8 Must-Watch Movies Leaving Hulu In September (#1 Is Will Smith's $817M Sci-Fi Blockbuster)

Published Aug 23, 2026, 7:57 AM EDT Senior Music Editor at Screen Rant, Sarah's love of sound and story drive the beat. A globetrotting brand whisperer and award-winning journalist, she’s built cross-cultural narratives around the world—but music has always been her true north. She launched DJ Mag North America, successfully introducing the iconic UK brand to the U.S. market. Previously, she carved a space for EDM inside the pages of VIBE, blending electronic and hip-hop culture long before it was trendy. September is nearly here, which means Hulu is about to make room for another wave of arrivals by saying goodbye to some familiar favorites. The monthly streaming shuffle is easy to ignore until a movie that has been sitting on your watchlist suddenly has an expiration date, and September's departures include several that are worth catching while you still can. One of the best things about streaming is how easily it can send you down a movie rabbit hole. You might start revisiting 20th-century fantasy movies that are genuine masterpieces one weekend and end up looking for great sci-fi movies with the same appeal as Steven Spielberg's classics the next. Hulu's September exits are similarly all over the map, stretching from a modern war thriller to beloved sports comedies and some enormous Hollywood hits. Of course, leaving Hulu does not mean these movies are disappearing forever. Some will inevitably land on another streaming service, and others could return to Hulu down the road. The problem is that there is rarely any guarantee about where or when that will happen. With that in mind, these are the eight movies worth moving to the top of your Hulu watchlist before September is over. Hancock (2008) ©Sony Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection Long before superhero fatigue became part of the Hollywood conversation, Hancock tried something genuinely strange with the genre. Will Smith plays an enormously powerful superhero who saves lives while causing so much collateral damage that the people of Los Angeles would almost prefer he stopped helping. His reputation starts to change after he saves public relations consultant Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman), who decides to rehabilitate Hancock's disastrous public image. The movie takes a much stranger turn from there, but Smith's grumpy, self-destructive superhero remains its greatest asset. Hancock is messy, entertaining, and far more unusual than most superhero movies released around it. It may not land every one of its big swings, but that unpredictability is also part of what makes it worth another look before it leaves Hulu. Bend It Like Beckham (2002) A year before Pirates of the Caribbean turned Keira Knightley into an international star, she appeared alongside Parminder Nagra in one of the most lovable sports comedies of the early 2000s. Gurinder Chadha's Bend It Like Beckham follows Jess Bhamra, a soccer-obsessed teenager whose ambitions clash with her family's expectations, while Knightley plays Jules, the teammate who helps her find a place on the field. The movie's cultural conflicts give the familiar underdog sports story real weight without overwhelming its humor or warmth. More than two decades later, Bend It Like Beckham remains the kind of crowd-pleaser that is remarkably difficult to dislike. It is funny and sincere while still giving the family expectations pulling Jess in another direction the weight they deserve. DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story (2004) Some comedies become harder to revisit as they age. DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story somehow remains every bit as ridiculous as it was in 2004, which is precisely why it still works. Vince Vaughn stars as Peter LaFleur, the laid-back owner of struggling Average Joe's Gym, which is threatened by Ben Stiller's aggressively coiffed Globo Gym owner White Goodman. Saving the business eventually comes down to winning a dodgeball tournament in Las Vegas. Stiller takes White Goodman's vanity to spectacularly stupid extremes, while Vaughn wisely plays things relatively straight around him. The supporting cast is just as committed to the absurdity, and the movie understands exactly how silly its premise is without trying to elevate it into something it is not. Sometimes a streaming recommendation really can be as simple as wanting to laugh for 90 minutes, and DodgeBall still delivers. The Perks Of Being A Wallflower (2012) Stephen Chbosky did something relatively unusual with The Perks of Being a Wallflower: he adapted and directed the movie based on his own bestselling novel. The result is an unusually intimate coming-of-age film starring Logan Lerman as Charlie, an isolated high school freshman who finds friendship with stepsiblings Sam (Emma Watson) and Patrick (Ezra Miller). The movie can be funny and euphoric, but it never brushes aside Charlie's deeper struggles or treats adolescence as one endless nostalgia trip. That balance is a big reason The Perks of Being a Wallflower has endured. It remembers how enormous seemingly small moments can feel when you are a teenager, while giving its characters enough messiness to keep the story from becoming sentimental. Bad Boys (1995) Michael Bay made his feature directorial debut with Bad Boys, and subtlety was clearly never going to be part of the plan. Will Smith and Martin Lawrence star as Miami detectives Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett, whose wildly different personalities turned a straightforward buddy-cop movie into the beginning of a franchise. The action is loud and stylish, but the movie's real weapon was always the chemistry between its two leads. Smith and Lawrence argue like people who have known each other for years, and Bad Boys is at its best whenever it gives them room to bounce off one another. More than 30 years later, the franchise is still going, although how the Bad Boys movies rank against one another remains up for debate. Anyone who only knows Mike and Marcus from the later sequels should go back to where their partnership started. Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant (2023) Guy Ritchie's The Covenant does not feel much like the fast-talking crime movies normally associated with its director. Jake Gyllenhaal plays U.S. Army Sergeant John Kinley, who is wounded during an ambush in Afghanistan and saved by his interpreter, Ahmed, played by Dar Salim. Ahmed's extraordinary effort to get Kinley to safety forms only part of the story, as Kinley later learns that Ahmed and his family have not received the promised passage to America. Kinley becomes determined to return for the man who saved his life, shifting the film into an intensely personal rescue mission. The result is one of Ritchie's more restrained movies, anchored by Gyllenhaal and Salim rather than flashy dialogue or elaborate action spectacle. There is a good case to be made that The Covenant is Guy Ritchie's most underrated movie, and anyone who missed it the first time around should take advantage of its remaining time on Hulu. Dirty Dancing (1987) Credit: Artisan Entertainment/Courtesy Everett Collection. There is a reason Dirty Dancing has survived countless imitations. Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze have the kind of onscreen chemistry a romantic movie simply cannot manufacture, and nearly 40 years later, Baby and Johnny's summer at a Catskills resort remains irresistible. Set in 1963, the movie follows Frances "Baby" Houseman as her comfortable family vacation changes after she enters the world of the resort's working-class dance staff and falls for instructor Johnny Castle. The dancing is obviously part of the appeal, but Dirty Dancing has more going on beneath its famous soundtrack and choreography than its reputation as an '80s romance sometimes suggests. Anyone drawn to the chemistry at the heart of the greatest steamy romantic comedies should find plenty to love here, even if Dirty Dancing plays its romance more seriously. Then, of course, there is that finale, which is enough reason on its own for one more rewatch. Independence Day (1996) 30 years later, Independence Day remains one of the defining blockbusters of the 1990s. Roland Emmerich's alien invasion spectacular was the highest-grossing movie worldwide of 1996, earning more than $817 million and helping turn Will Smith into one of Hollywood's biggest movie stars. The movie's recent 30th anniversary also proved why Independence Day still holds up three decades later. Smith plays fighter pilot Steven Hiller alongside Jeff Goldblum's David Levinson and Bill Pullman's President Thomas Whitmore as enormous alien spacecraft arrive over major cities around the world. What follows is gloriously oversized filmmaking, complete with massive destruction and one of the most recognizable presidential speeches in movie history. Plenty of alien-invasion movies have arrived since, but few have matched the sheer crowd-pleasing confidence of Independence Day, making it the Hulu departure most deserving of another night on the biggest screen in the house. founded October 29, 2007 notable shows How I Met Your Father, Love, Victor, PEN15, 11.22.63, Only Murders in the Building, The Great, Wu-Tang: An American Saga, The Handmaid's Tale, Letterkenny notable movies Prey, Hellraiser, Palm Springs, Boston Strangler, Big Time Adolescence, White Men Can't Jump