Super Bowl 2024 is a perfect opportunity for studios to drop some movie trailers. Yes, the football matters, but with approximately 115-120 million people watching in recent years, it's an audience that can't be ignored. That's why we get the now famous, big-budget Super Bowl commercials that people love to watch so much.
And what is a movie trailer, if not a commercial? Since I was already watching the game to see my 49ers ... well, let's not talk about that. But since I was already watching the game, I also watched every movie trailer dropped during Super Bowl LVIII.
Admittedly, many of these were just short 30-second teasers. Super Bowl commercial spots cost big bucks even for small amounts of time. So most studios create a shorter teaser to get you to go to YouTube and watch the full trailer. In this round-up, I'm keeping to the spirit of the law rather than the letter of the law and going with full trailers posted online during the game if applicable, even if they weren't technically what was shown during the game.
So without further ado, here are my top five favorite movie trailers that aired during Super Bowl 2024.
'Twisters'
Inject this trailer straight into my veins. "Monkey Man" may still be my most anticipated movie of the year (more on that later), but this was the best trailer I saw during Super Bowl 2024.
A sequel to the 1996 movie "Twister" this disaster movie about chasing tornados looks like an action blockbuster in the making. Glenn Powell just oozes movie star charisma in this two-minute trailer, and while his portrayal of hot shot storm chaser Tyler Owens probably won't win an Oscar, he's going to steal more than a few scenes. My only hope is that the CGI tornados can go toe-to-toe with Powell and not bring the movie crashing down to Earth.
'Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes'
I knew this movie was coming but I expected to pass on it like the previous two installments in the "Planet of the Apes" reboot franchise. But after watching even just the Super Bowl 2024 teaser for this epic two-and-a-half-minute-long trailer, not only was I sold on this movie, but I'm now wondering if I need to go back and watch the previous two.
"Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes" is set almost 300 years after Caesar's revolution and stars Owen Teague as Noa, a young chimpanzee who is learning that not everything is as it seems. He decides to go on a journey to determine the future for both apes and humans and is joined by Nova (Freya Allan), a feral woman who is smarter than the other humans, who have largely regressed since the fall of their civilization.
But it's the big bad of this movie that has me excited. Kevin Durand is Proximus Caesar, ruler of a clan of apes in search of human technology and despite being CGI still seems set to be a powerful, charismatic and imposing antagonist opposite Noa and Nova.
'Deadpool & Wolverine'
Maybe I'm ready for Marvel to hurt me again, and maybe I'm not. But I'm certainly more ready than ever after watching the official reveal for "Deadpool & Wolverine."
Ryan Reynolds, of course, returns as Wade Wilson — aka Deadpool, the "Merc with a mouth." But this is the first time he's officially in the MCU, something he doesn't hesitate to comment about in his traditional fourth-wall-breaking manner.
Sadly, we don't get much from Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) in this trailer, but we do get the introduction of Matthew Macfayden as a Time Variance Authority agent in a TVA that feels ... more sinister than the one that Loki left us with at the end of "Loki" season 2.
Will Deadpool ultimately prove to be "Marvel Jesus"? Who is to say? But he certainly gave us a good trailer.
'Monkey Man'
If we were ranking these trailers by how much I want to see the movie, "Monkey Man" would shoot to the top of the list. I called this dark, gritty action movie "my most anticipated movie of the year" — it's essentially "John Wick" set in Mumbai.
And this trailer definitely lives up to that description, with director/writer/star Dev Patel beating the life out of some bad guys in this Super Bowl trailer.
Unfortunately, this 30-second ad just doesn't do the original trailer justice or deliver the hype quite the way some of these other trailers do, so it's further down the list.
'A Quiet Place Day One'
If you've always wondered what happened to set up the events of "A Quiet Place" you won't need to wait much longer to find out. "A Quiet Place Day One" is coming on June 28 and while the trailer has been around for a few days, it's the Super Bowl 30-second teaser that got my attention.
Starring Lupita Nyong'o as Sam and Joseph Quinn as Eric, this trailer sets up a prequel movie that starts loud but gets quiet — all without losing any intensity. Fans of the horror franchise should definitely be excited for this latest installment.
