If you’ve decided to cut out the cost of subscription streaming services like Netflix, HBO Max, and more from your monthly budget, we don’t blame you. I mean, have you seen the price of groceries?
But the good news is, even if you’re not paying for a subscription-based streamer, you can still watch free movies online without visiting some shady, illegal website that will probably give your device a virus. How? With Tubi!
If you have internet access, you can watch hundreds of movies and TV show streaming free right now on Tubi. You don’t even need an account! (Though you might want to make one, so you can save your progress while you watch.) Tubi is a free, ad-supported streamer, which means there will be a few commercials while you watch—but it’s no where near as many commercials as you’d see watching a movie on cable. You can watch on the Tubi app, or on the Tubi website.
That said, there are a lot of movies streaming on Tubi, and not all of them are worth your time. In an effort to help you cut though the noise, here are the best free movies you can watch on Tubi, updated for August 2026, from Oscar winners like Lady Bird, to comedy classics like Superbad.
DIRECTOR: Greta Gerwig
CAST: Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Tracy Letts
RATING: R
After her 2018 masterpiece Lady Bird, the film world could no longer deny that Greta Gerwig was one of the great filmmakers of our time. When teenage Lady Bird—played by the magnetic Saoirse Ronan—asks her mother, her voice raw and shaking, if her mom even likes her—and when her mom, played by the formidable and fantastic Laurie Metcalf, can’t give her a straight answer—I knew I was watching one of the best mother-daughter coming-of-age films of all time. Lady Bird will begin streaming on Tubi on August 1, 2026.
DIRECTOR: Mike Nichols
CAST: Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross
RATING: PG
Nearly 60 years later, this romantic comedy starring Dustin Hoffman still has mass appeal. But you don’t have to listen to me: The Graduate is widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time, and for good reason. Hoffman is charming, hilarious, and oh-so relatable as a man with no particular purpose or direction in life. And the soundtrack! Is there any film with a soundtrack as lasting as Simon & Garfunkel’s for The Graduate? You’ll be smiling as you watch this film on Tubi for that reason alone.
DIRECTOR: Greg Mottola
CAST: Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Seth Rogen, Bill Hader, Christopher Mintz-Please
RATING: R
You’ve probably seen Superbad already because Superbad is a classic. The coming-of-age comedy was a huge hit when it came out in theaters in 2007, and put stars Jonah Hill and Michael Cera on the map. It also cemented the careers of writers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, who, after the success of Superbad, partnered on a dozen more projects via their production company, Point Grey Productions. And honestly, everyone involved deserved all the success they got from this incredibly quotable, incredibly funny movie. “Old enough… to party” is still my go-to answer when someone asks my age. Superbad will begin streaming on Tubi on August 1, 2026.
DIRECTOR: Daniel Scheinert, Daniel Kwan
CAST: Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu, Jamie Lee Curtis
RATING: R
This 2023 Best Picture winner is like no movie you’ve ever seen before. Starring acclaimed kung-fu actress Michelle Yeoh, the movie follows a woman who unexpectedly finds herself hopping through the multiverse. But these are not the kind of vanilla multiverse realities you see in Marvel movies. These multiverses include a universe where everyone has hot dogs for fingers, a universe where everyone is a rock, and a universe where Pixar’s Ratatouille is real. But beneath all the absurdity, laugh-out jokes, and dazzling costumes, this is a heartfelt, touching family drama about mothers and daughters. I have never cried so hard at a movie with such an explicit butt-plug joke.
DIRECTOR: Frank Capra
CAST: James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Claude Rains
RATING: TV-G
Like many of Frank Capra and Jimmy Stewart’s films (most famously, It’s a Wonderful Life) Mr. Smith Goes to Washington takes a cynical view of the establishment at a time when that wasn’t such a popular thing to do. The 1939 film—starring , a bumbling Boy Scout leader who ends up in the U.S. Congress as a temporary replacement senator—was denounced by politicians and the Washington press as Communist propaganda and was even banned in Nazi Germany. But it ends on a hopeful note: In a scene that shows off just how great an actor Stewart was, Smith filibusters on the Senate floor, preaching American values, until the corrupt politician responsible (Claude Rains) confesses. If only.
DIRECTOR: Ridley Scott
CAST: Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis, Brad Pitt, Harvey Keitel
RATING: R
Will anything ever hit as good as Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis holding hands, laying on the gas, and driving off a cliff together? No, I don’t think it will. In addition to that perfect ending, the preceding 110 minutes of this buddy comedy are also excellent, speaking to the power of Callie Khouri’s iconic feminist script and Sarandon and Davis’s unforgettable performances.
DIRECTOR: James Cameron
CAST: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates
RATING: PG-13
Romance lovers may never have so good as we did back in 1997, when Titanic fever took over the world. Arguably one of the most romantic movies of all time, this epic love story between a wealthy aristocrat (Kate Winslet) and poor scoundrel (Leonardo DiCaprio) set the standard for romance. James Cameron may be the worst, but damn does he tell a good story. Plus, Jack and Rose’s sex scene is nothing short of iconic. Somehow, that hand on the steamed-up window of a French car was more erotic than explicit porn could ever be.
DIRECTOR: Billy Wilder
CAST: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon
RATING: TV-PG
This Marilyn Monroe classic still holds up as a funny, sexy, and progressive rom-com, even nearly 70 years later. The film follows two musicians (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon( who dress in drag in order to escape gangsters. It deals with some seriously taboo subjects for its time, including cross-dressing and homosexuality. And of course, Marilyn Monroe is always sexy.
DIRECTOR: Michael Patrick Jann
CAST: Kirsten Dunst, Ellen Barkin, Denise Richards, Kirstie Alley, Allison Janney, Amy Adams
RATING: PG-13
Shot in a mockumentary format and written by a former beauty pageant winner Lona Williams, this cult classic dark comedy takes place in a fictional Minnesota town where everyone is obsessed with the upcoming Sarah Rose Cosmetics Mount Rose American Teen Princess Pageant. One small problem: People involved in the pageant keep dying. You’ll be delighted to see some of your favorite actors, like Allison Janney, Ellen Barkin, Brittany Murphy, and the feature film debut of a very young-looking Amy Adams. This biting satire may at times offend, but it’s just so weird and absurd, you can’t help but love it.
DIRECTOR: Jennie Livingston
CAST: Brooke Xtravaganza, André Christian, Dorian Corey, Paris Duprée, Octavia St. Laurent, Willi Ninja
RATING: R
Though modern audiences have valid reasons to criticize this famous documentary—which chronicles seven years of ball culture in New York City in the ’80s—it remains one of the most important archives of African American and Latino gay and trans culture from that decade. Maybe filmmaker Jennie Livingston didn’t engage in the race and class issues she was filming in the best way, but she did make sure her subjects were never forgotten.
DIRECTOR: Jamie Babbit
CAST: Natasha Lyonne, Clea DuVall, Michelle Williams, RuPaul, Eddie Cibrian, Melanie Lynskey,
RATING: R
But I’m a Cheerleader a classic lesbian film, starring gay icon Clea DuVall herself (who later went on to write and direct Happiest Season). Directed by Jamie Babbit, the story follows a half-closeted teen girl (Natasha Lyonne) who sent to a gay conversion therapy camp by her parents, where she meets and falls in love with a cool girl more comfortable with her sexuality named Graham (DuVall). Though critics didn’t like it at the time, the film is a cult classic in the LGTBQ community.
DIRECTOR: Alex Garland
CAST: Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Nick Offerman,
RATING: R
This dystopian thriller won’t make you feel any better about the increasingly divided world, but it will make you think. Civil War stars Kirsten Dunst as a war journalist reporting on the demise of the United States during a new, modern American civil war. While you might think that concept has something to do with the current divided politics between Democrats and Republicans, in fact, there is no mention of either party in this movie. Instead, Garland asks audiences to confront the tricky ethics and importance of war journalism and documentation.
DIRECTOR: Wolfgang Petersen
CAST: Noah Hathaway, Barret Oliver, Tami Stronach, Gerald McRaney, Moses Gunn
RATING: PG
No matter your age, no matter your generation, The NeverEnding Story will enchant you with its magical, creative, fantasy world. The adventures of Atreyu, a young warrior tasked with defeating “The Nothing,” offer philosophical lessons useful to anyone, from not succumbing to depression, to dealing with the grief over the loved ones who do. (RIP Artax.)
DIRECTOR: Lee Daniels
CAST: Gabourey Sidibe, Mo’Nique, Mariah Carey, Sherri Shepherd, Lenny Kravitz
RATING: R
Don’t let the absurdly long title official title of this film—Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire, still a joke among my film-loving friends to this day—dissuade from watching this Oscar-winning drama. Star Gabourey Sidibe made a stunning acting debut as a teenager struggling with poverty and abuse in Harlem in the late ’80s. This indie film earned Daniels his first Oscar nomination as a director, and shot him to fame.
DIRECTOR: Tim Wardle
CAST: Robert Shafran, Mort Shafran, Alice Shafran, Ilene Shafran, Elliott Galland
RATING: PG-13
Documentaries often boast “unbelievable” tales, but they rarely deliver. Tim Wardle’s Three Identical Strangers actually lives up to its billing. If you lived in New York City in the 1980s, the first half-hour of his film may be familiar. Three 19-year-old men became local celebrities after they discovered they were triplets separated at birth. But what starts as a heartwarming human interest story twists into a tale of an unethical medical conspiracy, with deadly consequences.
DIRECTOR: Alexandre Aja
CAST: Kaya Scodelario, Barry Pepper, Morfydd Clark
RATING: R
Alexandre Aja’s well-crafted survivalist thriller, Crawl, maybe a silly monster movie, but it’s a good silly monster movie. Crawl finds our leads post-hurricane, trapped in a flooded crawl space, where they are attacked by vicious alligators. Sam Raimi produced, which perhaps explains why the action is fast-paced and fun, the characters are believable, and the kills are gleefully gore-y. Now that’s what I call a hurricane-survivor-monster-movie!
DIRECTOR: Christopher Nolan
CAST: Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, Stephen Tobolowsky, Mark Boone Junior
RATING: R
If you’re on a Christopher Nolan kick after The Odyssey, you should check out the trippy thriller that put his name on the map in Hollywood. Based on short story written by Nolan’s brother, Jonathan Nolan, Memento tells the non-linear story of a man (Guy Pearce) with amnesia that prevents him from creating new memories, who uses a complicated systems of photographs, notes, and tattoos to uncover the truth about what happened to him and his late wife.