Picture: United Archives GmbH
Happy Friday and welcome to August 2025! As we’ve just crossed into the month, we’ve got a bunch of new releases as Netflix licenses a bunch of movies from various distributors. Below, we’ll walk you through some highlights of the new titles that just dropped, as well as the most watched titles in the US over the past seven days. Let’s jump in.
As we’re now into August 2025, you’ll want to familiarize yourself with all the new arrivals scheduled for the month, of which we just learned of a few more dates, so keep an eye out on our comprehensive schedule for the latest.
Best New Movies and Series Added This Week
The Penguin Lessons (2024)
Rating: PG-13
Language: English
Genre: Drama
Director: Peter Cattaneo
Cast: Steve Coogan, Jonathan Pryce, Bruno Blas
Writer: Jeff Pope, Tom Michell
Runtime: 111 min
Rewinding to last weekend, Netflix picked up the quaint yet heartwarming drama headlined by British acting legend Steve Coogan alongside Game of Thrones alum Jonathan Pryce. Set during the political turmoil of Argentina in the late 1900s, the movie sees the actor play a school teacher who is having troubles of his own but finds new meaning in life after rescuing a lost penguin and forming an inseparable bond.
Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie picked up favorable reviews across the board with Herald Sun calling it an “utterly charming blend of light comedy and even lighter drama offers a delightful variation on a familiar cinematic formula: the jaded schoolteacher rediscovering purpose in their craft from an unlikely source of inspiration.”
Leanne (Season 1)
Number of episodes: 16
Rating: TV-14
Language: English
Genre: Comedy
Cast: Leanne Morgan, Kristen Johnston, Celia Weston, Blake Clark, Ryan Stiles, Graham Rogers, Hannah Pilkes
The major new series produced by and released exclusively by Netflix this week is Leanne, a traditional multi-cam sitcom co-created by its lead star Leanne Morgan and comedy aficionado Chuck Lorre, who is obviously behind hits like The Big Bang Theory and The Kominsky Method.
The official logline of the series is as follows: “Leanne’s life takes an unexpected turn when her husband of 33 years leaves her for another woman. Starting over when you’re a grandmother and in menopause isn’t exactly what she had in mind, but with the help of her family she will navigate this new chapter with grace, dignity and jello salad.”
We know a lot of people have long requested that Netflix go back to the way that broadcast-produced series were, where there are lots of episodes. If you want to prove to Netflix that format is indeed what people want, then give Leanne a shot, which has one of the largest episode counts for a single season (excluding international shows, which can sometimes land with over 60!) and watch all the way to the end as that’ll signal that the release schedule can work.
Varsity Blues (1999)
Rating: R
Language: English
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Director: Brian Robbins
Cast: James Van Der Beek, Jon Voight, Paul Walker
Writer: W. Peter Iliff
Runtime: 106 min / 1h 46m
Looking at the new licensed movies that cycled onto Netflix for the first of the month, there are definitely more than a few standouts. All three of the Jurassic Park movies just landed on Netflix again as well as some animation favorites from Illumination and the entire Rush Hour trilogy. Another classic movie that just touched down and recently celebrated its 25th anniversary is Varsity Blues.
The coming-of-age sports drama remains a cult classic that helped define a generation of teen movies. It’s set in the high-pressure world of Texas high school football and follows quarterback Jonathan “Mox” Moxon as he’s thrust into the spotlight after the star player is injured. Launching the careers of multiple actors, not least Paul Walker RIP, the movie struck a chord back when it was released and still holds up to this day.
Full List of New Releases on Netflix This Week
Note: You can find an expanded version of this list on our What’s New on Netflix hub page. Just scroll down and you’ll find a bunch of details about each new title that’s dropped, including a new piece of information we’re now adding for returning titles and when they were last added to Netflix.
49 New Movies Added This Week
- After the Sunset (2004) – PG-13 – English
- American Pie (1999) – R – English
- American Pie 2 (2001) – R – English
- An Honest Life (2025) Netflix Original – TV-MA – Swedish
- Anaconda (1997) – PG-13 – English
- Clueless (1995) – PG-13 – English
- Dazed and Confused (1993) – R – English
- Despicable Me (2010) – PG – English
- Despicable Me 2 (2013) – PG – English
- Dusty Slay: Wet Heat (2025) Netflix Original – TV-14 – English
- Everything About My Wife (2025) – TV-MA – Tagalog
- Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) – R – English
- Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) – PG-13 – English
- Groundhog Day (1993) – PG – English
- Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012) – PG – English
- Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008) – PG – English
- Jurassic Park (1993) – PG-13 – English
- Jurassic Park III (2001) – PG-13 – English
- Megamind (2010) – PG – English
- Mile 22 (2018) – R – English
- Minions (2015) – PG – English
- My Oxford Year (2025) Netflix Original – PG-13 – English
- NASA+ Live on Netflix (2025 – LIVE) – TV-G – English
- Radio (2003) – PG – English
- Ride Along (2014) – PG-13 – English
- Rush Hour (1998) – PG-13 – English
- Rush Hour 2 (2001) – PG-13 – English
- Rush Hour 3 (2007) – PG-13 – English
- Scarecrow (2024) – TV-14 – Tagalog
- She’s All That (1999) – PG-13 – English
- Thammudu (2024) – TV-MA – Telugu
- That’s My Boy (2012) – R – English
- The 5th Wave (2016) – PG-13 – English
- The Color Purple (2023) – PG-13 – English
- The Departed (2006) – R – English
- The English Patient (1996) – R – English
- The Foreigner (2017) – R – English
- The Husbands of Rosario (2018) – TV-MA – Filipino
- The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) – PG-13 – English
- The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013) – PG-13 – English
- The Penguin Lessons (2024) – PG-13 – English
- The Rebound (2009) – R – English
- The Wave (2015) – R – Norwegian
- Thirteen (2003) – R – English
- Untold (2025) – TV-MA – Tagalog
- Varsity Blues (1999) – R – English
- Weird Science (1985) – PG-13 – English
- Wet Hot American Summer (2001) – R – English
- Wyatt Earp (1994) – PG-13 – English
13 New TV Series Added This Week
- Conversations with a Killer: The Son of Sam Tapes (Season 1) Netflix Original – TV-MA – English
- Death Inc. (Seasons 1-2) Netflix Original – TV-MA – Spanish
- Enigma Black Stage (Season 1 – New Episodes Weekly) – TV-14 – Thai
- Fire Country (Season 2) – TV-14 – English
- Glass Heart (Season 1) Netflix Original – TV-14 – Japanese
- Leanne (Season 1) Netflix Original – TV-14 – English
- Marked (Season 1) Netflix Original – TV-MA – Zulu
- Perfect Match (Season 3) Netflix Original – TV-14 – English
- The Lazarus Project (Seasons 1-2) – TV-MA – English
- Touched by an Angel (Seasons 1-9) – TV-G – English
- Trainwreck: Storm Area 51 (Season 1) Netflix Original – TV-MA – English
- Unspeakable Sins (Season 1) Netflix Original – TV-MA – Spanish
- WWE: Unreal (Season 1) Netflix Original – TV-MA – English
Most Popular Movies on Netflix in the US This Week
Picture: Netflix
Not even Happy Gilmore 2 could unseat KPop Demon Hunters, which narrowly took home the most amount of points over the past seven days. Elsewhere, lots of animated and other Adam Sandler movies in the top 10s this week.
- KPop Demon Hunters (71 points)
- Happy Gilmore 2 (70 points)
- Happy Gilmore (56 points)
- Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (56 points)
- Until Dawn (49 points)
- Madea’s Destination Wedding (38 points)
- Despicable Me 4 (24 points)
- Trainwreck: Storm Area 51 (22 points)
- Trainwreck: P.I. Moms (19 points)
- Grown Ups (14 points)
- Wanted (8 points)
- Grown Ups 2 (6 points)
- Ride Along 2 (5 points)
- Trainwreck: Balloon Boy (1 points)
- The Boss Baby (1 point)
Most Popular Series on Netflix in the US This Week
Picture: Starz
A very busy week in the TV top 10s with 19 individual titles competing for points throughout the week, but the top dog was The Hunting Wives, which landed exclusively on Netflix last week. It pulled in a pretty good haul of points, narrowly topping UNTAMED, which just got confirmed for a second season.
- The Hunting Wives (75 points)
- UNTAMED (74 points)
- Amy Bradley is Missing (60 points)
- My Melody & Kuromi (34 points)
- Hightown (34 points)
- Sullivan’s Crossing (26 points)
- The Lazarus Project (20 points)
- The Sandman (18 points)
- WWE Raw (17 points)
- WWE: Unreal (17 points)
- Conversations with a Killer: The Son of Sam Tapes (15 points)
- Leanne (9 points)
- Critical: Between Life and Death (9 points)
- Dan Da Dan (8 points)
- Squid Game (4 points)
- Building the Band (4 points)
- Wednesday (3 points)
- Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich (3 points)
- Unspeakable Sins (2 points)
What are you watching on Netflix this week? Let us know in the comments down below.
