The majority of this month and the coming few may be spent talking about the best theatrical films released in 2025, but that does not mean there were not any noteworthy, straight-to-streaming movies released this year.
On the contrary, one of 2025’s biggest films premiered first on Netflix with no theatrical run beforehand, and the same goes for one of this year’s best holiday comedies. Even “Predator: Badlands,” the acclaimed seventh installment in the “Predator” franchise, had a streaming counterpart released this year that deserves to be honored right alongside it.
There were, of course, a number of movies released this year by Netflix, Prime Video and other streamers that were given small, limited theatrical runs before they made their wider, global streaming premieres. This list is not for those films. Instead, here are the five best straight-to-streaming movies of 2025.
“KPop Demon Hunters” (Netflix)
Might as well just get this one out of the way now, right? Netflix’s “KPop Demon Hunters” is not just the biggest streaming movie of the year, there is also a strong case to be made that it is the best. Directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans’ animated adventure about a demon-hunting K-pop girl group who are forced to face off against a rival, demonic boy band is a real blast.
The music is great. The animation is beautiful and fun. The humor is spot-on, and the film itself never misses a beat or overstays its welcome. “KPop Demon Hunters” knows exactly what it is and what it wants to be. There is no question as to why it has landed so well with viewers. It is the closest to a no-brainer that you will find on this list.
“Jingle Bell Heist” (Netflix)
Speaking of Netflix originals that know exactly what they are, “Jingle Bell Heist” is a crime comedy that finds the right balance between charming romance and slick genre fun. Directed by frequent Mike Flanagan cinematographer Michael Fimognari, this holiday gem about a pair of clever strangers (played by Connor Swindells and Olivia Holt) who team up to rob a London department store is as good as any holiday-themed Netflix original that has come along in recent years.
Swindells and Holt prove to be an effective duo on screen together, and “Jingle Bell Heist” provides all of the romantic and crime genre thrills that you could want from it. The film is, in many ways, the platonic ideal of a straight-to-streaming movie: humble and yet immensely endearing.
“Deep Cover” (Prime Video)
“Deep Cover” immediately cemented itself as one of this year’s streaming gems when it premiered on Amazon’s Prime Video in June, and it has held onto that title in the months since then. Director Tom Kingsley’s comedic thriller about a trio of improv actors (played by Bryce Dallas Howard, Orlando Bloom and Nick Mohammed) who are recruited by the police into an undercover London operation takes itself just seriously enough, which is to say not very much.
An absurdist screwball comedy crossed with a modest action movie, “Deep Cover” wins you over with both its breezy, light-on-its-feet tone and its perfectly-pitched lead performances from Bloom, Howard and Mohammed. Like “Jingle Bell Heist,” the film does not leave much of a lasting impression beyond a generally fond feeling, but sometimes that is enough.
“Eenie Meanie” (Hulu)
Here is a low-budget crime thriller that has no business being as good as it is. Writer-director Shawn Simmons’ “Eenie Meanie” follows a reformed getaway car driver (Samara Weaving) who is pulled back into her old, criminal lifestyle by the troublemaker childhood sweatheart (Karl Glusman) she just can’t seem to quit. The resulting film is an open-hearted, violent heist dramedy that wears its debt to certain crime fiction writers — namely, Elmore Leonard — proudly on its sleeve.
The film itself is undeniably flawed but also entertaining and, in its final act, unexpectedly moving. There are times throughout when “Eenie Meanie” adopts an unconvincing kind of Tarantino imitation, but it finds its footing in its closing 20 minutes, thanks in no small part to the winning performances given by Weaving and supporting players Andy Garcia and Steve Zahn.
“Predator: Killer of Killers” (Hulu)
Few would have predicted heading into 2025 that we would leave the year with not just one but two great new “Predator” films. That is exactly what director Dan Trachtenberg delivered this year, though, when he released “Predator: Killer of Killers” on Hulu in June and “Predator: Badlands” in theaters in November. You can take your pick between which of the two is better, but for the purposes of this list, it is “Killer of Killers” that gets the spotlight this time.
Trachtenberg’s ingenious, animated sci-fi anthology film introduces viewers to warriors from three very different cultures and historical periods and follows them as they each endure their own encounters with Predators. The ensuing action sequences are as thrilling as any the “Predator” franchise has ever produced, and the film’s fourth and final act feels impressive in the moment and only more so the further away from “Killer of Killers” you get. It is one of the year’s best animated films, and among the best straight-to-streaming originals you could have watched in 2025.
