Movies Out Now – What’s Actually Worth Your $15 (or $20 if You’re in Manhattan)

 I checked Fandango yesterday and there’s like 47 movies playing in theaters right now. FORTY SEVEN. Who has time for that?

So here’s the thing about movies out now – most of them aren’t gonna be there in two weeks. Studios dump everything into November and December hoping something sticks. Gladiator II made $55.5 million opening weekend which sounds huge until you realize Deadpool & Wolverine pulled in $211 million back in July. Different leagues entirely.

The Big Ones Everyone’s Talking About

Wicked just came out last Friday and honestly? The runtime is 2 hours 40 minutes. That’s longer than The Godfather. For a musical about a green witch. But people are losing their minds over it – already made $114 million domestic and my theater was packed on a Tuesday afternoon. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande apparently lived in character for months which is either incredibly dedicated or slightly unhinged, depends who you ask.

Gladiator II is the other massive one. Denzel Washington’s in it playing some kind of power broker and he’s chewing scenery like he hasn’t eaten in weeks (compliment). Ridley Scott is 86 years old directing Ancient Rome battle scenes with sharks in the Colosseum. Did that historically happen? Absolutely not. Does it look cool? You bet.

Then there’s Red One with The Rock and Chris Evans which cost $250 million somehow and feels like a movie nobody asked for but Amazon’s pushing it everywhere. It’s about Santa Claus getting kidnapped. Made $34 million opening weekend which for that budget is… not great.

The Smaller Stuff That’s Better Honestly

Here’s where it gets interesting. There’s this A24 movie called Heretic with Hugh Grant being creepy and it only cost like $10 million to make but it’s genuinely unsettling. Grant plays a guy who traps two Mormon missionaries in his house and it’s basically a theological horror debate. Rotten Tomatoes has it at 93% which is higher than most of the blockbusters.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is playing too – made $11 million its first weekend on a tiny budget and it’s apparently actually good? Based on that kids book from the 70s. Studios forgot you can make family movies that don’t cost $200 million I guess.

Oh and Venom: The Last Dance is still hanging around somehow. It’s bad. Like really bad. But it’s made $394 million worldwide because people have no taste (kidding, sort of).

Why «Movies Out Now» Searches Are Broken

Google this phrase and you get the weirdest results. Fandango shows you everything including 20 Bollywood films. AMC’s website is somehow worse than booking a flight in 2004. Regal just acquired Cineworld’s theaters so their whole system is a mess – half the listings don’t even have showtimes updated.

The Rotten Tomatoes «in theaters» page includes movies that left theaters three weeks ago. IMDb is actually the most reliable which feels wrong. They partner with Atom Tickets and at least the showtimes are current.

What’s Actually Worth The Trip

If you’re gonna leave your house and pay $15-20 plus $12 for popcorn (Cinemark charges $10.99 for a large now, AMC hit $12.50 in major cities), here’s my take:

Wicked if you like musicals at all. The production value is insane – they built a real Emerald City set that was 9 million square feet. Not CGI, actual sets.

Heretic if you want something different and don’t mind sitting in an empty theater on a Wednesday.

Skip Red One completely. Just wait for streaming, it’ll be on Prime Video in like three weeks anyway.

Conclave is still playing some places – Ralph Fiennes in a papal thriller that’s way more entertaining than it should be. It’s from October but keeps hanging on because word of mouth is strong.

The Weird November Pattern

Studios avoid the first two weeks of November like plague because Election Day kills box office. Then they dump everything the week before Thanksgiving. Moana 2 drops November 27 and Disney’s projecting a $125 million opening. Which means everything currently playing has like 10 days to make money before getting buried.

This happens every year and every year studios act surprised. Universal moved Wicked up from December specifically to avoid Moana 2. Smart.

There’s also this thing where movies «out now» includes stuff leaving theaters in two days. The Marvels is technically still playing at one theater in Des Moines. Does that count? These lists are useless.

International Stuff Nobody Mentions

All We Imagine as Light won the Grand Prix at Cannes and it’s playing in like 15 theaters total in the US. Malayalam language film from India, supposed to be incredible. But good luck finding it unless you’re in New York or LA.

Meanwhile Bollywood released Singham Again which made $45 million opening weekend in India and nobody here even knows it exists.

The whole «movies out now» ecosystem is super US-centric which makes sense but also means you’re missing stuff.

I’m out of space but basically – check your local theater’s actual website, not the aggregator sites. Those are terrible.