The best movies of 2024 according to you, the audience

SALT LAKE CITY (KSL.com) – As we dive deeper into January — 2024 gets further and further away. We can’t wait to see what the New Year brings, but we’re human, and we can’t help but look back — as one would on a great vacation, a promotion at work, a wonderful family memory. But also to take inventory of missed opportunities and take advantage of new ones in 2025.

2024 had plenty of movies … including blockbusters, indie favorites, and sequels galore. There are a lot of lists out there of people telling you their favorite movies of the year, but I don’t want to do that, and my guess is you don’t really care what my favorites are. (Well, maybe those of you who love to argue with me would so you have some fresh fodder, but you few are going to have to wait).

This, however, is about what audiences thought were the best of the year, using box office numbers and audience ratings.

While it is not a perfect science, I think what audiences think is much more important than what critics think. That is coming from a guy who has been doing movie reviews for more than a decade. I love movies, but if I’m being honest, too many critics miss the point of a movie: to entertain. Sure, some films are so beautifully crafted and artfully orchestrated that they can be borderline boring while also utterly brilliant. But I have seen too many critics rip a movie apart because it prioritized a fun trip to the theater over trying to earn prestigious and ultimately meaningless awards.

A movie doesn’t earn a sequel or endless rewatches at home because it’s a best-picture winner. It earns that when it makes a killing at the theater, and the studio wants to extend the franchise for more of that cash.

My point is, I can’t tell you what the best movies of 2024 were because my list will be different from yours. What I can tell you, however, is what movies made the most at the box office and which movies audiences ranked as their favorites.

It should come as no surprise the most popular with critics were not the most popular with audiences.

First up, we have the top 10 highest-grossing movies of 2024, based on domestic box office gross, not worldwide. You’ll see the total amount made, the critic and audience score from Rotten Tomatoes, as well as the rating on IMDb.

Rotten Tomatoes critic scores are an average of all Rotten Tomatoes’ approved critics. The audience score is based on users on the site. The IMDb score is calculated on a scale from 1 to 10 — 1 being the lowest — and it is aggregated from users on the site and not critics.

Highest grossing

There are a few things to consider when it comes to box office numbers.

First, you’ll see a lot of animated and family films on the list, and that is because box office numbers are an indicator that audiences and moviegoers like family fare — but think about how many tickets you’re selling to one family for “Inside Out 2” compared to “Gladiator II.” The former will attract mom, dad and all the kids. Then maybe the kids loved it, and now aunt or uncle or grandma or grandpa want to take the kids again. Naturally, more tickets can be sold for family films. The latter is for a more mature audience, so “Gladiator II” making nearly $170 million, domestically, is impressive when you think about how narrow the audience is compared to “Inside Out 2,” even though the animated movie made nearly six times more.

This is not me trying to say “Gladiator II” was a better movie than “Inside Out 2,” but rather that we can’t completely go off box office numbers to judge the “best” movie of the year.

Rotten Tomatoes critic bests

Let’s look at the highest-ranked movies, according to Rotten Tomatoes critics. Are these the best movies of the year? I don’t think so … and many of you likely won’t, either, but this is according to critics, and we’re always right … right?

Along with the title of the films, the following are the Rotten Tomatoes critic and audience scores.

Don’t feel left out if you have not heard of most of these titles. Most of them are low-budget fare. I have not seen most of them myself, but I love this list because it can introduce me to something not on my radar, maybe even ending up being a wonderful surprise.

One last thing to note is that since these movies did not see a big, worldwide release, the critic sample size is likely much smaller than bigger movies. Meaning the high score should not be ignored, but the score may not be quite so high if more critics were voting. For example, “All We Imagine as Light” has a 100% critic score with 128 reviews. “Wicked,” on the other hand, was a big release and has a critic score of 88% with 374 reviews.

Top audience scores

Now, for the audience scores. It shouldn’t be much of a surprise that none of the titles on the critics’ list made it to the audience list. Again, a lot of the audience picks had big marketing bucks behind them, while the critic picks did not. It also, however, shows there is a discrepancy between many of the critics and the moviegoing public. These are not necessarily the highest-rated audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes for all 2024 movies, but they are a good representation.

It is interesting to note audience and critic numbers are not too far off. Both camps more or less agree the following 2024 movies were fantastic.

Biggest discrepancies between critic and audience scores in 2024

Here’s where we can have some fun. I have several issues with Rotten Tomatoes, but I’m being told I’ve been on my soap box a bit too much in the article, already, so I won’t delve into it. I have always found the gap between what critics and audiences think downright laughable.

A critic can give you their opinion, but all that really matters is whether you like the movie or not. Art is subjective, and it’s OK if you like something everyone else hates, or vice versa.

Here is a list of some of the biggest gaps between Rotten Tomatoes’ audience and critic scores of 2024:

Now, it’s your turn.

What were your favorite movies of 2024? Did it make any of these lists? How do you determine your favorites? Let us know in the comments.