Netflix subscribers in the U.S. have had their hands full lately, between the thriller I Will Find You locking down the No. 1 spot on the TV side for a second straight week, the live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender fighting its way up the charts, and a whole swath of new movies hitting the service that we’re still working our way through.
This week, we continue reaching into that vault, and the haul is still impressing us, ranked based on their low-high Rotten Tomatoes scores: a dystopian blockbuster starring Jennifer Lawrence that launched a massive franchise (and a thousand three-finger salutes), a white-knuckle, true-story trip around the moon, and another true story that proves that math can win baseball games.
3
The Hunger Games
The whole dystopian franchise hits Netflix this month
Jennifer Lawrence had her first Oscar nomination at the tender age of 20, for Winter’s Bone, and donned the full-body blue makeup for X-Men: First Class’s Raven right before taking on what would be one of her most iconic roles—rebellious Katniss Everdeen in Gary Ross’s The Hunger Games. Ross’s 2012 adaptation of the first book in Suzanne Collins’s bestselling original trilogy launched an epic franchise that has grossed $3.3 billion and defined a decade of dystopian blockbusters.
For the uninitiated: In the post-apocalyptic nation of Panem, the Capitol keeps its 12 districts in line with an annual televised battle royale fight to the death known as the Hunger Games. And when her little sister Prim’s name is drawn, which would surely mean her death, Katniss (Lawrence) volunteers to take her place. Alongside fellow District 12 citizen Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) and mentor Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson), Katniss learns to play the game—which means charming the sponsors, outwitting the conniving President Snow (Donald Sutherland), and, oh yeah, not dying in the brutal Hunger Games arena.
All five films, including 2023 prequel The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, start streaming on Netflix July 14.
2
Apollo 13
Tom Hanks brings the troubled space mission back to Earth
Screenwriter William Broyles Jr. and Director Ron Howard do an incredible job at adapting the words of real-life Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell and author Jeffrey Kluger’s book Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13 into this nail-biting account of the iconic spacecraft’s harrowing trip around the moon in 1970.
In the actor’s pilot seat is America’s dad, Tom Hanks, who leads the film’s all-star cast as Lovell, heading into space alongside fellow astronauts Fred Haise (Bill Paxton) and Jack Swigert (Kevin Bacon). The well-documented mission goes according to plan until an oxygen tank explodes, forcing the crew to abort the moon landing and head back to Earth, fast. Tensions run high inside the capsule as the team works with mission control on the ground, led by Flight Director Gene Kranz (Ed Harris), to figure out a way to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere in the damaged Odyssey module without burning up.
Quiz
New Netflix movies and shows in July 2026
Trivia challenge
From Enola Holmes to Heartstopper Forever — how much do you know about
Netflix’s biggest July 2026 arrivals?
MysteriesDramaRomanceReality TVAdaptations
Enola Holmes 3 brings back Millie Bobby Brown as the young detective. Who plays her
famous older brother Sherlock Holmes in the Netflix film series?
Correct! Henry Cavill plays Sherlock Holmes alongside Millie Bobby
Brown’s Enola in the Netflix film series. Cavill brings a warmer, more brotherly interpretation to the
iconic detective than many previous portrayals.
Not quite — it’s Henry Cavill who plays Sherlock Holmes in the Enola
Holmes Netflix films. While Benedict Cumberbatch is famous for playing Sherlock in the BBC series,
Cavill takes on the role in this franchise.
Netflix’s Little House on the Prairie is a reimagining of a beloved classic. The
original television series, which ran from 1974 to 1983, was based on the autobiographical book
series written by whom?
Correct! Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote the beloved Little House book series
based on her own childhood experiences settling on the American frontier. Her books have inspired
generations of readers and multiple screen adaptations.
The correct answer is Laura Ingalls Wilder, who drew on her own pioneer
childhood to write the Little House series. Louisa May Alcott wrote Little Women, while L.M. Montgomery
is known for Anne of Green Gables — easy mix-ups!
Heartstopper Forever is the concluding chapter of the beloved Netflix series.
Heartstopper is based on a graphic novel series created by which author?
Correct! Alice Oseman created the Heartstopper graphic novel series,
which began as a webcomic before becoming a bestselling book series and the basis for the hugely popular
Netflix show. Oseman also wrote the screenplay for the adaptation.
The Heartstopper graphic novel series was created by Alice Oseman, who
also serves as a writer on the Netflix adaptation. Rainbow Rowell and Becky Albertalli are both
celebrated LGBTQ+ YA authors, but this particular story belongs to Oseman.
Ransom Canyon is a Netflix drama adapted from a series of Western romance novels.
Which author wrote the Ransom Canyon book series on which the show is based?
Correct! Jodi Thomas wrote the Ransom Canyon series, a collection of
Western romance novels set in the Texas Panhandle. Thomas is a New York Times bestselling author
celebrated for her richly drawn Texas settings and multigenerational stories.
The Ransom Canyon novels were written by Jodi Thomas, a celebrated
Western romance author known for her Texas-set stories. Kristin Hannah and Nora Roberts are both
massively popular romance authors, but Ransom Canyon belongs to Thomas’s catalog.
Worst Neighbor Ever is a Netflix reality series. Based on its title and premise,
what type of content does the show focus on?
Correct! Worst Neighbor Ever dives into real-life stories of outrageous
and extreme neighbor conflicts, exploring just how bad living next door to the wrong person can get. It
taps into a universally relatable fear with dramatic real-world cases.
Worst Neighbor Ever is a Netflix reality series centered on true stories
of extreme and outrageous neighbor disputes — not pranks or renovation competitions. Neighbor conflict
content has proven hugely popular with streaming audiences drawn to real-life drama.
Shipwrecked: Nightmare at Sea is a Netflix survival documentary. What distinguishes
documentary survival content like this from scripted survival dramas on streaming platforms?
Correct! Survival documentaries like Shipwrecked: Nightmare at Sea are
grounded in real events and typically feature the survivors themselves recounting their harrowing
experiences. This authenticity is a key part of their appeal compared to scripted survival dramas.
The defining quality of a survival documentary like Shipwrecked:
Nightmare at Sea is that it’s based on real events and features the actual people involved — not actors.
Documentaries reconstruct events after the fact rather than filming them live as they happen.
72 Hours is a Netflix thriller arriving in July 2026. Thriller titles using a
specific time frame — like 72 Hours — are a well-established genre convention. How many days does a
period of 72 hours represent?
Correct! 72 hours equals exactly three days. The use of a tight,
specific time window in a thriller title like 72 Hours immediately signals urgency and a
race-against-the-clock narrative, a proven formula for keeping audiences on the edge of their seats.
72 hours equals three days — not two or four. Thriller titles that use
countdown time frames are a classic genre device designed to signal urgency and tension from the very
first moment an audience sees the title.
The Hawk is a Netflix drama series arriving in July 2026. ‘The Hawk’ as a title or
nickname is often used in storytelling to suggest what kind of character archetype?
Correct! The hawk as a symbol traditionally evokes sharpness, keen
observation, speed, and predatory focus — qualities often assigned to intense protagonists, skilled
hunters, detectives, or dangerous antagonists in drama and thriller storytelling.
The hawk as a symbolic archetype typically represents sharpness,
vigilance, and predatory focus — not warmth or vulnerability. It’s a title that immediately signals a
protagonist or central figure defined by intensity and acute awareness of their surroundings.
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Nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and winner of two (for Best Sound and Best Film Editing), Apollo 13 has a 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
1
Moneyball
How a spreadsheet outsmarted baseball
I’m not a baseball fan (don’t come at me), but 2011’s excellent Moneyball had me seriously considering throwing on a game or two and getting into the finer points of the game’s fascinating strategy. Necessity is the mother of invention, they say. So, when the struggling Oakland A’s 2002 baseball team needed to work with a limited budget while still assembling a winning team, General Manager Billy Beane (best actor nominee Brad Pitt) turned to the unconventional (at the time) use of analytics to do so.
Beane recruits intelligent young Yale economics grad Peter Brand (Jonah Hill, who got a supporting actor nod for his performance) as his assistant GM, whose use of sabermetrics brings together undervalued players whose strengths, the data suggest, would be great when combined with other overlooked players. The movie is a bit of a slow burn, but as the season plays out, we see the fascinating strategy put to practice. Is Beane and Brand’s nerdy approach the future of baseball? Will it pay off and bring the A’s to the World Series? Well, if you don’t already know the answers to these questions (it’s all in the source material, too—author Michael Lewis’s 2003 nonfiction novel, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game), we highly suggest watching this Oscar-nominated movie.
Moneyball still holds an impressive 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Hot July movie nights
There’s still much to look forward to on Netflix in July, including the new Will Ferrell series The Hawk, Wicked For Good, and the first three Scream movies. But hopefully the three picks above will deliver something entertaining to your movie nights. And when the credits roll, How-To Geek’s streaming coverage has plenty more recommendations where these came from.
- Subscription with ads
-
Yes, $8/month
- Simultaneous streams
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Two or four
- Live TV
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No
- Price
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Starting at $8/month
Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
