HBO Max may have reclaimed its original name this summer, but it can’t hold on to all of its films from other studios.
In just under a week, several of HBO Max’s best movies will be departing for other streaming services.
The Watch With Us team has taken a look at the impending departures and narrowed your options down to the three must-watch HBO Max movies leaving in August.
Our picks include a critically acclaimed sci-fi drama, a fantastic comic book flick and a movie by a modern auteur filmmaker.
28 Must-Watch Movies on HBO Max to Stream Right Now (August 2025)
‘The Martian’ (2015)
Novelist Andy Weir infused The Martian with a lot of real science that enhanced the drama of an astronaut stranded on Mars. Director Ridley Scott may have taken some liberties with the film adaptation, but it’s still a thrilling story of survival. While exploring Mars on a space mission in 2035, Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is accidentally left for dead when a storm threatens his crew.
That leaves Mark alone on the planet, facing a lack of water, food and resources unless he can come up with a way to survive long enough for a rescue mission. Meanwhile, Commander Melissa Lewis (Jessica Chastain) and the rest of her crew learn that Mark is still alive on their way back to Earth. But going back to get him may put the ship and their entire mission at risk.
The Martian is streaming on HBO Max until August 31.
‘Hellboy’ (2004)
If you’ve seen the most recent Hellboy movies, then watching the original film is like night and day. Writer and director Guillermo del Toro did it better in 2004 with Hellboy, a movie that practically bursts with imagination. Ron Perlman plays Hellboy, a demon from Hell who is also the adopted son of Professor Trevor Bruttenholm (John Hurt). Hellboy was meant to be an instrument of evil, but the Professor raised him to be good as a member of the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense.
9 Must-Watch Sci-Fi TV Shows on HBO Max Right Now (August 2025)
New BPRD recruit John Myers (Rupert Evans) joins the team of Hellboy, a pyrokinetic named Liz Sherman (Selma Blair) and the amphibious man, Abe Sapien (Doug Jones). Meanwhile, the evil Grigori Rasputin (Karel Roden) is resurrected with a plan to use Hellboy’s love for Liz to manipulate him into ending the world.
Hellboy is streaming on HBO Max until August 31.
‘Inherent Vice’ (2014)
Paul Thomas Anderson‘s adaptation of Thomas Pynchon‘s Inherent Vice is one of the few hippie noir stories to make it to the big screen. That may be one of the reasons why this film has such a bizarre tone compared to other noir movies. In the ’70s, Larry “Doc” Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix) is a private investigator who is asked by his former girlfriend, Shasta Fay Hepworth (Katherine Waterston), to protect her current lover, Mickey Wolfmann (Eric Roberts), from his family.
Before long, Doc is swept up in murder and intrigue as neither Shasta nor Mickey can be found. Doc is also hounded by Lieutenant Christian F. “Bigfoot” Bjornsen (Josh Brolin), who keeps pressing him for answers he simply doesn’t have. Although Doc doesn’t really know what he’s gotten himself into, his only way out is to unravel the mystery.
Inherent Vice is streaming on HBO Max until August 31.
