shocking gore and tense jump scares. The second half is a high-octane action blockbuster like Aliens, with swarming xenomorphs and acid-stained shootouts. Cailee Spaeny is the most badass Alien heroine since Ripley and David Jonsson is the most sympathetic synth since Bishop.
3 Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
After 36 years of anticipation, Tim Burton finally directed a sequel to Beetlejuice in 2024. Legacy sequels don’t always live up to their predecessor — in fact, they rarely do — but Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is every bit the macabre delight that its 1988 predecessor was. It might not be quite as spooky or quite as hilarious as the first one, but it perfectly recaptures the spirit of the original classic.
Michael Keaton slips effortlessly back into the role of Betelgeuse, once again stealing every scene he’s in and seizing the audience’s attention. Rather than give in to the temptations of CGI and greenscreens, Burton reused the old-school methods of practical sets and special effects that made the first movie so immersive and spectacular. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was a welcome return to the afterlife that recaptured what made the original great without just rehashing it.
2 Inside Out 2
It was incredibly risky for Pixar to make a sequel to Inside Out. It wasn’t a commercial risk — from Disney’s perspective, it made perfect financial sense — but it was certainly a creative risk. Inside Out is one of Pixar’s most touching movies, with a powerful message about the positive role of sadness. It set a very high bar for a potential sequel. Inside Out 2 could’ve turned out like Finding Dory and Incredibles 2, unnecessary additions to their perfect predecessors, or even Cars 2, an outright disaster.
Thankfully, Inside Out 2 turned out more like Toy Story 2. It’s a worthy successor to the first movie that builds on what came before. It rounds out Riley as more of a three-dimensional, individual character, and introduces a wider variety of more complex, more mature emotions — particularly Anxiety, one of the greatest movie villains of 2024.
1 Dune: Part Two
Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two isn’t a sequel in the traditional sense. It’s not a follow-up to a standalone movie that was produced purely because the first one made enough of a profit for the studio to want more; it’s the second half of the story Villeneuve started in the last one. It was always the plan to make a second movie to complete Villeneuve’s ambitious, visually stunning adaptation of Frank Herbert’s literary sci-fi opus.
From Greig Fraser’s breathtaking cinematography to Hans Zimmer’s otherworldly music, Dune: Part Two has all the things that made Dune: Part One such a masterpiece. But it’s also a much bigger and bolder movie than Part One. Part One was all build-up and Part Two is all payoff as Paul Atreides reluctantly leads the Fremen into an apocalyptic holy war.
