The summer movie season kicks off in theaters this month with major Hollywood studio fare such as “The Devil Wears Prada 2” and “The Mandalorian and Grogu,” but it’s also kicking off on streaming as some of the buzziest movies of 2026 start arriving on SVOD platforms.
Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights,” which brought Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi’s smoldering chemistry to the big screen, arrives on HBO Max after dividing audiences with its eroticism. Sam Raimi’s “Send Help” hits Hulu after a sturdy winter box office run and critical acclaim for Rachel McAdams no-holds-barred performance. Charli xcx’s “The Moment” also debuts on HBO Max after being one of the biggest premieres of Sundance.
The start of the summer season also means streaming originals. Netflix is rolling out the animated movie “Swapped,” which is sure to bring in family audiences (the voice of Michael B. Jordan is an added bonus), and the battle of the sexes comedy “Ladies First,” starring Sacha Baron Cohen and Rosamund Pike. There’s also “Remarkably Bright Creatures,” the streamer’s adaptation of the bestselling book that has Sally Field front and center. Expect the drama film to be a hit over Mother’s Day weekend.
Check out a full rundown below of the biggest movies new to streaming in May 2026.
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Wuthering Heights (May 1 on HBO Max)
Image Credit: ©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection Emerald Fennell’s buzzy “Wuthering Heights” adaptation arrives on HBO Max this month after earning $241 million at the worldwide box office this winter. Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi headline the romance drama as doomed lovers Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff. Fennell’s adaptation brings the novel’s understated erotic and psychological tension to the forefront, which both enamored and polarized audiences as the novel’s Yorkshire setting became reimagined as an erotically-charged playground. The supporting cast includes Shazad Latif as Edgar Linton, Owen Cooper as young Heathcliff, Hong Chau as housekeeper Nelly and Alison Oliver as Isabella Linton.
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Send Help (May 7 on Hulu / Disney+)
Image Credit: ©20th Century Studios/Courtesy Everett Collection Sam Raimi’s wild thriller “Send Help” arrives on Hulu this month after earning a sturdy $94 million worldwide at the winter box office. Rachel McAdams plays an isolated office worker who is constantly belittled by her boss, played by Dylan O’Brien. When the two find themselves stranded on an island after a plane crash, all hell breaks the loose as the power dynamic between them is upended.
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The Moment (May 29 on HBO Max)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Charli xcx heads to the movies in A24’s “The Moment,” a mockumentary that follows the pop star as she’s plunged into an identity crisis while trying to mount a world tour for her acclaimed “Brat” album. Rosanna Arquette, Kate Berlant, Jamie Demetriou, Hailey Benton Gates, Isaac Powell, Alexander Skarsgård and Kylie Jenner all pop up in the film as themselves or fictionalized versions of Charli’s team as the singer contemplates how far to run with her “Brat” fame.
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Dead Man’s Wire (May 28 on Netflix)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Directed by Gus Van Sant, “Dead Man’s Wire” depicts the real-life 1977 hostage situation carried out by Tony Kiritsis (Bill Skarsgård), who kidnapped his bank mortgager (Dacre Montgomery) and then demanded $5 million, no charges or prosecution and a personal apology for wronging him. Myha’la, Cary Elwes, John Robinson and Al Pacino round out the cast of the film, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival to strong reviews and an 11-minute standing ovation.Variety’s review said the movie nailed its “freak existential hair-trigger suspense.”
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Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan: Ghost War (May 20 on Prime Video)
Image Credit: ©MGM/Courtesy Everett Collection John Krasinski is back as Jack Ryan after his Prime Video action series ended after four seasons back in 2023. The movie brings back several of his “Jack Ryan” TV co-stars, including Wendell Pierce as James Greer, the deputy director of the CIA; Michael Kelly as Mike November, a former CIA station chief turned a private security contractor; and Betty Gabriel as Elizabeth Wright, the CIA director. The cast also includes Sienna Miller, Mckenna Bridger, Max Beesley, Douglas Hodge and JJ Feild.
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Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair (May 22 on Peacock)
Image Credit: ©Lions Gate/Courtesy Everett Collection Quentin Tarantino‘s “Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair,” which combines both “Kill Bill Vol. 1” and “Kill Bill Vol. 2” into a single movie, received its first-ever nationwide theatrical release last December and now hits streaming via Peacock. “The Whole Bloody Affair” removes the cliffhanger ending from “Vol. 1” and the recap opener of “Vol. 2,” bringing the pair together as a single cohesive storyline and adding a 7 and 1/2-minute animated sequence that Tarantino originally cut out. For “Kill Bill” fans who want to stream even more Tarantino movies, the director’s “Death Proof,” “Django Unchained, “The Hateful Eight,” “Inglourious Basterds,” “Jackie Brown” and “Reservoir Dogs” also debut on Peacock on the same day.
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Swapped (May 1 on Netflix)
Image Credit: ©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection Newly-crowned Oscar winner Michael B. Jordan teams up with “Ted Lasso” favorite Juno Temple for the Netflix animated original movie “Swapped.” The logline reads: “A buddy comedy about a small woodland creature (Jordan) and a majestic bird (Temple) — natural sworn enemies of The Valley — who suddenly swap bodies and must team up (while walking in each other’s feathers and fur) to survive the wildest adventure of their lives.” Tracy Morgan, Cedric the Entertainer and Justina Machado also lend their voices to the family movie.
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Arco (May 22 on Hulu)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection The French animated feature “Arco” was nominated at the Oscars earlier this year. “Arco” is a fantasy adventure film directed by French illustrator Ugo Bienvenu in his feature debut. Using 2D animation, the story follows a 10-year-old boy who travels back in time from an idyllic future to a more perilous past, where he teams up with a young girl and a robot to return home and save the world.
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Remarkably Bright Creatures (May 8 on Netflix)
Image Credit: ©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection Shelby Van Pelt’s beloved novel “Remarkably Bright Creatures” becomes a Netflix original movie just in time for Mother’s Day weekend. Sally Field headlines the drama as a widow who works at a local aquarium. She forms an unlikely bond with a Giant Pacific Octopus and a wayward young man who comes to town in search of family. The supporting cast includes Lewis Pullman, Colm Meaney, Joan Chen, Kathy Baker, Beth Grant, Sofia Black D’Elia and Alfred Molina.
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Propeller One-Way Night Coach (May 29 on Apple TV+)
Image Credit: ©Apple TV/Courtesy Everett Collection John Travolta wrote and directed “Propeller One-Way Night Coach,” which debuts on Apple TV this month after world premiering out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival. The movie is an adaptation of Travolta’s childrens’ book that was published in 1997. “Propeller One-Way Night Coach” unfolds in the golden age of aviation as young airplane enthusiast Jeff (Clark Shotwell) and his mother (Kelly Eviston-Quinnett) set off on a one-way, cross-country odyssey to Hollywood.
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Ladies First (May 22 on Netflix)
Image Credit: ©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection Sacha Baron Cohen and Rosamund Pike go head-to-head in the Netflix original comedy “Ladies First.” The logline reads: “A ladies man finds his life upended when he wakes up in a parallel world dominated by women. With the rules of engagement changed, he goes head-to-head with a fiery female colleague in a playful satire about what happens when the script is flipped.” The supporting cast includes Charles Dance, Emily Mortimer, Tom Davis, Richard E. Grant and Fiona Shaw.
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Greenland 2: Migration (May 8 on HBO Max)
Image Credit: ©Lions Gate/Courtesy Everett Collection Gerard Butler’s “Greenland 2: Migration” is set in the aftermath of a comet strike that decimated most of the earth. The Garrity family, played by Gerard Butler, Morena Baccarin and Roman Griffith Davis, are forced to leave the safety of their bunker in Greenland to traverse a shattered world in search of a new home. The movie is the sequel to 2020’s disaster thriller, “Greenland,” which debuted on demand because of COVID.
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Lurker (May 15 on HBO Max)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Variety film critic Owen Gleiberman named “Lurker” the seventh best movie of 2025, and now it becomes available to stream on HBO Max this month after debuting on Mubi: “In Alex Russell’s sleek and unnerving parable of the pathology of celebrity, Théodore Pellerin, as a hanger-on who will do anything to hang on, gives a performance that lays bare the reptilian underside of wide-eyed fan worship… ‘Lurker’ has been made with the craft of early vintage Polanski crossed with an up-to-the-minute awareness of what pop culture has come to mean when the famous and their fans are now chasing each other’s tails.”
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The Crash (May 15 on Netflix)
Image Credit: Netflix Per Netflix: “On the morning of July 31, 2022, the community of Strongsville, Ohio, woke up to horrifying news: A car traveling 100 miles per hour had crashed into the side of a brick building, killing two best friends riding inside. The driver, 17-year-old Mackenzie Shirilla, was taking her boyfriend, Dom, and his friend, Davion, home from a high school graduation party when the crash occurred. As detectives combed through the wreckage, what first appeared to be a tragic accident began to look like the scene of a calculated crime. Premiering on May 15, the new documentary ‘The Crash’ dives deep into the volatile relationship at the center of this ill-fated trio.”
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We Bury the Dead (May 8 on Hulu)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection The survival thriller “We Bury the Dead” stars Daisy Ridley as Ava, a desperate woman whose husband is missing in the aftermath of a catastrophic military experiment. Hoping to find him alive, Ava joins a “body retrieval unit,” but her search takes a chilling turn when the corpses she’s burying start showing signs of life. Alongside Ridley, the film star Brenton Thwaites, Mark Coles Smith and Matt Whelan.
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Miss You, Love You (May 29 on HBO Max)
Image Credit: HBO Max Per HBO Max: “A blunt, grieving widow, Diane Patterson (Allison Janney) is forced to plan her husband’s funeral with a total stranger: her estranged son’s assistant, Jamie Simms (Andrew Rannells). As they fumble through grief and their strange, darkly funny circumstances, buried secrets and long-held resentments surface, but their partnership becomes an unlikely conduit for connection, laughter, and healing for this mother and her unexpected surrogate son.”
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The Home (May 22 on Hulu)
Image Credit: ©Miramax/Courtesy Everett Collection Pete Davidson’s horror movie “The Home” follows former foster child Max, who begins working at a retirement home and quickly discovers that its residents and caretakers are harboring sinister secrets. The film comes from James DeMonaco, the filmmaker behind the commercially successful “The Purge” franchise. John Glover and Bruce Altman co-star.
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Meet the Parents Trilogy (May 1 on Netflix)
Image Credit: ©Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection With Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro reuniting for this fall’s “Focker In-Law,” which adds Ariana Grande into the franchise’s mix, now is the perfect time for the original “Meet the Parents” trilogy to arrive on Netflix for summer streaming. The franchise kicked off in 2000 with “Meet the Parents,” a comedy blockbuster with $330 million worldwide. The 2004 sequel was even more of a hit with $522 million. 2010’s “Little Fockers” cooled things down with $310 million, but expectations are high for the fourth entry this November.
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The Black Phone 2 (May 16 on Netflix)
Image Credit: ©Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection “Director Scott Derrickson brings an evocative analog texture to keep the scares coming from Ethan Hawke’s (now-dead) devil-masked killer,” reads Variety’s review of “The Black Phone 2,” which grossed $132 million at the worldwide box office last year. The horror movie arrives on Netflix this month after originally streaming on Peacock. “Black Phone 2″ became a much-needed win for Blumhouse and one of its highest-grossing movies of last year after a string of films— “Wolf Man” ($34 million), “The Woman in the Yard” ($23 million), “Drop” ($28 million), and “M3GAN 2.0” ($39 million) — flatlined in theaters.
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Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie (May 22 on Netflix)
Image Credit: ©DreamWorks/Courtesy Everett Collection The popular kids series “Gabby’s Dollhouse” is sure to bring in family audiences when it debuts on Netflix this month. From Variety’s review: “‘Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie’ is about the textures — the fun of spending 90 minutes in a child’s universe that feels like it wasn’t so much animated as baked. Going into the movie, I knew nothing of the DreamWorks Animation series that premiered on Netflix in 2021. But by the time ‘Gabby’s Dollhouse’ was over, I felt like the Gabby Cats were my friends, too.”
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Room to Move (May 27 on Netflix)
The documentary “Room to Move” follows dancer Jenn Freeman over a five-year period during which she develops an understanding of herself after a late-in-life autism diagnosis and creates a one-woman dance performance, “Is It Thursday Yet?” Halfway through the doc, filmmaker Alexander Hammer unexpectedly becomes a subject of his own after he is also diagnosed with autism.
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‘One Battle After Another’ (May 23 on Prime Video)
Image Credit: ©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection Paul Thomas Anderson’s Oscar winner “One Battle After Another” becomes available on Prime Video this month at no extra cost to subscribers after making its streaming debut on HBO Max. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio as a washed-up revolutionary who’s forced to set out on a mission to save his daughter (Chase Infiniti) from an old foe (Sean Penn), the movie earned $212 million million at the worldwide box office last fall and went on to score 13 Oscar nominations and six wins, including best picture and best director.
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