19 Best Movies New to Streaming in January: The Menu, You People, Teen Wolf

 Posted on September 28, 2024  |  15 minutes  |  3122 words  |  Aldo Pusey

January is often the slowest month at the box office, and the same could be said for streaming as 2023 kicks off with a lower profile collection of new additions on Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max and more platforms. The biggest debut of the month is the arrival of Mark Mylod’s “The Menu” on HBO Max. The horror comedy, starring Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy, performed strong at the box office for a post-pandemic indie release (it cleared the $30 million mark domestically) and should grow its audience even more on HBO Max as the genre-clashing tone is perfect for the streaming era.

Elsewhere, Amazon Prime Video has a glitzy new offering in the form of the Jennifer Lopez vehicle “Shotgun Wedding.” Paramount+ is hoping to make a splash by reviving the “Teen Wolf” franchise with “Teen Wolf: The Movie,” which brings back many original stars from the original MTV drama series. Netflix, meanwhile, is bringing Eddie Murphy and Jonah Hill together for the culture-clash comedy “You People.” It might be a lower profile month on streaming overall, but there’s certainly room for some big streaming breakouts to dominate buzz.

Check out the full list below of must-stream titles new to streaming platforms in 2023.

  • The Menu (Jan. 3 on HBO Max)

    While it was a tough fall season for many indie films at the box office, Searchlight Pictures’ horror comedy “The Menu” prevailed with $36 million at the domestic box office and over $60 million worldwide. Anya Tayloy-Joy plays a young woman who attends a lavish meal with her rich boyfriend, but the chefs, led by Ralph Fiennes, have a nefarious plan up their sleeves. Variety film critic Owen Gleiberman named “The Menu” a critic’s pick, calling it “a Michelin Star version of ‘Saw’ and a tasty satire of what high-end dining has become.” He added, “‘The Menu’ is a black comedy, but one played close to the bone. And it is a thriller, because after a while what’s being served to the diners segues from pretentious to dangerous… The food is an abstraction, an idea, all generated to fulfill some beyond-the-beyond notion of perfection that has little to do with sustenance or pleasure and everything to do with the vanity of those who are creating the food and those who are consuming it.”

  • You People (Jan. 27 on Netflix)

    Netflix’s biggest original movie of January 2023 is “You People,” the feature directorial debut of “Black-ish” creator Kenya Barris. The director co-wrote the film with Jonah Hill, who stars in the comedy as a young man who clashes with the parents of his new girlfriend. The movie is an updated riff on the classic “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” storyline. The supporting cast includes Eddie Murphy, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, David Duchovny, Nia Long, Sam Jay, Elliot Gould, Molly Gordon, Rhea Perlman, Andrea Savage and Mike Epps. Netflix’s official synopsis reads: “A new couple and their families find themselves examining modern love and family dynamics amidst clashing cultures, societal expectations and generational differences.”

  • The Pale Blue Eye (Jan 6. on Netflix)

    Christian Bale reunites with his “Out of the Furnace” and “Hostiles” director Scott Cooper for this grim 19th century murder mystery in which a young Edgar Allen Poe (Harry Melling) teams up with a detective (Bale) to investigate a series of murders in West Point, N.Y. Variety film critic Owen Gleiberman criticized the drama for being too much of a “gloomfest,” adding in his review, “‘The Pale Blue Eye’ wants to get into the 19th-century darkness, but it’s suffocatingly somber and static. The film showcases its two investigators in an ostensibly enigmatic dance-of-the-seven-frontier-high-collars way, but for much of the movie we’re a step ahead of them. I rarely puzzle out thrillers, and the solution to this one struck me early on.” Even with mixed reviews, the film is Netflix’s first major original film release of 2023 and is bound to stir up interest. 

  • Minority Report (Jan. 1 on Netflix)

    Tom Cruise is more unstoppable than ever thanks to the success of “Top Gun: Maverick” and the upcoming return of the “Mission: Impossible” franchise later this year. In the meantime, fans can check out one of Cruise’s best movies ever as Steven Spielberg’s “Minority Report” is now streaming on Netflix.

    From Variety’s original review: “If ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ and ‘Blade Runner’ advanced the most provocatively elaborated visions of the near-future for their respective generations, then surely ‘Minority Report’ offers the most persuasively detailed portrait modern Hollywood has created of what the United States may look like 50 years hence… Spielberg’s film is his darkest and most socially relevant, as it outfits a straight-ahead man-on-the-run film noir yarn with extraordinary technological postulations as well as a genuinely thoughtful investigation of the suddenly pertinent subject of thwarting anticipated crime before it happens.”

  • Brokeback Mountain (Jan 1. on Netflix)

    Ang Lee’s devastatingly beautiful Oscar winner pairs Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as cowboys who fall in love in 1963 Wyoming. From Variety’s review: “The most chameleon-like of directors, Ang Lee pulls off yet another surprising left turn in ‘Brokeback Mountain.’ An achingly sad tale of two damaged souls whose intimate connection across many years cannot ever be properly resolved, this ostensible gay Western is marked by a heightened degree of sensitivity and tact, as well as an outstanding performance from Heath Ledger… while Gyllenhaal is engaging as the more free-wheeling of the two, Ledger is powerfully impressive as a frightened, limited man ill-equipped to deal with what life throws at him.”

  • Teen Wolf: The Movie (Jan. 26 on Paramount+)

    MTV’s fan-favorite series “Teen Wolf” returns after its 2017 finale for a feature film that reunites original cast members Tyler Posey, Tyler Hoechlin, Crystal Reed, Holland Roden, Shelley Hennig and more. The story is once again set in Beacon Hills as a full moon rises and a terrifying new evil emerges, forcing werewolf Scott McCall (Posey) to gather new allies and trusted friends to fight back against what could be the most powerful and deadliest enemy they’ve ever faced. The movie’s teaser confirmed that Reed’s character, Allison, is back from the dead to star in the new movie. 

    “I wanted to make sure I did the character justice,” creator Jeff Davis said last year. “Having her back was amazing. I texted Crystal, ‘We don’t really have a story yet. I mostly have ideas but I always said if I was going to do a movie, I would bring back Allison.’ She texted back and said that she burst into tears. She was in from that moment.”

  • Rocky, Rocky II, Rocky III, Rocky IV and Rocky V (Jan. 1 on Netflix)

    The “Rocky” universe is returning to the big screen in March with the Michael B. Jordan-directed “Creed III.” Ahead of time, fans can get prepared by streaming all five original “Rocky” movies on Netflix. Sylvester Stallone does not feature in the third “Creed” movie, but he’s front and center here as the underdog boxer that became a cultural touchstone for Hollywood. From Variety’s original review: “The very best way to enjoy ‘Rocky’ is not to examine it too carefully; better simply to relax and roll with the Walter Mitty, Cinderella, or what-have-you notion that the least of us still stands a chance of making it big.”

  • Pamela, a Love Story (Jan. 31 on Netflix)

    Pamela Anderson is telling her story, her way, with a new documentary on Netflix. Dubbed the “definitive documentary about the pop culture icon,” the film has been in the making for several years before landing at the streamer. Directed by Ryan White (“The Keepers,” “Ask Dr. Ruth”), the movie features exclusive access to Anderson, as well as archival footage and her personal journals. The film’s logline describes the project as “an intimate portrait embedded in the life of Pamela Anderson as she looks back at her professional and personal path and prepares for the next steps on her journey.”

  • Minions: The Rise of Gru (Jan. 23 on Netflix)

    Peacock subscribers will no longer be the only ones able to stream “Minions: The Rise of Gru” as the blockbuster animated comedy debuts on Netflix this month. Steve Carell returns as a younger version of Gru, who meets the yellow minions for the first time on his quest to becoming a world-renowned villain. Variety film critic Peter Debruge called the movie a “delightfully silly sequel” in his review, adding, “With every film, Illumination’s technique improves…The creative team, led by director Kyle Balda, blends Three Stooges slapstick routines with the classic squash-and-stretch character animation of the golden era, while getting creative with how to stage such gags in three-dimensional space.”

  • Happening (Jan. 22. on Hulu)

    Variety film critic Peter Debruge named Audrey Diwan’s Venice-winning abortion drama “Happening” the seventh best movie of 2022, writing, “‘Happening’ is a political statement, pure and simple, but one Diwan makes simply, with empathy rather than manipulation, by showing how far a university student must go when, early in the sexual revolution, she winds up pregnant by a one-night stand. Lead actor Anamaria Vartolomei makes it easy to identify with 23-year-old Anna, scared and desperate, trying to navigate a situation that countless others before her have faced. If society could only get past the shame and share such experiences as openly as Diwan does here, attitudes would change.”

  • The Mummy (Jan. 1 on Hulu)

    Brendan Fraser could win his first Oscar this year thanks to his performance in Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale,” and Hulu appears to be celebrating by offering subscribers Fraser’s original “The Mummy” movies on streaming. The 1999 movie stars Fraser as adventurer Rick O’Connell, who accidentally awakens Imhotep during an expedition to Hamunaptra, the City of the Dead. Fraser has been talking about “The Mummy” a lot during his “The Whale” awards tour, telling Variety last fall that he would be game to reprise the role of Rick O’Connell in a fourth “Mummy” movie. “I don’t know how it would work,” Fraser admitted. “But I’d be open to it if someone came up with the right conceit.”

  • Hereditary (Jan. 1 on HBO Max)

    Ari Aster is returning at some point this year with his Joaquin Phoenix-starring new movie, so it’s fitting his feature directorial debut “Hereditary” is now streaming on HBO Max. Toni Collette gives one of her best performances as a mother at her breaking point who must battle grief and her own inner demons. Variety film critic Owen Gleiberman wrote in his review, “Ari Aster’s disturbing spook show, featuring a bravura Toni Collette, is a domestic thriller about the scariest ghosts of all: the spirits within… It’s a freaky trance-out of a supernatural thriller, all about a family that’s being torn apart by ghosts, and it’s full of things that would look right at home in the megaplex horror-film-of-the-week (except, in this case, for how artfully done they are).”

  • John Wick, John Wick: Chapter 2 and John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (Jan. 1 on HBO Max)

    Keanu Reeves will be bringing John Wick back to the big screen for a fourth time in March, but for now his first three “John Wick” movies are streaming on HBO Max. Reeves plays an assassin who goes on the hunt to avenge the death of his dog, but his mission soon opens him up to an entire criminal underworld. The original “John Wick” earned $86 million worldwide in 2014 followed by $171.5 million for “John Wick: Chapter 2” in 2017 and $327.3 million for “John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum” in 2019. “John Wick: Chapter 4” opens in theaters March 24. 

  • Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul (Jan. 3 on Prime Video)

    “Debuting director Adamma Ebo picks a target so big she can’t possibly miss in a fairly obvious religious satire with undeniable cult appeal,” wrote Variety film critic Peter Debruge in his review of “Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul.” The comedy has been streaming on Peacock, but it now becomes available for Prime Video users at no extra cost this month. The comedy stars Regina Hall and Sterling K. Brown as the first lady and pastor of a megachurch who struggle to reopen and rebuild their congregation following a major scandal. Debruge added, “The actors bring layers to what could have been a one-joke wonder. Hall plays her character as a kind of martyr, a loyal wife who has learned how to fake a smile and say what other people want to hear, when her true feelings are clearly boiling beneath the surface.”

  • Jurassic World Dominion (Jan. 6 on Prime Video)

    “Jurassic World Dominion” has been available for Peacock subscribers since last September, following the movie’s billion-dollar grossing fun at the worldwide box office over the summer. Now the third “Jurassic World” film becomes available at no extra cost for Amazon Prime Video subscribers. The sequel, which notably features the returns of original franchise stars Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, earned a somewhat positive review from Variety film critic Peter Debruge, who wrote in his review, “Completing one trilogy while tying it back to the original, ‘Dominion’ comes the closest of the sequels to delivering on the ‘Jurassic’ franchise’s fearsome threat of human-dinosaur coexistence… Of the three ‘Jurassic World’ movies, ‘Dominion’ is the least silly and most entertaining.”

  • Shotgun Wedding (Jan. 27 on Prime Video)

    Jennifer Lopez’s career has been defined by both romantic comedies and more action-driven dramas. With Prime Video’s upcoming “Shotgun Wedding,” she gets both genres for the price of one. The action rom-com stars Lopez and Josh Duhamel as an engaged couple whose wedding party is taken hostage by criminals just before the nuptials. The couple must overcome the bumps in their relationship to save their friends and family. The supporting cast includes Sônia Braga, Jennifer Coolidge, Callie Hernandez, Cheech Marin, Selena Tan and Steve Coulter.

  • Vengeance (Jan. 16 on Prime Video)

    B.J. Novak’s feature directorial debut “Vengeance” was named the eighth best movie of 2022 by Variety film critic Owen Gleiberman, who called the film a “one-of-a-kind oddball” in his review. Gleiberman added, “In this dark but word-happy blue-state-meets-red-state tall tale, Novak plays a whip-smart obnoxious writer for The New Yorker who heads to small-town Texas to attend the funeral of an ex-hookup. Once there, he’s embroiled in a murder mystery that is really a culture clash that is really a meditation on why America has turned its once-vibrant differences into hate-fueled divisions. It takes a born filmmaker to keep a caprice this heady spinning in the air.”

  • The Raid 2 (Jan. 1 on Netflix)

    Movie theaters aren’t getting a lot of new action offerings this month, so why not stream one of the gnarliest and best action movies ever made? That would be Gareth Evans’ “The Raid 2.” From Variety’s review: “With its blissfully crude setup and ferociously inventive fight sequences, Gareth Evans’ ‘The Raid’ was an exhilarating, exhausting treat for those who like to take their genre poison straight. If ‘The Raid 2: Berandal’ disappoints somewhat by comparison, it’s not for lack of ambition: At nearly two-and-a-half hours, this sensationally violent and strikingly well-made sequel has been conceived as a slow-burn gangster epic, stranding the viewer in a maze-like underworld that doesn’t really get the adrenaline pumping until the film’s second half. Once the carnage kicks in, Evans’ action chops prove as robust and hyperkinetic as ever, delivering deep, bone-crunching pleasure for hardcore action buffs.”

  • The Lobster (Jan. 1 on HBO Max)

    Colin Farrell’s acclaimed performance in “The Banshees of Inisherin” is a frontrunner to land an Oscar nomination for best actor this year, which means it couldn’t be a better time for Farrell’s brilliant turn in Yorgos Lanthimos’ “The Lobster” to join “Banshees” in HBO Max’s streaming library. Farrell plays a lovelorn man who signs up for a hotel retreat where he only has 45 days to find a romantic partner or else he’ll be turned into animal of his choosing. “Lanthimos’ first English-language feature is a wickedly funny, unexpectedly moving satire of couple-fixated society,” wrote Guy Lodge in his Variety review. “This hilarious protest against societal preference for nuclear coupledom escalates, by its own sly logic, into a love story of profound tenderness and originality.”

Read More About:

Jump to Comments

More from Variety

Most Popular

Must Read

Sign Up for Variety Newsletters

By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. // This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Variety Confidential

A Variety and iHeartRadio Podcast

ncG1vNJzZmiukae2psDYZ5qopV%2BhtrTA0miZnqukYrqwwsieqmarpKeyornIp55mopGjwqK%2B2GZpaWpjZA%3D%3D