The past couple of weeks have been difficult for the box office. The likes of James Gunn and Peter Safran‘s Supergirl, Illumination‘s Minions & Monsters, and the live-action Moana movie all struggled in their theatrical debuts, showing yet again that audiences are hungry for fresh ideas. This weekend, there is almost no doubt that the biggest new arrival will be far from a disappointment, as Christopher Nolan‘s most ambitious film yet, The Odyssey, sails onto global screens. Aside from what’s going on at the box office, what else should you be watching this weekend? Here’s a list of three movies you should stream this weekend on Netflix.
Disclaimer: These titles are available on US Netflix.
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1
‘The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes’ (2023)
Rotten Tomatoes: 64% | IMDb: 6.6/10
Based on Suzanne Collins‘ books of the same name, The Hunger Games is one of the biggest movie franchises of the past two decades. In 2023, a prequel to the hugely successful original, set 64 years before Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) volunteered as tribute, arrived in the form of The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, which follows an unlikely, complicated, blossoming romance during the 10th Hunger Games.
Ahead of the release of a second prequel, Sunrise on the Reaping, this November, remind yourself of the twisting drama and dark romance of The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes this weekend. Starring the likes of Tom Blyth, Rachel Zegler, and Viola Davis, this gripping story is led by an outstanding cast packed with talent, all working at their best.
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Collider Exclusive · Oscar Best Picture Quiz Which Oscar Best Picture Is Your Perfect Movie? Parasite · Everything Everywhere · Oppenheimer · Birdman · No Country
Five Oscar Best Picture winners. Five completely different visions of what cinema can be — and what it can do to you. One of them is the film that was made for the way your mind works. Ten questions will figure out which one.
🪜Parasite
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🌀Everything Everywhere
☢️Oppenheimer
🐦Birdman
🪙No Country for Old Men
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01
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What kind of film experience do you actually want? The best movies don’t just entertain — they leave something behind.
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Which idea grabs you most in a film? Great films are driven by a central obsession. What’s yours?
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How do you like your story told? Form is content. The way a story is shaped changes what it means.
04
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What makes a truly great antagonist? The opposition defines the protagonist. What kind of opposition fascinates you?
05
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What do you want from a film’s ending? The final note is the one that lingers. What do you want it to sound like?
06
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Which setting pulls you in most? Where a film takes place shapes everything — mood, stakes, what’s even possible.
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What cinematic craft impresses you most? Every great film has a signature — a technical or artistic element that makes it unmistakable.
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What kind of main character do you root for? The protagonist is the lens. Who you choose to follow says something about you.
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How do you feel about a film that takes its time? Pace is a choice. Some films sprint; others let tension accumulate slowly, deliberately.
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What do you want to feel walking out of the cinema? The best films leave a mark. What kind of mark do you want?
The Academy Has Decided Your Perfect Film Is…
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Your answers have pointed to one Oscar Best Picture winner above all others. This is the film that was made for the way your mind works.
Parasite
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You are drawn to films that operate on multiple levels simultaneously — that begin in one genre and quietly, brilliantly migrate into another. Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite is a film about class, desire, and the architecture of inequality that manages to be darkly funny, deeply suspenseful, and genuinely shocking across a single extraordinary running time. Your instinct is for cinema that hides its true intentions until the moment it’s ready to reveal them. Parasite is exactly that — a film that rewards close attention and punishes assumptions, right up to its devastating final image.
Everything Everywhere All at Once
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You want it all — and this film gives you all of it. The Daniels’ Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of the most maximalist films ever made: action comedy, multiverse sci-fi, family drama, existential crisis, and a genuinely earned emotional core that sneaks up on you amid the chaos. You are someone who responds to ambition, who doesn’t want cinema to choose between being entertaining and being meaningful. This film refuses that choice entirely. It is overwhelming by design, and its overwhelming nature is precisely the point — because the feeling of being crushed by infinite possibility is exactly what it’s about.
Oppenheimer
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You are drawn to cinema on a grand scale — films that understand history not as a backdrop but as a force, and that place their characters inside that force and watch what happens. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is a film about the terrifying gap between what we can do and what we should do, told with the full weight of one of the most consequential moments in human history behind it. You want your films to feel important without feeling self-important — to earn their ambition through sheer craft and the gravity of their subject. Oppenheimer does exactly that. It is enormous, complicated, and refuses easy comfort.
Birdman
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You are drawn to films that foreground their own construction — that make the how of the filmmaking part of the what it’s about. Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman, shot to appear as a single continuous take, is cinema examining itself through the cracked mirror of a fading actor’s ego. You respond to formal daring, to the feeling that a film is doing something that probably shouldn’t be possible. Michael Keaton’s performance and Emmanuel Lubezki’s restless camera create something genuinely unlike anything else — a film that is simultaneously about creativity, relevance, self-destruction, and the impossibility of ever truly knowing if your work means anything at all.
No Country for Old Men
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You are drawn to cinema that trusts silence, that refuses to explain itself, and that treats dread as a form of meaning. The Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men is a film about the arrival of a new kind of evil — implacable, arbitrary, and utterly indifferent to the moral frameworks we use to make sense of the world. It is one of the most formally controlled films ever made, and its controlled restraint is what makes it so terrifying. You want your films to haunt you, not comfort you. You are not interested in resolution if resolution would be dishonest. No Country for Old Men is honest in a way that most cinema never dares to be.
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2
‘Apollo 13’ (1995)
Rotten Tomatoes: 92% | IMDb: 7.7/10
Right now, Tom Hanks is treating theatergoing audiences to acclaimed family fun in Toy Story 5. If you can’t get enough of one of Hollywood’s best, then why not catch his ambitious sci-fi gem this weekend on Netflix? Based on the book Lost Moon by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger, two-time Academy Award winner Ron Howard‘s Apollo 13 follows NASA’s attempts to return the damaged ship safely to Earth.
As grand in its scope and sentiment as it is detailed in its character drama, Apollo 13 might be one of the most underrated sci-fi movies of the ’90s. Boasting one of Hanks’ best performances, alongside Bill Paxton, Top Gun: Maverick‘s Ed Harris, Gary Sinise, and Kevin Bacon,this box office smash is just as breathtaking today as it was three decades ago when it earned a global haul of $335 million against a $65 million budget.
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3
‘High Fidelity’ (2000)
Rotten Tomatoes: 91% | IMDb: 7.4/10
We might watch movies for visual pleasure, but the art of curating a great soundtrack is also worth celebrating. With that in mind, why not indulge in one of the very best this weekend — featuring the likes of Elton John, The Velvet Underground, Queen, Elvis Costello, and more — in High Fidelity, Stephen Frears’ 2000 romantic comedy based on Nick Hornby’s 1995 novel of the same name.
The film stars John Cusack as Rob Gordon, the owner of a failing record store who believes in the traditional consumption and selling of music. After his girlfriend, Laura (Iben Hjejle), walks out on him, Rob is forced to examine what went wrong. An undeniable modern cult classic, this brilliantly funny and surprisingly touching rom-com is a must-watch for anyone with even a slight taste in music.
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