The Best Movies of 2024 (So Far)

Box office be damned, we saw some stellar new films in May. [View in Browser]( [Esquire Sunday Reads]( [The 26 Best Movies of 2024 (So Far)]( The 26 Best Movies of 2024 (So Far) Why isn’t anyone going to the movies? That’s the big question coming out of Hollywood right now, following a dismal May and the worst adjusted Memorial Day weekend at the box office in nearly three decades. The most disappointing new release was George Miller’s latest installment in the Mad Max franchise, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. The film debuted with a $32 million opening weekend, far below projections (and what it needs to recoup its $168 million budget). What’s unnerving isn’t that an expected blockbuster is underperforming but rather that an expected blockbuster as good—and downright entertaining—as Furiosa fell short. The film is a blast, it’s built from revered IP, and it sports two big stars (Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth). So what gives? Frankly, I don’t have an answer. What I do know is, box office be damned, 2024 is shaping up to be a pretty solid year for new releases. In addition to Furiosa, we got an ideal movie to watch with the whole family (Hit Man), a thrillingly scrappy teen road journey (Gasoline Rainbow), and a quietly staggering meditation on humanity’s relationship to the natural world (Evil Does Not Exist). Here are the best movies of the year so far. [Read the Full Story]( [MORE FROM ESQUIRE]( [The Last Gay Erotica Store]( The Last Gay Erotica Store By the cash register at AutoErotica in San Francisco’s historic Castro gayborhood, a little sign sticks out from a plastic container of Ferrero Rocher chocolates. Have One, it reads, written in pink marker. You’d expect to see the chocolates when visiting your favorite uncle, not in a store packed with so many male bodies on display. The gold foil wrappers gleam against a framed 1970s ad for poppers—a white bottle blasting off through space—and a 1978 poster for a Chicago bathhouse bash. 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