Great Movies That Got Pulled From Streaming

Movies are constantly doing the streaming service shuffle, leaving one service only to join another shortly thereafter. Only those who make the decisions and sign the contracts know the benefits of this churn, and why it isn't easier to just let each service have a certain percentage of the available movies and leave it at that. All we know as movie watchers is that it means we need to subscribe to more of these services than we'd prefer if we want access to as many movies as possible.

When streaming services started to have their own original films — or films that they specifically paid to distribute — it was safe to assume that at least those movies would stay on their respective services indefinitely. But we are now all too aware that this couldn't be further from the case. And it's certainly not only bad movies that streaming services dump. As this feature will demonstrate, streaming services also sometimes unload their own films even when those movies are great for one reason or another.

The transformation of Seth Rogen from his "Freaks and Geeks" days has been interesting in that the actor has branched out into different genres. He could have easily carved out a cushy career starring in a bunch of easy studio comedies, particularly as the wacky buddy to the main character. Respectably, he very rarely goes down that route, either writing his own movies or picking interesting, high-quality projects when he doesn't. One such example of the latter is "An American Pickle," a 2020 HBO Max original in which Rogen plays a pickle factory worker in 1919 who falls into a vat of pickles that preserves him until 2019. 

Rogen doesn't only play Herschel Greenbaum — he also plays Ben Greenbaum, Herschel's great-grandson who reluctantly gets stuck with the job of having to help Herschel make a new life in the modern era. The two are anything but instant pals, and frequently find themselves at odds both professional and personally. A buddy comedy where both buddies are played by the same actor can be tough to pull off, but Rogen is more than up to the task. The Rotten Tomatoes critical consensus proclaims that "Seth Rogen's dual performance makes this a low-key comedy to relish." It spent a little over two years on HBO Max before it was one of six movies that were quietly removed from the service in Summer 2022. Since then, it has only been available to buy or rent. 

Adaptations of William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" are plentiful, but few give much, if any, screentime to the character of Rosaline. She is Romeo's crush at the start of the play — spoken about but never shown — and it's only because Romeo was hoping to see Rosaline that he sneaked into the party where he ended up meeting Juliet for the first time. So Rosaline is quite pivotal in setting the events of the iconic story in motion, even if that's her only real role in the "Romeo and Juliet" lore.

But just who was this captivating young woman who Romeo was so smitten with? Is she interesting enough to be the star of her own story? Indeed she is, as proven by the fun 2022 romantic comedy "Rosaline," a Hulu original in the U.S. but a Disney+ library addition in the rest of the world. Kaitlyn Dever charms in the titular role, playing a Rosaline that is none too happy that she's been passed over for another girl and hatches various schemes to try and break up the star-crossed lovers out of spite. 

"Rosaline" earned a Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and was a top 10 streaming movie across all platforms in the week following its release. But neither critical acclaim nor audience popularity are necessarily enough to prevent a movie's removal from a streaming service, which happened to "Rosaline" in May 2023. It was completely unavailable for four months until it was brought back in September 2023 for purchase or rental only. 

"Hush" is an inventive slasher film in which a masked killer takes advantage of the fact that his next victim, a woman named Maddie (Kate Siegel, who also co-wrote the screenplay), is both deaf and mute. As a result, much of the movie takes place without any spoken dialogue, which ratchets up the tension and creates a wholly unique horror film atmosphere.

Netflix had already purchased the worldwide distribution rights for "Hush" before the movie's March 2016 premiere at South by Southwest film festival, adding it to the service the following month. Not only were critics blown away by the movie, but horror icons Stephen King and William Friedkin both made a point to sing its praises (incidentally, "Hush" director and co-writer Mike Flanagan's dream project is Stephen King's "The Dark Tower"). 

Fast forward to April 2023, and "Hush" vanished from the Netflix library, after which Flanagan confirmed that Netflix had only signed a seven-year deal to distribute "Hush," a deal that the streamer apparently didn't care to renew. Flanagan then set about other avenues to keep "Hush" alive, including wanting to do a physical release, but the movie was completely unavailable digitally for 16 months. In August 2024, "Hush" was finally made available to rent or purchase digitally, and as of this writing it is also available through Shudder, AMC+, and Amazon Prime Video.

Based on the documentary "12 O'Clock Boys" about the Baltimore bike riding group of the same name, the HBO Max original "Charm City Kings" gave the coming-of-age movie subgenre a modern, refreshing coat of paint. The main protagonist, a teenager who goes by Mouse (Jahi Di'Allo Winston), is caught between two potential paths: On one side is the gang life, and on the other side is the world of underground bicycle stunt riding. Critics were smitten with "Charm City Kings," with Nick Allen of RogerEbert.com calling it "an incredible triumph from a slew of fresh talent." Sadly, the movie largely flew under the radar, and HBO Max didn't even give it two full years to find the audience it might have eventually earned over time: It was removed from the service in July 2022, after having only been there since October 2020.

Thankfully, "Charm City Kings" is now available to rent or own digitally, and it's worth rolling the dice on if you're looking for a well-acted, original film featuring largely unknown actors. The film had some major backing behind the scenes: It was executive produced by Will Smith, who helped rapper-turned-actor Meek Mill (who plays Blax) get into the right headspace for his role. "They had a lot of conversations," director Ángel Manuel Soto told Looper in an exclusive interview. "I know that Meek had just come out of prison and he was getting into the character after that whole process. I know him and Will [had] a lot of conversations, precisely because of that."

The 2018 HBO film "My Dinner with Hervé" documents the final stretch of the troubled life of "Fantasy Island" and "The Man with the Golden Gun" actor Hervé Villechaize. It stars Peter Dinklage as Villechaize, Andy García as Villechaize's "Fantasy Island" co-star Ricardo Montalbán, and Jamie Dornan as a journalist who is trying to pin down an interview with the elusive and combative actor. The performances of Dinklage and Dornan in particular drew high critical praise, and "My Dinner with Hervé" was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding television movie. 

While the film was initially added to HBO Max after its premiere on HBO, it was pulled in August 2022 in one of the streaming service's many content purges. Making matters worse is that it's only available to purchase digitally now, with no services offering it for rent as of this writing, which severely limits the potential reach of any movie that isn't already an existing, well-known classic. That's a real shame, as Dinklage offers some of his best ever work here. The film is "worth seeing solely for 'Game of Thrones' star Peter Dinklage's portrayal of Herve Villechaize," said CNN, while the Boston Globe called Dinklage "a remarkable actor" in its review.

It almost seems quaint now in comparison to the record-breaking, pop culture-dominating behemoth that was The Eras Tour, but Taylor Swift's 2018 Reputation Tour captured plenty of headlines and broke plenty of records in its own time. Keeping up her tradition of coordinating things with her favorite number (13), Swift announced on December 13, 2018 that the concert film of that tour would be coming to Netflix on the following New Year's Eve. 

It was definitely a big win for Netflix at a time when streaming services seemed eager to snatch up concert films, but whatever deal was struck, it wasn't an indefinite one. In December 2023, "Taylor Swift: Reputation Stadium Tour" took its final bow on the service after a run of almost exactly five years. As devastating of a blow as that was to Swifties, what makes things even worse is that the concert film has yet to make any additional tour stops since leaving Netflix. It has never been made available in any other format, digital or physical, and that remains the case to this day. 

The buzz is that the removal had to do with Swift not yet having re-recorded the album, meaning there isn't a version of it that she herself owns the rights to. However, fans believe that this could happen sooner rather than later, and when it does, "Taylor Swift: Reputation Stadium Tour" might return to streaming.

Before he became associated with the alleged on-set drama — and ensuing legal battle — between himself and Blake Lively on "It Ends with Us," Justin Baldoni was that guy from "Jane the Virgin" who had been making a name for himself as a respectable director. His first foray into directing, 2019's "Five Feet Apart," got a mixed reception, but he came back stronger with sophomore effort "Clouds" in 2020, which did well with critics. The Rotten Tomatoes critical consensus states: "'Clouds' soars higher than most young adult films — and proves director Justin Baldoni's mastery behind the camera."

The protagonist of the movie, Zach Sobiech, was a real-life musician whose life was cut tragically short at just 18 years old when he passed away from cancer. In "Clouds," Zach is played by Fin Argus, who picks up the teen's story after he's already been diagnosed with the disease and is trying to live a normal life and make music in spite of his struggles. And if you're wondering why Amy from "Clouds" looks so familiar, that's because the actor who plays Zach's girlfriend was also Bethany Walker in the two most recent "Jumanji" movies.

It launched in October 2020 as a Disney+ original, but "Clouds" floated off the service during a May 2023 purge that saw the removal of over 50 movies and series. It's still available to buy or rent on other services at the time of this writing.

Perhaps because its parent company also owns MTV, Paramount+ seemed to do a lot of music-focused original content in its first few years. That content was also some of the first to get cut from the streamer, with the musical series "Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies" and musician life docuseries "From Cradle to Stage" both being removed from the service in June 2023 as part of one of its first big content purges. Joining those deleted shows that month were several Paramount+ original movies, including musical drama "On the Come Up."

The directorial debut of actor Sanaa Lathan, "On the Come Up" stars Jamila C. Gray as Bri Jackson, a teenager who wants to follow in the footsteps of her locally famous rapper father. When fame comes more quickly than she expected — and for reasons she isn't comfortable with — Bri must decide if she wants to ride the wave of easy success or stay true to her artistic convictions. Lathan earned a lot of plaudits from the Hollywood trades, including Variety. "As frank and tough-minded as it is warm and sweet, 'On the Come Up' is a hugely promising debut from the actor-turned-director," critic Andrew Barker said in his review. Fortunately, this underrated gem can still be rented or purchased digitally.

One of the most acclaimed movies on this list with a 92% Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, "The Little Prince" really helped to solidify Netflix as a destination for prestige animated films when it was added to the service in August 2016. The movie had a theatrical release in its native France, but Paramount ultimately opted not to bring it to theaters in North America. Netflix stepped in and bought the digital distribution rights, bringing this wonderful little film to its subscribers.

The basic plot of "The Little Prince" is that a young girl with an overly-scheduled life ends up discovering a way to inject some magic into that life by way of her elderly neighbor and the fantastical stories he tells of his youth. To say more than that would be to ruin what makes "The Little Prince" such a joy to experience, and it's best to discover the movie's many wonders as the little girl does. Unfortunately, if you didn't catch it on Netflix between August 2016 and May 2021, you missed your chance, as that's when the deal Netflix signed with Paramount ended. 

While it would seem like a foregone conclusion that "The Little Prince" would have ended up on Paramount+, that didn't happen, and it still hasn't shown up there for reasons that aren't entirely clear. Instead, the movie has only been available to buy or rent since leaving Netflix. 

This one is actually a twofer, as it encompasses both a Disney+ original movie and its sequel which were both subsequently scrubbed from the service. While plenty of movies have obviously been pulled from streaming services, there are far fewer examples where a movie was initially popular enough to warrant a sequel and even then it wasn't enough to stop them both from getting removed. The movies in question are "Stargirl" and its sequel "Hollywood Stargirl," released in 2020 and 2022, respectively.

The original follows a teenager named Susan (Grace VanderWaal) who has given herself the nickname Stargirl, and the way her quirkiness and free spirited nature impacts those around her. The sequel sees Stargirl trying her hand at a career as an actor after she and her mother relocate to Los Angeles. While critics were a bit lukewarm on the original, "Hollywood Stargirl" earned a very impressive 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics agreeing that it was the better realization of what the original was trying to do. The entire "Stargirl" saga was yanked off of Disney+ in May 2023, though the two films have since been made available to buy or rent digitally.

One of the best family movies of 2022, "Better Nate Than Ever" is a Disney+ original musical based on a 2013 novel by the movie's writer/director Tim Federle. It follows 13 year old Nate (Rueby Wood), whose daydreams of becoming a Broadway star manifest in delightful musical numbers. Leaning on it being a Disney film, it's a Broadway production of "Lilo & Stitch" that becomes the end goal for Nate as he goes on a series of misadventures before he is able to take a swing at his big break.

Critics loved the film (it scored a very respectable 83% on Rotten Tomatoes), but, as has been made painfully clear by now, Disney+ originals — at least, those that aren't fortunate enough to fall under the "Star Wars" or Marvel umbrella — can't ever count on sticking around on the service for very long. "Better Nate Than Ever" was yet another victim of Disney+'s May 2023 bloodletting. However, unlike some of the other content that got the chop at that time, "Better Nate Than Ever" at least re-emerged for rent and purchase from September 2023 onward — better late than never! The same cannot be said of these great movies, which are not available to watch anywhere at all.