These Are the 7 Best Movie Trailers of 2024 (Even If the Movies Were No Good)

Trailers are an important artform. Sometimes, they can be so incredible, such remarkable artistic creations on their own merits, they can endure long after the films they’ve promoted have been forgotten. Battle: Los Angeles and Suicide Squad, for instance, were widely panned, but their initial trailers still resonate as profoundly impressive creations. Trailers really can become something special, and 2024 had plenty of memorable examples. This included glimpses into future 2025 features, which already got off on the right foot with audiences thanks to these marketing materials.

The seven best movie trailers for 2024 reflect movies that (if they’ve been released yet) won’t be to everyone’s liking. Heck, you might outright despise the motion pictures they’re shilling for. That just makes their artistic virtues extra impressive to absorb, though. Even movies one might find subpar can inspire trailers so great they inevitably stand out as the cream of the crop. Behold, the seven best trailers unleashed on moviegoers during 2024!

28 Years Later

The standard for modern horror movie trailers (established through titles like Hereditary) had informed a landscape of scary trailers leaning on slightly atonal string instruments, while many also employed eerie versions of familiar pop ditties. The first 28 Years Later trailer excitingly eschewed expectations by instead leaning on a 1915 reciting of the 1903 poem “Boots” from actor Taylor Holmes. The stripped-down, sparse reading of this poem was incredibly haunting and perfectly communicated the simultaneous monotony, agony, and psychological torment of living in a world ravaged by zombies. This 28 Years Later trailer leaned on a bold creative decision that already feels like it’s changing the horror movie trailer game forever.

Monkey Man

At the very end of January 2024, exciting news broke about Dev Patel’s directorial debut Monkey Man, which had spent a few years on radio silence. Previously set to get dumped onto Netflix, Monkey Man was now set for an April 5, 2024 theatrical release courtesy of Universal Pictures. To commemorate the occasion, an enthralling Monkey Man trailer was released, displaying Patel’s absorbing approach to action sequences. It was a trailer bursting with personality and sharp editing, not to mention a sense of energy that just kept ramping up as it went along. By the time the title dropped, it was impossible not to be cheering. The Monkey Man trailer was a triumph, vividly signaling why this movie needed a theatrical launch.

Captain America: Brave New World

By the time the Captain Marvel teaser dropped in fall 2018, cynical internet users had come to know the typical Marvel movie trailer structure. Initial trailers had voice-over audio from a supporting character guiding audiences through a new world before a quick closing montage of action sequences. Second trailers often followed their own structural patterns. Someone at Marvel Studios must’ve overheard that because the Captain America: Brave New World trailers have been among the most idiosyncratic ever produced for the label.

The second trailer in particular features a bevy of outstanding cross-cut editing while also highlighting some fun action beats like how Captain America simply landing can literally blow away baddies. A late beat where a flurry of critical voices play over footage of Sam Wilson trying his best also lends interesting insight into the man’s psyche, while a recurring clicking noise playing throughout the trailer quietly accentuates an ominous air. The second Captain America: Brave New World trailer took Marvel Studios marketing to a place fitting of this tentpole’s title.

[RELATED: Captain America: Brave New World Trailer Teases the True Mastermind Behind the MCU Film]

Longlegs

After a series of cryptic teases, indie distributor Neon dropped a slightly longer but still mysterious Longlegs trailer just a few months before the film’s release. It offered a more concrete glimpse into what director Osgood Perkins was cooking up. However, this piece of Longlegs marketing was still so chilling because of its restraint. There was still a sense of uncertainty and mystery permeating its images, and editing choices that could chill any viewer to the bone. The near glimpses of Nicolas Cage as the titular killer were also very well-executed. Even with showing a little more, the full Longlegs trailer became a masterpiece thanks to a “less-is-more” approach.

Kinds of Kindness

How do you market an anthology film? Better yet, how do you promote an anthology film leaning on the absurd yet dry dark comedy of filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos? Such a prospect would be a nightmare for any studio. However, Kinds of Kindness first dropped on most people’s radar through a deeply memorable teaser trailer. Short, to the point, and set to the 1983 Eurythmics song “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This),” the Kinds of Kindness teaser accentuated an oddball atmosphere while keeping things vague. This trailer was about being evocative and communicating a variety of visual aesthetics. It wasn’t about spoon-feeding moviegoers what Lanthimos was cooking up. The result was a dynamite trailer that inspired so many delightful YouTube parodies (taking its structure and needle drop but applying it to other movies with ensemble casts) for a reason.

Wicked

The first Wicked trailer was almost superfluous. After all, everyone was already so hyped for the idea of this Broadway musical film adaptation just after its Super Bowl spot alone. However, this piece of Wicked marketing was still a splendidly enchanting creation, especially since its lengthy 210-second runtime allowed it to function as nearly a short film. Especially memorable here was a segment at the end of the trailer cutting across various stages of Elphaba’s life, a moving depiction of all that she’s endured on her road to “Defying Gravity.” This trailer was so tremendous that even its lack of singing couldn’t bring it down.

Juror #2

One of the many things that made Warner Bros. Pictures dumping Juror #2 in its theatrical release strange was that the studio already put together a killer first trailer. Like past Clint Eastwood directorial efforts American Sniper, The Mule, and Richard Jewell, Juror #2 had a propulsive inaugural trailer that excelled as its own mini-movie. In this case, the trailer is brilliantly paced as audiences discover the dark uncertainty within Nicholas Hoult’s protagonist. Idyllic suburban existence curdles into guilt-ridden torment over a little more than two minutes of footage. It all culminates in Kiefer Sutherland ominously saying “You know what you have to do” against a dark background. Such an immediately iconic trailer (for a darn good thriller to boot) should’ve preceded a grand theatrical rollout, not been the only instance of Warner Bros. publicly promoting the project.