5 Movies Coming in Late August That Are Worth Your Time (and 2 You Can Skip)

August started strong. The End of Oak Street gave us David Robert Mitchell doing what he does best, Insidious finally found its footing again, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day turned the summer into a proper blockbuster season. But the last two weeks of August? That’s where studios dump the movies they’re either very confident about or not confident about at all. There’s rarely middle ground.

This year, though, late August is surprisingly stacked. Ridley Scott is back. The Looney Tunes movie that Warner Bros. tried to delete from existence is finally happening. And there’s a Jason Statham vehicle that might actually be more than just punching. Here are five movies worth your time, and two you can probably skip.

The Dog Stars (Aug. 28) — See This

Ridley Scott directing a post-apocalyptic survival thriller with Jacob Elordi, Margaret Qualley, and Josh Brolin sounds like the kind of thing that either becomes a quiet masterpiece or a gorgeous mess. Based on Peter Heller’s 2012 novel, the story follows a man living in a small airplane hangar in what remains of Colorado after a flu pandemic has wiped out most of humanity. He’s got a dog, a neighbor with a dark past, and a radio that picks up a woman’s voice from somewhere in the distance.

The setup is familiar territory for post-apocalyptic fiction, but Heller’s novel earned its reputation by focusing on the mundane reality of survival — the boredom, the routines, the small acts of maintenance that keep you alive when there’s no society left to support you. Scott is a director who thrives on texture and atmosphere, and this material gives him room to work with both. The film reportedly clocks in around 140 minutes, which is either a sign of confidence in the story’s pacing or a warning that Scott couldn’t find the edit button.

Scott hasn’t made a truly great film in a while — The Last Duel was solid, Napoleon was bloated, and House of Gucci was a campy misfire. But this has the right ingredients: a tight source novel, a cast that can actually act, and a director who’s at his best when the scope is smaller and the stakes are personal. The $18M to $23M opening range suggests 20th Century Studios thinks this has legs, and with Scott’s name attached, it should.

The R rating is a good sign. Scott’s best work — Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator — has never shied away from violence or darkness, and a post-apocalyptic story that pulls its punches would be a waste of everyone’s time. If this delivers on its premise, it could be one of the more memorable entries in the genre.

Coyote vs. Acme (Aug. 28) — See This

This one has a story almost as interesting as the movie itself. Warner Bros. completed Coyote vs. Acme in 2023, then decided to shelve it entirely for a tax write-off, claiming the film wasn’t commercial enough. The backlash was immediate and loud — filmmakers, actors, and audiences united in outrage over the idea that a finished movie could simply vanish for accounting purposes. After sustained public pressure, the studio reversed course and found a new distributor in Ketchup Entertainment. Now it’s finally getting released.

The premise is simple: Wile E. Coyote sues Acme Corporation after one of their products fails to catch the Road Runner, leaving him injured and broke. John Cena plays the human lawyer who takes his case, Lana Condor is the opposing counsel, and the whole thing is apparently a surprisingly heartfelt comedy about failure, persistence, and the gap between what we’re promised and what we get.

James Gunn contributed to the screen story, which explains the tonal ambition. Gunn has a gift for finding genuine emotion inside absurd premises — see Guardians of the Galaxy, where a talking raccoon’s trauma is the emotional backbone of a $700 million blockbuster. If Coyote vs. Acme operates on a similar frequency, it could be something special.

The PG rating means it’s family-friendly, but the fact that Warner Bros. tried to bury it suggests there’s more going on than a simple cartoon adaptation. At $12M to $18M projected opening, it’s not going to be a blockbuster, but it might be the kind of movie people discover on streaming and wonder why nobody talked about it at the time.

Spa Weekend (Aug. 21) — Maybe

Anna Faris, Isla Fisher, and Leslie Mann in a comedy from the writers of Bad Moms sounds like either a reliable crowd-pleaser or a carbon copy of every ensemble female comedy since Bridesmaids. The R rating suggests they’re going for something a bit messier than the trailer probably shows.

The directors, Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, wrote The Hangover and Bad Moms. Their track record with raunchy ensemble comedies is decent if inconsistent. Bad Moms worked because it tapped into genuine frustration about the impossible standards placed on mothers — it wasn’t just women acting out, it was women acting out because the systems around them were broken. Spa Weekend will need something more specific than “women deserve a break” to land.

The casting is interesting. Faris has been out of the spotlight for a while after her divorce from Chris Pratt and her departure from Mom. Fisher has largely done voice work and smaller projects since Crazy Rich Asians. Mann has been reliable in supporting roles but hasn’t carried a comedy lead in years. All three are talented, but the question is whether the script gives them enough to work with beyond the premise.

At $5M to $7M projected opening, this isn’t being treated as a major release. It might find its audience on streaming, where these movies tend to perform better anyway. Worth seeing if you’re in the mood for a low-commitment comedy, but don’t expect it to reinvent the genre.

Mutiny (Aug. 21) — Maybe

Jason Statham in an action thriller is about as reliable as it gets. The man has made a career out of punching people in increasingly creative ways, and Mutiny appears to be more of the same — a former special forces operative takes on a criminal organization after a personal tragedy. The formula is well-worn, but Statham’s particular brand of physical intensity and deadpan delivery keeps it from feeling stale.

Jean-François Richet is directing, which is interesting. Richet directed both Blood Father (a solid Mel Gibson revenge thriller) and the two-part Mesrine films (excellent French crime dramas that made Vincent Cassel a star). He knows how to stage action with weight and consequence, which is more than most directors working with Statham can say. The best Statham films — The Mechanic, Crank, the first Expendables — work because the action feels grounded even when the premise is absurd.

Annabelle Wallis and Roland Moller round out the cast, which suggests the supporting characters might get more to do than usual. Statham films often suffer from thin supporting casts that exist only to explain the plot between fight scenes, so a stronger ensemble could make a difference.

The $8M to $12M projection is modest, but Statham films tend to have long tails on streaming. If the action is well-choreographed and the plot doesn’t get in the way, this could be a solid Friday night watch. The R rating means they’re not cutting corners on the violence, which is exactly what you want from a Statham movie.

Mother Mary (HBO Max, Aug. 21) — See This

Anne Hathaway has had one of the best years of any actor in 2026. After The End of Oak Street, she’s back in what might be her most unusual role yet: a pop star named Mother Mary in an A24 musical drama directed by David Lowery (The Green Knight, A Ghost Story).

The movie follows Mother Mary as she prepares for a comeback performance, reconnecting with a former collaborator played by Michaela Coel. Set mostly in a single night in a barn behind an English estate, it’s described as a character piece with large-scale musical numbers and “a dash of phantasmagoria.” That combination — intimate setting, expansive musical sequences, and surrealist flourishes — sounds like exactly the kind of thing A24 was built to distribute.

Lowery is a director who works in a register that most mainstream filmmakers can’t even access. The Green Knight was a medieval fantasy that played like a mood poem, and A Ghost Story was a film about grief that used a literal ghost as its metaphor. Mother Mary seems to operate in a similar space: a story about creative reinvention told through the lens of musical performance and visual spectacle.

A24 all but abandoned this film before release, which usually means the studio lost faith in it. But A24’s track record of “abandoning” films that turn out to be excellent (see: Everything Everywhere All at Once, which A24 almost didn’t release) means this could be a sleeper hit. The fact that it’s going straight to HBO Max on Aug. 21 rather than getting a wide theatrical run suggests the studio wants to minimize risk, but that doesn’t mean the movie is bad.

The Ones You Can Skip

Cliffhanger (Aug. 28): A reboot of the 1993 Sylvester Stallone film, distributed by Row K with an $8M to $10M projection. Reboots of action films from the early ’90s have a terrible track record — remember the Point Break remake? — and the lack of a major star or director suggests this is being dumped into the last weekend of August for a reason. Unless reviews are surprisingly strong, save this one for streaming.

It Ends (Aug. 21): A Neon release with a $2M to $4M projection and a cast of mostly unknowns. Neon has a great reputation for picking up quality indie films — they distributed Parasite, Titane, and Anatomy of a Fall — but sometimes the reason a film gets a limited release and low projection is that it’s genuinely not very good. Wait for reviews before committing your Friday night.

The Bottom Line

Late August used to be a wasteland. Studios would hold their best material for September and October, leaving the last two weeks of summer for whatever they couldn’t find a better slot for. This year, it’s got a Ridley Scott film, a Looney Tunes movie with a redemption arc, a Jason Statham action film, an A24 musical, and a female ensemble comedy.

The Dog Stars and Coyote vs. Acme are the must-sees — one for the prestige crowd, one for everyone else. Mother Mary is the wildcard that could be either brilliant or baffling, and Spa Weekend and Mutiny are the reliable options if you want something lighter. Check your local listings, ignore the cliffhangers, and enjoy what might be the best late August in recent memory.