3 Best Movies To Watch On HBO Max This Weekend (May 16-17)

2 weeks ago 12

Published May 15, 2026, 11:20 AM EDT

Dalton is a freelance writer, novelist, and filmmaker from Orlando Florida. He currently lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, and pursues writing full-time. He is an avid reader, film buff, and amateur historian who also publishes novels on the side. Dalton graduated from the University of Central Florida with a BFA in Film and he often applies his industry-specific knowledge when writing about film and television. Along with his blog, Dalton's critical essays on film have been published in various places online.

There are tons of great movies on HBO Max to watch this weekend, but these three flicks should go straight to the top of your must-watch list. The premium cable network has made a mark on the streaming landscape with HBO Max, and the platform has quickly become one of the most popular options on the market today.

Unlike other streamers like Netflix or Amazon Prime Video, which offer a scattershot catalog, HBO Max's film selection is far more curated. This means that most movies on the platform are pretty good, and they have flicks going all the way back to the birth of cinema. New movies straight from theaters are also commonplace on Max, offering even more choices.

Though a glut of choices seems like a good dilemma to have, it can be difficult to actually pick movies to watch after scrolling through pages and pages of options. HBO Max's catalog changes month to month, making it even harder to pick. This weekend's curated list of movie selections fixes that issue, and serves up three gems. Most notably a classic movie with a sequel in theaters right now.

3 Blood Simple (1984)

Starting off this weekend's picks is an unorthodox selection that is worth a look. Blood Simple is the Coen brothers' first film, and concerns a jealous bar owner who hires a detective to kill his unfaithful wife and her lover. Made on a shoestring budget, the gritty neo-noir thriller is nevertheless a brilliant piece of cinema.

With an early lead performance from Frances McDormand, Blood SImple feels very much like the start of something amazing. HBO Max has the restored version of the 40-year-old hidden gem, and it looks like a million bucks on streaming. Instead of unwinding, why not spend the weekend with a dose of high tension and stellar visual filmmaking?

2 Greenland (2020)

Gerard Butler with his hand up to cover the sun's rays in Greenland

Though disaster movies are usually best enjoyed on the biggest screen possible, Greenland is an enjoyable experience on streaming too. A man must reunite with his estranged family in order to help them get to safety as a comet hurtles toward Earth. While Greenland has a lot of disastrous spectacle, it's really a story about the range of responses to such a cataclysmic catastrophe.

Released during the COVID-19 pandemic, the movie struck a nerve with general audiences. Six years later, the sleeper hit is a compelling watch that deftly balances bombastic thrills with a smaller story about the best and worst of mankind. The sequel failed to move the needle earlier in 2026, but the original has become a stalwart must-watch on HBO Max.

1 The Devil Wears Prada (2006)

The Devil Wears Prada's Anne Hathaway as Andy Sachs

20 years after the beloved comedy debuted, The Devil Wears Prada has a sequel in theaters. An aspiring fashion journalist lands a dream job as an assistant to a major editor, but her new boss makes her life a living hell. Perhaps one of the most quotable comedies of the 2000s, The Devil Wears Prada is a cornerstone of Aughts popular culture.

HBO Max carries the first film, and now's the perfect time to rewatch it or see it for the first time. The sequel is already a box office smash, and the original is shooting up the streaming charts. There's an undeniable coziness to the Anne Hathaway classic, and it's one of those movies that's tailor-made for the streaming viewer. The Devil Wears Prada can be watched again and again without getting boring.