Max Announces Removal of 12 Major Movies

12 major movies and their sequels are set to be removed from the Max streaming service according to a new update.

The major players in the streaming game have been no strangers to removing content from their online homes, with Netflix, Hulu, and even Disney+ removing projects for various reasons.

Max has already engaged in one round of project removals by taking a dozen James Bond movies off the service, and that trend is far from being over as studios look to save on costs at every turn.

Max Removes 12 Fan-Favorite Movies

Max will officially remove 12 movies from the streaming service along with seven respective sequels, totaling 19 films that will no longer be available to watch starting on August 31.

Airplane! (1980)

• Average Tomatometer: 97%
• Average Audience Score: 89%

Featuring the talents of Leslie Nielsen, Robert Hays, and even Los Angeles Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Airplane! is regarded as one of the greatest comedies in history thanks to its use of slapstick, puns, and even dark humor.

Spoofing disaster movies from the 1970s, a flight full of passengers and crew are incapacitated due to food poisoning as Hays’ rogue pilot with a “drinking problem” must bring the plane down alongside the stewardess – his ex-girlfriend.

This film’s 1982 sequel, aptly titled Airplane II: The Sequel, was also removed from Max.

Anger Management (2003)

• Average Tomatometer: 42%
• Average Audience Score: 59%

Behind an all-star cast of actors including Adam Sandler, Jack Nicholson, and Marisa Tomei, Anger Management tells the story of a businessman sentenced to a same-titled program led by a therapist with unconventional methods.

After suffering through a humiliating experience as a child, Sandler’s Dave Buznik struggles through the trauma he went through from bullying before losing his temper next to Nicholson’s Buddy Rydell on a plane, leading to their partnership.

Bullitt (1968)

• Average Tomatometer: 98%
• Average Audience Score: 85%

Steve McQueen, Robert Duvall, and Robert Vaughn star in the 1968 neo-noir action thriller Bullitt, based on the story told in the 1963 novel Mute Witness written by Robert L. Fish.

Vaughn’s Senator Walter Chalmers looks to take down a mob boss with the help of the mobster’s own bother, who is under police lieutenant Frank Bullit’s watch before the cop follows a complicated trail of mazes and double-crosses.

Demolition Man (1993)

• Average Tomatometer: 62%
• Average Audience Score: 57%

Sylvester Stallone and Sandra Bullock team up with Wesley Snipes in Demolition Man, taking a trip to the now-not-too-distant future in this ’90s action thriller that references books like Brave New World.

Stallone’s John Spartan and Snipes’ Simon Phoenix are sentenced to frozen incarceration in CryoPrison, with Spartan waking up in the year 2032 to find that Los Angeles has become a pacifist utopia with Phoenix on the loose again.

Dunkirk (2017)

• Average Tomatometer: 92%
• Average Audience Score: 81%

Directed by Christopher Nolan and featuring a cast full of A-listers like Harry Styles, Barry Keoghan, Kenneth Brannagh, and Cillian Murphy, Dunkirk tells an epic historical adventure from the early days of World War II in 1940

German forces advance into France to trap Allied forces on the beaches of Dunkirk, France, with only minimal dialogue used to detail the real-life events of WWII with Nolan’s use of practical effects and music.

Enter the Dragon (1973)

• Average Tomatometer: 88%
• Average Audience Score: 91%

Legendary actor Bruce Lee stars in Enter the Dragon from 1973, regarded as one of the most influential action movies in history as well as one of the most profitable, having made $400 million at the box office on an $850,000 budget.

Lee plays an expert martial artist intent on capturing a narcotics dealer who led a gang responsible for killing Lee’s character’s sister, entering a kung fu competition to fight his way up to the dealer’s headquarters.

Godzilla (2014)

• Average Tomatometer: 76%
• Average Audience Score: 66%

Starring future MCU actors Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen alongside Bryan Cranston, 2014’s Godzilla provides a modern-day twist on the legendary movie monster with an extensive history on the big screen.

Taylor-Johnson’s Navy bomb expert Ford Brody has to go to Japan to help his estranged father (played by Cranston) when Godzilla comes up from the ocean and threatens worldwide chaos.

This film’s 2019 sequel, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, was also removed from Max.

Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)

• Average Tomatometer: 64%
• Average Audience Score: 56%

John Cusack, Craig Robinson, and Rob Corddry play three estranged friends who go on vacation alongside Clark Duke in Hot Tub Time Machine, where they encounter that very device and travel to the past to change their future.

Also starring comedy legend Chevy Chase and the MCU’s own Winter Soldier star, Sebastian Stan, this story’s core quartet all work through their own experiences with depression as they try to fix their lives for the better.

King Kong (1933)

• Average Tomatometer: 96%
• Average Audience Score: 86%

First hitting theaters 90 years ago, King Kong became the first movie ever to feature the iconic gigantic gorilla, and it rates as one of the greatest horror movies of all time according to Rotten Tomatoes.

This movie features a group of explorers traveling to Skull Island, where they capture the enormous Kong before the beast attempts to connect emotionally with a young woman.

Lethal Weapon (1987)

• Average Tomatometer: 80%
• Average Audience Score: 86%

Regarded as one of the greatest buddy cop movies of all time, Lethal Weapon stars Mel Gibson and Danny Glover as unlikely LAPD partners Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh as they uncover the secrets of a murder.

Riggs is a former Green Beret with suicidal tendencies after his wife’s death, while Murtaugh is a classic family man with a wife and three kids, as the two uncover a major drug-trafficking ring while trying to keep each other alive.

Lethal Weapon also spawned three sequels in 1989, 1992, and 1998, all of which were also removed from Max along with the original film.

Ready Player One (2018)

• Average Tomatometer: 72%
• Average Audience Score: 77%

Featuring performances by Tye Sheridan, Ben Mendelsohn, and Simon Pegg, Ready Player One gives fans a glimpse into the idea of virtual reality in a futuristic world centered on a young orphan.  

Based on author Ernest Kline’s first novel, the film follows protagonist Wade Watts on a search for an Easter egg in a worldwide virtual reality game, featuring nods to over 100 different movies released between the 1970s and the 2010s.

Rush Hour (1998)

• Average Tomatometer: 62%
• Average Audience Score: 78%

Featuring a massive cast of actors behind action movie legend Jackie Chan and comedy icon Chris Tucker, Rush Hour pits two mismatched police officers from China and Los Angeles together as they search for a Chinese diplomat’s daughter.

Tucker’s Detective James Carter is called in to help the FBI with the case, but they dismiss him and assign him to Chan’s Detective Inspector Lee as they work to solve the case on their own after being shoved aside.

All 12 of these movies will leave Max on August 31.