3 Best Movies To Watch On Disney+ This Weekend (#1 Is A $1 Billion Space Opera With High RT Audience Score)

Published Aug 21, 2026, 4:55 PM EDT Felipe Rangel is a Movie and TV Journalist ScreenRant. He has been writing about movies and TV since 2021. Felipe joined ScreenRant in 2022, working across different teams, covering everything from breaking news to features to reviews and more. Felipe is a writer who is an avid film and TV fan, with superhero movies and series being his biggest passion. He graduated from college in 2019, having studied Journalism. Before college, he spent a month studying at the Oxford English Centre. His superhero knowledge expands to the comics, with his undergraduate thesis being "Politics Reflected In American Comics." Sign in to your ScreenRant account Disney+ is the streaming service to be if you love the company's legacy, supernatural thrillers, or space operas in general as we head into one of the final weekends of August. On last weekend's Disney+ movie recommendations, I explored what subscribers might find exciting in movies like The Secret Life of Pets, Camp Rock 3, and Avengers: Age of Ultron. Every single one of those releases was different from the others, ensuring that Disney+ subscribers could find the project that was the most similar to what they like in their entertainment. At the time of writing, while all other movies from the MCU's Avengers franchise are trending on Disney+ in the United States, Age of Ultron has fallen off the chart. That said, the only Disney Channel original movie on last weekend's recommendations, the Jonas Brothers' Camp Rock 3, is still high on the charts. At the time of writing, Camp Rock 3 stands as the most-watched movie on Disney+ in the United States. Based on that, it is safe to say that subscribers should still keep it in mind heading into the weekend if you have not watched the musical already. From Steamboat Willie to Encanto · Eight Questions How Well Do You Know Disney Movies? “When you wish upon a star…” 🐭Steamboat EraBlack-and-white Mickey 👑The PrincessesSnow White onward 🦁90s RenaissanceLion King & Aladdin 💡Pixar LampToy Story onward ❄️Modern EraFrozen & beyond UNLOCK THE VAULT → 01 On November 18, 1928, Walt Disney premiered a seven-minute black-and-white short at the Colony Theatre in New York — the first Mickey Mouse cartoon released to the public, and one of the earliest sound cartoons ever made. Whistling Mickey at the helm of a riverboat became the studio’s first iconic image. Name the short. APlane Crazy BSteamboat Willie CThe Karnival Kid DThe Gallopin’ Gaucho ✓ Correct! Steamboat Willie. Mickey actually finished production first on the silent short Plane Crazy earlier that year, but Walt and his brother Roy bet the studio’s entire future on retooling Steamboat Willie with synchronised sound — a brand-new technology that had only just appeared with The Jazz Singer (1927). The gamble worked: Steamboat Willie’s November 1928 release made Mickey an instant national icon and put Disney on the map. The short entered the public domain in January 2024, exactly 95 years after release. ✗ Wrong. The answer is Steamboat Willie. Plane Crazy was actually animated first (May 1928, silent) but didn’t find a distributor. The Gallopin’ Gaucho was the second Mickey short, also originally silent. The Karnival Kid (1929) is where Mickey first speaks. The breakthrough — the first publicly released, sound-synchronised Mickey short — is Steamboat Willie. NEXT → 02 Walt Disney sank the studio’s entire balance sheet, plus a heavy mortgage on his home, into a project Hollywood derisively called “Disney’s Folly” — the first full-length cel-animated feature film ever made in English. It premiered December 21, 1937 at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles to a standing ovation. Name the film. APinocchio BBambi CSnow White and the Seven Dwarfs DFantasia ✓ Correct! Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). The 83-minute film cost $1.49 million — an enormous gamble at the height of the Depression — and grossed $8 million on its initial release, the highest-grossing sound film made up to that point. Walt won an honorary Oscar (one large statuette and seven small ones, presented by Shirley Temple). The film’s success funded the construction of Disney’s Burbank studio and effectively created the feature-animation industry. ✗ Wrong. The answer is Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Pinocchio (1940) is the second Disney feature. Fantasia (1940) is the third. Bambi (1942) is the fifth. Snow White was the bet-the-studio first — ridiculed in production as “Disney’s Folly” before becoming the highest-grossing sound film ever made up to 1937. NEXT → 03 Walt Disney’s vision of a film-quality theme park opened to a chaotic, oversold “Black Sunday” debut — counterfeit tickets, a gas leak, and asphalt soft enough to swallow women’s heels. The Anaheim park was built on 160 acres of orange groves in just 12 months. In which year did Disneyland open? A1948 B1955 C1962 D1971 ✓ Correct! July 17, 1955 — press preview day, dubbed “Black Sunday” in Disney company lore. ABC broadcast a live two-hour TV special featuring Ronald Reagan, Bob Cummings and Art Linkletter (collectively winging the script as things went wrong). Disneyland was built on Anaheim orange groves Walt mortgaged his home to fund. Walt Disney World opened in 1971 in Orlando, six years after Walt’s death — that’s the date many people confuse with Disneyland’s opening. ✗ Wrong. The answer is 1955 — specifically July 17. 1948 is when Walt first sketched the concept. 1962 doesn’t mark a major Disney park milestone. 1971 is when Walt Disney World opened in Florida (six years after Walt’s death) — that’s the date most often confused with Disneyland’s. The original Anaheim park opened in 1955. NEXT → 04 The Lion King (1994) was pitched internally as “Bambi meets…” a particular Shakespeare play — and the parallels are unmissable: a young prince’s father is murdered by his uncle, who usurps the throne; the prince later returns to avenge him. Which Shakespeare tragedy provided the bones of the story? AMacbeth BOthello CHamlet DKing Lear ✓ Correct! Hamlet. The internal pitch was famously “Bambi meets Hamlet” (or, in some retellings, “Hamlet with lions”): Mufasa is the murdered king-father (Hamlet Sr.), Scar is the usurping uncle (Claudius), Simba is the exiled prince (Hamlet), and even the ghost-on-a-cliff appearance plays out beat-for-beat. The Lion King grossed $968 million worldwide and remained the highest-grossing animated film for 16 years until Toy Story 3 broke the record in 2010. ✗ Wrong. The answer is Hamlet. Macbeth is the “ambitious wife pushes husband to murder the king” story (the closer Disney parallel there is the Frollo/Esmeralda dynamic in Hunchback). Othello is the jealousy tragedy. King Lear is the divided-kingdom tragedy. The Lion King’s bones are unambiguously Hamlet’s — ghost, uncle-murderer, exiled-prince and all. NEXT → 05 Frozen (2013) became the highest-grossing animated film at the time and won two Oscars including Best Animated Feature. Its standout song — performed by Idina Menzel as Elsa, written by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez — won the Oscar for Best Original Song and dominated radio playlists for an entire year. Name the song. ALet It Go BDo You Want to Build a Snowman? CFor the First Time in Forever DLove Is an Open Door ✓ Correct! “Let It Go” — the Oscar-winning power ballad that fundamentally rewrote the film’s plot in production: Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez wrote the song so persuasively that the directors threw out the existing script and rewrote Elsa from villain to misunderstood protagonist. The song spent over 30 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, was translated into 41 languages for international releases, and its Idina Menzel single sold 10.9 million copies. Frozen grossed $1.28 billion and held the highest-grossing-animated-film record until its own 2019 sequel. ✗ Wrong. The answer is “Let It Go.” The other three options are also Frozen songs by the same Lopez/Anderson-Lopez writing team. “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” is the early childhood-montage number. “For the First Time in Forever” is Anna’s coronation-day song. “Love Is an Open Door” is the Hans/Anna duet. The Oscar-winning monster hit is “Let It Go.” NEXT → 06 In November 1995, Pixar — then a small Disney distribution partner founded by Ed Catmull, John Lasseter and Steve Jobs — released the world’s first fully computer-animated feature film. It became the highest-grossing film of 1995 in North America and won a Special Achievement Oscar for John Lasseter. Name the movie. AA Bug’s Life BToy Story CMonsters, Inc. DFinding Nemo ✓ Correct! Toy Story (November 22, 1995). Made for $30 million, it grossed $373 million worldwide and immediately rewrote what was possible in animation. Steve Jobs — who’d bought Pixar from Lucasfilm in 1986 for $5 million — took the company public a week after the film’s release at $22 a share, instantly making him a billionaire. Disney bought Pixar outright in 2006 for $7.4 billion in stock, making Jobs Disney’s largest individual shareholder. A Bug’s Life (1998) was the second Pixar feature; Monsters, Inc. (2001) the fourth. ✗ Wrong. The answer is Toy Story (1995). A Bug’s Life (1998), Monsters, Inc. (2001) and Finding Nemo (2003) are all later Pixar features. Toy Story was the studio’s first — and the first fully computer-animated theatrical feature in cinema history. Its release a week before Steve Jobs took Pixar public effectively turned him from struggling NeXT-era founder into a billionaire. NEXT → 07 In a roughly seven-year span, Disney made a sequence of franchise acquisitions that transformed it from an animation studio into a global IP empire. Pixar (2006, $7.4B), Lucasfilm (2012, $4.05B) and 21st Century Fox (2019, $71.3B) bracket the era. The remaining major brand — bought in 2009 for $4 billion — brought Iron Man, Spider-Man and the Avengers under Disney’s roof. Name it. ADC Entertainment BImage Comics CMarvel Entertainment DDark Horse Comics ✓ Correct! Marvel Entertainment, acquired August 2009 for $4 billion. The deal followed Marvel Studios’ first independent production (Iron Man, 2008) and gave Disney rights to over 5,000 characters — though crucially not Spider-Man (still under a Sony deal) or the X-Men/Fantastic Four (under Fox until the 2019 acquisition reunited them). Disney’s combined Marvel-Lucasfilm-Pixar-Fox portfolio is now the largest IP holding in entertainment history. ✗ Wrong. The answer is Marvel Entertainment. DC Entertainment is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery (since the 1969 Kinney/National acquisition). Image Comics and Dark Horse remain independent. Disney bought Marvel in August 2009 for $4 billion, two years after Marvel Studios’ first self-financed film (Iron Man, 2008). NEXT → 08 Disney Animation’s Moana (2016) features Hawaiian newcomer Auli’i Cravalho as the title role and Dwayne Johnson as the demigod Maui. Its musical numbers — including “How Far I’ll Go” and “You’re Welcome” — were co-written by a Pulitzer- and Tony-winning Broadway composer who’d become a household name with Hamilton the previous year. Name him. AStephen Sondheim BAndrew Lloyd Webber CLin-Manuel Miranda DAlan Menken ✓ Correct! Lin-Manuel Miranda — co-writing with Te Vaka frontman Opetaia Foa’i and composer Mark Mancina. Miranda’s Hamilton had opened on Broadway the year before (August 2015) and turned him into the rare Disney songwriter with crossover Broadway-rap credibility. Miranda has since become a Disney mainstay, returning for Encanto (2021), where his songs “Surface Pressure” and “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” topped the Billboard Hot 100. ✗ Wrong. The answer is Lin-Manuel Miranda. Stephen Sondheim wrote Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods and West Side Story’s lyrics — but never a Disney animated feature. Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote Cats, Phantom and Evita — also never a Disney film. Alan Menken is the great Disney Renaissance composer (Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin) but didn’t write Moana’s songs. Moana is Miranda’s, with Foa’i and Mancina. REVEAL MY RATING → The Castle Has Spoken · Final Tally Your Magic Kingdom Standing 👑 / 8 True Disney royalty — or just a tourist with churros? ⤴ ANOTHER WISH As for the best movies to watch on Disney+ this weekend, they are once again very different in subject matter, genre, and tone. The first of those is a documentary that subscribers might feel tied to, while the second is a supernatural thriller that expands a major franchise in an exciting direction, and the third is a unique space opera. Check them out: 3 Disney Worldbuilders (2026) ©Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection Starting the list is Disney Worldbuilders. The 59-minute documentary was released on Disney+ this Thursday, August 20. Disney Worldbuilders is the perfect documentary for those who love both Disney's movies and theme parks. The reason for that is how it sees several key creators and storytellers detail the process of bringing major franchises to life in Disney+'s parks to create immersive worlds. Disney Worldbuilders is a project that the whole family can watch, as parents will find how this part of the Disney theme park ecosystem works intriguing, while kids can watch as their favorite franchises make the jump to real life. Major names like former Disney CEO Bob Iger, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, and more show up to provide insight on Disney Worldbuilders. 2 The X-Files: I Want to Believe – Vrach Frankenshteyn (2026) The X-Files is one of the most popular TV shows of all time. That level of popularity ended up leading to two movies being added to the sci-fi franchise. The first of those was 1998's The X-Files, which stayed true to the show's sci-fi focus, telling a story about a conspiracy that revolved around a potential alien colonization of Earth. A decade later, The X-Files: I Want to Believe would come to theaters, focusing more on supernatural elements and faith than the usual ET/sci-fi angle of the series. On August 14, The X-Files: I Want to Believe – Vrach Frankenshteyn, an R-rated cut of the movie from director Chris Carter, which goes all in on the horror tone, became available on Disney+ and Hulu worldwide. The X-Files franchise fans can now experience this story in a new way. 1 Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) Finally, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is the best movie to watch on Disney+ this weekend. The space opera comes from the iconic Star Wars movie franchise, but it is not part of the main Skywalker Saga. The Star Wars spinoff ended up grossing over $1 billion worldwide, with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story holding a high 84% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes and an even better 87% audience score. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story follows a group of rebels that go up against insurmountable odds to steal the plans for the Death Star. The reason I believe the sci-fi movie is a perfect watch this weekend is due to how The Mandalorian and Grogu's Disney+ streaming release date was recently revealed, with the film arriving on September 2. As such, now is the time to celebrate with pure Star Wars goodness, and Rogue One is one of the best on Disney+. The X-Files: I Want to Believe 6/10 Release Date July 24, 2008 Runtime 104 minutes The X Files: I Want to Believe reconnects former FBI partners Fox Mulder and Dana Scully as they investigate a missing person's case tied to a priest's psychic claims. Cast David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Amanda Peet, Billy Connolly, Xzibit, Mitch Pileggi, Callum Keith Rennie, Adam Godley, Nicki Aycox, Alex Diakun, Fagin Woodcock, Marco Niccoli, Carrie Ruscheinsky, Spencer Maybee, Veronika Hadravá, Denis Krasnogolov, Patrick Keating, Stephen E. Miller, Xantha Radley, Lorena Gale, Donavon Stinson, Dion Johnstone, Sarah-Jane Redmond, Christina D'Alimonte, Vanesa Tomasino Director Chris Carter Rogue One: A Star Wars Story 8/10 Release Date December 16, 2016 Runtime 133 Minutes Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is a standalone film set in the Star Wars universe, where a group of resistance fighters, led by Jyn Erso, embarks on a mission to steal the Death Star plans. This pivotal event sets the stage for the iconic saga to follow. Cast Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Alan Tudyk, Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen, Ben Mendelsohn, Guy Henry, Forest Whitaker, Riz Ahmed, Mads Mikkelsen, Jimmy Smits, Alistair Petrie, Genevieve O'Reilly, Ben Daniels, Paul Kasey, Stephen Stanton, Ian McElhinney, Fares Fares, Jonathan Aris, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Spencer Wilding, James Earl Jones, Ingvild Deila, Anthony Daniels, Daniel Naprous Director Gareth Edwards