What's Coming Out This Week In Theaters and On Streaming, VOD & TV: August 17 thru August 23, 2026
All the 🎥 films and 📺 shows hitting theaters and streaming this week!
It’s the middle of August, and you’d think by now the movie and TV slate would be starting to wind down. But nope. There’s still quite a bit left on the calendar, with a surprisingly wide variety of things to choose from.
And while some of the summer’s biggest movies are still making waves at the box office… for instance, the latest Spider-Man movie seems unstoppable at the moment, while Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is still drawing huge box office numbers, there are plenty of new releases coming in this weekend hoping to make a dent of their own, and maybe even take the top spot.
TV, meanwhile, seems to be taking a little bit of a breather this week, with only a handful of new shows arriving. So if you’ve been meaning to catch up on something, this might be a good week to do it.
And like always, we’ve rounded up most of the major releases coming over the next few days, whether they’re hitting theaters, streaming, VOD, or TV. So scroll down and take a look. We’re sure there’s something here that’ll catch your eye.
🎥 In Theaters This Week
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🎥 Your Letter
(Mon, Aug 17th — Crunchyroll Anime Nights theatrical event)
After defending a classmate and becoming the target of bullies, So-ri transfers to a quiet countryside school, where she discovers a letter left in her desk by Ho-yeon, the student who sat there before her. Adapted by director Kim Yong-hwan from Hyeon A Cho’s webtoon, this South Korean animated coming-of-age story follows a trail of letters that leads So-ri beyond isolation and toward unexpected friendship and a fresh start ahead.
🎥 The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: Texas Chain Saw Day
(Tues, Aug 18th — one-night theatrical rerelease)
August 18 belongs to Leatherface. Dark Sky Films and Fathom Entertainment are bringing Tobe Hooper’s restored horror landmark back to theaters nationwide for “Texas Chain Saw Day,” commemorating the date the film’s story begins in 1973. Five young travelers crossing rural Texas stumble into the home of a cannibalistic family, where an encounter with the chainsaw-wielding Leatherface turns an ordinary weekend trip into a nightmare of epic proportions.
🎥 Insidious: Out of the Further
(Fri, Aug 21st — wide release)
Amelia Eve stars as Gemma, a young mother who discovers she can enter the purgatorial realm that has haunted the Insidious universe. The problem? She can also bring its inhabitants back with her. Once the demons understand what she can do, Gemma and her daughter become the center of a new demonic invasion. With Lin Shaye returning as paranormal investigator Elise Rainier, escaping The Further just became the easy part. It’s now about keeping what’s inside it from escaping into our world.
🎥 Mutiny
(Fri, Aug 21st — wide release)
Jason Statham on a cargo ship full of bad guys is pretty much the whole sales pitch. Here, Statham stars as a former London cop working security for a billionaire who is framed after his boss is murdered, sending him on the run and straight into an international conspiracy. Annabelle Wallis, Roland Møller, and Adrian Lester co-star, with Plane director Jean-François Richet behind the camera. What starts as a mission to clear his name quickly turns the ship into a floating battlefield, giving Statham plenty of room to do what Statham does best: kick ass and take names!
🎥 Spa Weekend
(Fri, Aug 21st — wide release)
Leslie Mann, Isla Fisher, Michelle Buteau, and Anna Faris star as lifelong friends who head to a luxury spa after careers, relationships, families, and everyday exhaustion push their bond to the breaking point. This raunchy midlife comedy turns a weekend of self-care into some seriously overdue fun. The facials and massage may be optional; the meltdown is clearly included.
🎥 Hot Spot
(Fri, Aug 21st — wide release)
In this AI dystopian thriller, Polish actor Andrzej Konopka stars as a private investigator whose latest case pulls him into a larger conspiracy involving citywide surveillance and an AI system that may be distorting more than the truth. Directed by cult Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Smoczyńska (The Lure), with Noomi Rapace co-starring as a mysterious refugee labeled a “cyber witch” for a strange ability that may offer hope to a rising rebellion. It’s a cyberpunk mystery filtered through an ’80s retro-tinged fever dream where technology is all-consuming as well as impossible to trust.
🎥 Tony
(Fri, Aug 21st — expands wide)
Before Anthony Bourdain became a culinary icon, he was merely a 19-year-old aspiring writer searching for direction. Dominic Sessa stars in Matt Johnson’s 1976-set origin story, which sends the young Tony to Provincetown for a summer job at a Cape Cod restaurant. Hired by a commanding chef (Antonio Banderas), he is pulled into the frantic, profane, and seductive world of professional kitchens, where pressure, precision, and hard work begin reshaping his own ambitions. What starts as seasonal work quickly becomes the spark that changes the course of his life.
🎥 It Ends
(Fri, Aug 21st — limited release)
One wrong turn can sometimes last forever. In this existential horror thriller, Phinehas Yoon, Akira Jackson, Noah Toth, and Mitchell Cole play four recent college graduates whose late-night food run lands them on an endless two-lane road, where the surrounding woods hide otherworldly threats. They soon realize they’re trapped on a road to nowhere... one that may never end.
🎥 The Magic Faraway Tree
(Fri, Aug 21st — limited release)
Claire Foy and Andrew Garfield star as parents who move their family to the English countryside, where their young children discover a magical tree leading to ever-changing worlds above the clouds. Each climb brings new wonders, dangers, and storybook surprises, turning a family adventure into an extraordinary journey to places where anything can happen. Based on Enid Blyton’s beloved children’s books, this whimsical fantasy asks what happens when imagination becomes a place you can actually visit.
🎥 Dreams in Nightmares
(Fri, Aug 21st — limited release)
Denée Benton stars as Z, whose life takes an unexpected turn after a layoff sends her across the Midwest in search of a friend who has vanished off the grid. Joined by her two closest friends, the trip becomes something larger than a search for answers. Co-starring Mars Storm Rucker, Dezi Bing, Sasha Compère, and Jasmin Savoy Brown, writer-director Shatara Michelle Ford’s tender road movie follows Z as she confronts love, identity, belonging, and what it means to truly live on her own terms.
🎥 Paper Flowers
(Fri, Aug 21st — limited release)
Based on Shalin Shah’s true life story and his viral essay “Thank You, Cancer,” this life-affirming drama stars Kapil Talwalkar as Shalin, a 22-year-old USC graduate whose promising future is upended by a diagnosis of rare, aggressive cancer. As illness reshapes his relationships with family, friends, and his girlfriend, Shalin begins searching for meaning in the time he has left. Also starring Olivia Liang, Karan Soni, Faran Tahir, and Meera Simhan, director Mahesh Pailoor’s biographical drama finds purpose in gratitude, love, and the choices we make in a time of great uncertainty.
🎥 Blood Shine
(Fri, Aug 21st — limited release; in select theaters)
David Call stars as troubled horror filmmaker Brighton, whose retreat to upstate New York takes a terrifying turn when he encounters Clara (played by Emily Bennett, who also co-wrote and co-directed with partner Justin Brooks), a religious zealot convinced that suffering can transform him into a god. Taken captive and subjected to sadistic rituals, Brighton is forced into a brutal test of faith where pain is treated as a pathway to divine transformation.
🎥 Bury the Devil
(Fri, Aug 21st — limited release, in select theaters)
Shot in real time as a single continuous take, horror filmmaker Adam O’Brien sets the stage for a nighttime nightmare as a hospice nurse (Emmanuelle Lussier Martinez) begins her overnight shift at an isolated old house, where a dementia patient (Dawn Ford) starts behaving in frighteningly unfamiliar ways. Trapped inside as a demonic presence seeps through the cracks of the home, the caregiver must determine what is real, who can be trusted, and whether either of them will survive until morning.
🎥 Never Stop Chasing
(Fri, Aug 21st — limited release)
Storm chaser Reed Timmer makes a living driving toward the weather everyone else is trying to escape. With his crew and the armored Dominator 3 truck, he pursues some of the world’s most violent tornadoes, getting as close as possible. The documentary looks beyond the adrenaline and spectacle to the obsession, friendships, danger, and human cost behind storm chasing, turning each pursuit into an intimate portrait of the people willing to risk everything for one more look inside the storm.
🎥 The Last Picture Shows
(Fri, Aug 21st — limited release; in L.A.)
Small-town movie theaters are becoming a rare breed these days. This indie documentary travels from one surviving cinema house to another, looking at the theaters that once served as gathering places, local landmarks, and shared venues for movie-loving communities. Now, mostly empty marquees and vacant seats tell one side of the story, while the owners and communities still fighting to keep the lights on tell the other. This road-trip love letter looks back at a time when going to the movies meant more than watching a film... it meant experiencing something together.
🎥 The Marching Band
(Fri, Aug 21st — limited release; in N.Y.)
Music becomes common ground between two brothers who never knew each other existed. Benjamin Lavernhe stars as a celebrated orchestra conductor who discovers his long-lost sibling (Pierre Lottin) is a school cafeteria worker and trombonist in a local marching band. Emmanuel Courcol directs this French comedy-drama about two very different lives brought together by an unexpected family connection, with music giving them a way to bridge the years they lost.
🎥 Castle in the Sky: 40th Anniversary
(Sat, August 22nd thru Wed, August 26th — via Fathom Entertainment screenings)
Hayao Miyazaki’s animated adventure returns for its 40th anniversary, with Pazu and Sheeta racing toward the legendary floating city of Laputa while pirates, soldiers, and government agents pursue them. At the center of it all is Sheeta’s crystal and the power hidden within it.
🎦 Streaming This Week
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🎦 Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing
(Wed, Aug 19th — premiering on Netflix)
Following the death of Boeing whistleblower John Barnett, filmmaker Rory Kennedy returns to the aviation giant she investigated in Downfall: The Case Against Boeing. With producing partner Mark Bailey, Kennedy brings forward new voices from inside the company alongside footage and testimony examining allegations around manufacturing culture, cost-cutting, and weakened quality control. This updated investigation asks what has changed since the earlier film, and whether meaningful accountability has followed.
🎦 Novak Djokovic: The Wolf in Winter
(Thurs, Aug 20th — premiering on Prime Video)
Amid recent health concerns, tennis legend Novak Djokovic steps into the spotlight away from the court in this feature-length sports documentary from director Jason Hehir. Built around behind-the-scenes access, the film looks at Djokovic’s career, legacy, and the competitive drive that continues to define the later stage of his time in professional tennis.
🎦 We Are Pat
(Thurs, Aug 20th — streaming on Peacock)
Some punchlines don’t age well, but sometimes the joke changes with the times. Director Rowan Haber revisits Saturday Night Live’s “It’s Pat” through today’s conversations around gender, comedy, queer identity, and representation. Featuring Julia Sweeney, the SNL comedian behind the iconic character, alongside a lineup of comics and cultural voices, this Tribeca Films documentary turns a familiar pop-culture oddity into a sharper look at how comedy evolves.
🎦 Passenger
(Thurs, Aug 20th — streaming on Paramount+)
The open road turns into a dead-end nightmare in this supernatural horror thriller from horror director André Øvredal. Jacob Scipio and Lou Llobell star as a van-life couple whose dream getaway spirals after they witness a deadly roadside accident and find themselves stalked by a demonic presence that refuses to let them outrun it. Melissa Leo co-stars as a fellow traveler who knows the road hides something far worse than bad directions.
🎦 My Husband’s Sister
(Fri, Aug 21st — premiering on Tubi)
Mikhail Keize stars as Liam, a reformed con artist whose second chance begins to collapse when a murderous figure from his past targets the woman who helped him start over. With Marcia Harvey, Joyce Glenn, and Tina Fears co-starring, this Tubi Original turns a household into a dangerous web of hidden identities and old crimes... and a suspenseful fight over whether one’s past can ever really let go.
🎦 Mother Mary
(Fri, Aug 21st — streaming on HBO Max)
Anne Hathaway stars as a pop icon in freefall who retreats to a rural German farmhouse to reunite with her estranged friend and costume designer (Michaela Coel) to create a dress meant to mark a bold comeback. But as old wounds reopen and the creative process turns combative, visually inventive filmmaker David Lowery shapes this surreal, music-laced drama into a psychological unraveling where identity, ego, and art become impossible to separate.
🎦 She Dances
(Fri, Aug 21st — streaming on Peacock)
Steve Zahn hits the road with his real-life daughter Audrey Zahn in this emotional family dramedy about a divorced father trying to reconnect with his teenage daughter on the way to a regional dance competition. Directed by actor Rick Gomez from a script co-written with Zahn, the film co-stars Ethan Hawke, Mackenzie Ziegler, Sonequa Martin-Green, and Rosemarie DeWitt. Sometimes the hardest road trip is the one where the real destination is forgiveness.
🎦 Rosebush Pruning
(Fri, Aug 21st — streaming on MUBI)
Jamie Bell stars as the estranged black sheep of a wealthy, dysfunctional family (Callum Turner, Riley Keough, and Lukas Gage) who returns home with his new girlfriend (Elle Fanning). What begins as an uneasy family dinner quickly becomes a pressure cooker of buried resentment, manipulation, and psychological chaos. With Tracy Letts as the domineering, sharp-tongued patriarch, this homecoming makes family feel less like a warm hug and more like a knife in the back. Loosely inspired by Marco Bellocchio’s Fists in the Pocket, director Karim Aïnouz (Firebrand) and The Lobster co-writer Efthimis Filippou turn family dysfunction into a warning that sometimes the people closest to you can do the most damage.
🎦 I Swear
(Sat, Aug 22nd — streaming on Netflix)
BAFTA winner Robert Aramayo delivers a raw, transformative performance in this award-winning true-story drama, playing John Davidson, a young Scotsman whose severe Tourette syndrome turns everyday life into an unpredictable battle as he comes of age in 1980s Scotland. With Maxine Peake as his fiercely protective guardian and supporting turns from Shirley Henderson and Peter Mullan, the struggle shifts from suppression to self-acceptance, pushing him to embrace his voice rather than hide it.
🎦 The Christophers
(Sat, Aug 22nd — streaming on Hulu)
A reclusive pop art painter (Ian McKellen) becomes the centerpiece of a quiet con when his estranged children enlist a skilled restorer (Michaela Coel) to secretly finish his abandoned paintings before passing them off as rediscovered works. Reuniting director Steven Soderbergh with writer Ed Solomon, this art-world drama turns questions of legacy and authorship into a sly, ticking-clock scheme where the truth may be the most valuable forgery of all.
✅ On VOD This Week
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✅ Toy Story 5
(Tues, Aug 18th — on VOD/Digital)
The toys are back, and this time the enemy may be progress itself. Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Jessie, and the rest of Bonnie’s toys find themselves facing Lilypad, a cheerful Wi-Fi-enabled smart tablet that instantly grabs Bonnie’s total attention. Directed by Pixar vet Andrew Stanton, with Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, and Joan Cusack returning alongside Greta Lee, Melissa Villaseñor, Craig Robinson, Conan O’Brien, and others in the voice cast, Pixar’s latest sequel once again turns a child’s playroom into a bitter battlefield of relevance, where sometimes the toy with the most wear and tear still has the most heart.
✅ Rose of Nevada
(Tues, Aug 18th — on VOD/Digital)
A vanished fishing boat returns from nowhere, and that’s only the beginning of the problem. Callum Turner and George MacKay star as desperate men who take jobs aboard a vessel that mysteriously reappears decades after disappearing at sea. Writer-director Mark Jenkin’s eerie maritime thriller pushes its crew into a time-bending mystery where memory, fate, and folklore start pulling in the same dangerous direction.
✅ Horsegirls
(Tues, Aug 18th — on VOD/Digital)
Lillian Carrier stars as Margarita, a 22-year-old woman with autism who finds freedom in the wonderfully specific world of hobbyhorsing. As her mother’s illness returns, that passion becomes more than an escape... it becomes a declaration of independence. Written and directed by first-time feature filmmaker Lauren Meyering, this heartfelt debut turns an unlikely arena into a moving story about family, self-determination, and letting go.
✅ Yellow Eyes
(Tues, Aug 18th — on VOD/Digital)
Michael Kunicki stars as Brad, whose discovery of a strange cursed idol leaves him increasingly under the grip of a sinister entity while the people around him struggle to understand what is happening. Directed by Jesse Korman and produced by Joe Swanberg, this supernatural horror thriller builds its threat around demonic possession and the fear that whatever Brad has uncovered may already be consuming him.
✅ The Kung Fu Kid
(Tues, Aug 18th — on VOD/Digital)
In this animated martial-arts comedy, a rural teenager heads to Shanghai with more than a trophy on the line. Hoping to pay his father’s medical debt with the winnings, he joins a local kung fu gym and enters Shanghai Fight Night, where elite competitors bring fighting styles from around the world into the ring. The film turns its underdog tournament into a clash between modern fighting styles and Chinese martial-arts tradition, where discipline, technique, and heart may still count for something.
✅ Atlas King
(Fri, Aug 21st — on VOD/Digital)
Michael Bisping stars as Atlas King, an MMA legend who returns home for his best friend’s funeral and finds the town controlled by local crime boss Clay Emerson (Cuba Gooding Jr.). When his friend’s son Tommy is pulled into underground fighting and a heist, Atlas is forced back into the violent world he thought he had escaped. This indie action thriller suggests that no matter how many fights you win, the biggest fight might be the one waiting for you back home.
✅ Blood Shine
(Fri, Aug 21st — on VOD/Digital)
David Call stars as troubled horror filmmaker Brighton, whose retreat to upstate New York takes a terrifying turn when he encounters Clara (played by Emily Bennett, who also co-wrote and co-directed with partner Justin Brooks), a religious zealot convinced that suffering can transform him into a god. Taken captive and subjected to sadistic rituals, Brighton is forced into a brutal test of faith where pain is treated as a pathway to divine transformation.
✅ Bury the Devil
(Fri, Aug 21st — on VOD/Digital)
Shot in real time as a single continuous take, horror filmmaker Adam O’Brien sets the stage for a nighttime nightmare as a hospice nurse (Emmanuelle Lussier Martinez) begins her overnight shift at an isolated old house, where a dementia patient (Dawn Ford) starts behaving in frighteningly unfamiliar ways. Trapped inside as a demonic presence seeps through the cracks of the home, the caregiver must determine what is real, who can be trusted, and whether either of them will survive until morning.
✅ Peter Asher: Everywhere Man
(Fri, Aug 21st — on VOD/Digital)
Some music careers happen center stage, while others quietly shape everything around them. This documentary looks back at the life and career of Peter Asher, from his early pop-music days to his influential work as a producer and manager. With Paul McCartney, James Taylor, and Linda Ronstadt among the film’s voices, it traces a career woven through several major chapters of music history.
📺 On TV This Week
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📺 It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Season 18
(Mon, Aug 17th — on FXX / Hulu)
If you were looking for maturity at Paddy’s Pub, you’ve come to the wrong place. Charlie, Mac, Dennis, Dee, and Frank return for another season of selfish schemes involving inheritance, automation, conspiracy theories, sobriety culture, school, and a Renaissance Faire. With Charlie Day, Rob Mac, Glenn Howerton, Kaitlin Olson, and Danny DeVito back in action, Season 18 proves that after nearly two decades, the Gang remains impressively committed to learning absolutely nothing from experience… or each other.
📺 Average Joe: Season 2
(Wed, Aug 19th — on Paramount+)
Deon Cole returns as Joe Washington, a Philly plumber whose attempt to reclaim a normal life ends when a new Russian-mob threat puts his family in danger. Reuniting with his crew, Joe is forced to follow a trail from Pittsburgh to Cape Town, where family secrets and dangerous enemies await. With Katlego Lebogang and Hakeem Kae-Kazim joining the action, Season 2 sends an “Average Joe“ back into extraordinary trouble, where every move leads to another bad situation.
📺 Lion
(Wed, Aug 19th — on National Geographic; Next Day on Disney+ / Hulu)
From executive producers Jon Favreau and Mike Gunton, this National Geographic nature documentary special follows Kio, a lion cub growing from vulnerable youth into a contender for leadership. Filmed over four years, Kio experiences loss, exile, and family bonds as fierce rivals test his endurance and instinct, resulting in a coming-of-age story shaped by the uncertainty of the wild. With Oscar-winner Hans Zimmer contributing to the score, Kio’s journey becomes the real-life making of a king.
📺 Outer Banks: Season 5 (Final Season)
(Thurs, Aug 20th — on Netflix)
One last treasure hunt begins with a debt the Pogues cannot leave unpaid. Reeling from a personal tragedy, John B (Chase Stokes), Sarah (Madelyn Cline), Kiara (Madison Bailey), Pope (Jonathan Daviss), and Cleo (Carlacia Grant) chase revenge, redemption, and a stolen artifact that could change their fortunes. With rivals circling closer, the friends form an uneasy alliance with Rafe (Drew Starkey). Season 5, the final season, sends the Pogues into one last race for a future they’ve always fought to claim.
📺 Blood Sacrifice
(Thurs, Aug 20th — on Netflix)
When two Swedish police officers are lured to an empty house in the Stockholm archipelago and murdered, local law enforcement becomes the target of a calculated killing campaign. Investigator Thomas (Jakob Oftebro) is forced to work with Alfred (Peter Andersson), his estranged father and former detective, as they race to identify the killer before another officer becomes the next victim. Created by Hijack creator George Kay and directed by Kristoffer Nyholm, this five-part Swedish thriller turns a murder investigation into a ticking-clock race where old family wounds may be as dangerous as the killer they’re hunting.
📺 Conan O’Brien Must Go: Season 3
(Fri, Aug 21st — on HBO / HBO Max)
In this new four-episode third season of his hit travel show, Conan O’Brien resumes his unorthodox international outreach with four new countries to visit and apparently no plans to preserve his dignity. Each trip begins with a fan connection from his podcast before expanding into improvised encounters with local culture, food, and customs. Conan is less a travel guide than a willing participant in making himself the butt of the joke. A clown, if you will, with a heavily stamped passport.
📺 Stillwater: Season 5
(Fri, Aug 21st — on Apple TV)
Stillwater, the wise panda, returns alongside siblings Karl, Addy, and Michael for five new heartfelt stories about everyday frustrations, fears, and feelings that can seem enormous from a child’s point of view. Based on Jon J. Muth’s Zen books, this animated series uses patient questions and gentle humor to show how a little mindfulness can create space between feeling something and reacting to it.
📺 The Dynasty: UConn Huskies
(Fri, Aug 21st — on Apple TV)
Twelve national championships do not just happen by accident. This three-part sports docuseries traces four decades of UConn women’s basketball under legendary head coach Geno Auriemma, using archival footage and voices from generations of players, coaches, rivals, and alumni to chart the program’s rise from overlooked contender to college basketball powerhouse. Featuring Sue Bird, Paige Bueckers, Rebecca Lobo, Maya Moore, Breanna Stewart, and Diana Taurasi, the series offers a firsthand look at the players who helped build a dynasty.
