The 18 Best Movies on Paramount+ Right Now

'Clueless'

Picking a movie to watch on a night in can be an almost impossible task. Thanks to the ongoing streaming wars, you've got more platforms than ever to choose from, but even once you've settled on a streamer the options are nearly endless. To help you make your next streaming selection at home, we've rounded up the best movies on Paramount+.

Originally launched as CBS All Access before it was rebranded to encompass all of Paramount's movies and TV shows, Paramount+ boasts plenty of great content to choose from. In addition to TV from Nickelodeon, MTV and Comedy Central, Paramount+ is home to the deep bench of movies from Paramount Pictures, not to mention an ever expanding slate of originals. There are several new Spongebob movies on the way, there's a whole series dedicated to the making of The Godfather and if you've got the Showtime plug-in, you'll have access to the whole A24 library. But there are plenty of good movies on offer at Paramount+, and we're hear to help you pick the best ones.

For this list, all feature films are fair game. We've included Paramount+ original films, and the movies they've acquired. This list is regularly updated as movies come and go from Paramount+'s library.

These are the best movies on Paramount+ right now to stream and binge-watch. 

Best movies on Paramount+ right now

1. Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

Top Gun: Maverick is the perfect American blockbuster. It plays as much like a legacy sequel to the 1986 film as to 40 years of Tom Cruise movies, with the best of what we've come to expect from Hollywood's most consistent star. The heart is always what made the original film resonate, and Maverick builds on it in unexpected, fulfilling ways. There's loss and romance, getting older and forgiveness. The action is groundbreaking, armrest-gripping and heart-pumping stuff, though ultimately, nothing can match the power of Cruise's on-screen reunion with Val Kilmer's "Iceman" Kazansky, which is handled perfectly. Cruise is still operating at the peak of his powers, and Maverick was one of the best movies of 2022.

Related: We Ranked the Entire James Bond Movie Series, Worst to Best

2. & 3. Mean Girls (2004) & Mean Girls (2024)

Tina Fey and Mark Waters' totally fetch 2004 teen comedy has a massive cult following that's only grown over the years. Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Lacey Chabert and Amanda Seyfried star in the oft-quoted farce about a misfit who gives popularity a shot. The picture's success cemented Fey's status as a screenwriter and was a springboard in the careers of its young cast members. In 2024, the musical adaption hit theaters and while not as strong as the original, its a fun romp that's updated with smart phones and the best songs from the Broadway stage musical.

4. Clueless (1995)

Writer/director Amy Heckerling’s mid-1990s take on Jane Austen’s novel Emma turned Alicia Silverstone into a star—and introduced viewers to a whole new teenage vernacular. Rich, privileged Beverly Hills high schooler Cher match-makes her friends and teachers, sometimes with hilarious results—but can she get her own love life right? As if! Clueless also featured awesome fashion and focused on strong, if flawed, young women in the sea of movies about teen boys that had come before.

5. The Big Short (2015)

While I still may not fully understand the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis (other than the fact that Margot Robbie told me "subprime" means "sh*t"), that's probably too much for any one film to explain. Adam McKay's Best Picture-nominated movie about the 2007 financial crisis is one of the most interesting ensemble films in years, following various key players (both good and evil) involved with the stock market's decline in the aughts. The star-studded cast includes Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt among others.

6. She's the Man (2006)

Adapting a Shakespeare play into a rom-com is harder than it looks (just ask anyone forced to endure Anyone But You). However, She's the Man, which transplants the plot of Twelfth Night onto a boarding school soccer team, perfectly inject's Shakespeare's clever plot with plenty of timely references (and of course tampon jokes). Amanda Bynes and Channing Tatum prove their comedic chops and chemistry even as Bynes dons the ugliest bowl cut wig the world has ever seen.

Related: Inspiring, Uplifting Movies on Netflix

7. Scream (2022)

There is no such thing as an actively bad Scream movie. Radio Silence's comic thriller accomplishes the considerable feat of delivering a worthy sequel for long-term fans and renewing the series for a new generation. It's easy to wish this Scream was scarier; Wes Craven's terrorizing touch is missed. Still, it's entertaining, funny and exciting, which made it a box-office success.

Scream 2022 is worthy of a series that's been really good for over a quarter-century, and it does a lot of things well. Beloved legacy characters return, balanced with an engaging young cast. Perhaps more than anything else, what's always set the Scream series apart from other slashers is the writing. Scream (2022) has a clever, quotable screenplay that evokes Kevin Williamson's wit but can't quite match his Scream scripts for invention.

8. Zodiac (2007)

David Fincher‘s gorgeously photographed police procedural about the real-life Zodiac killer will make your blood run cold, particularly a slaying in broad daylight (you’ll know it when you see it). Zodiac stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo and Robert Downey Jr. (who appeared here mere months before Iron Man catapulted his star back into the stratosphere).

Zodiac was acclaimed upon release, and many consider it a masterpiece today. In 2016, the BBC compiled a list of the 21st century’s best films based on a poll of 177 international critics. Zodiac placed 12th.

9. & 10. A Quiet Place (2018) & A Quiet Place Part II (2020)

Emily Blunt and John Krasinski star as parents who desperately need their kids to quiet down in A Quiet Place. The tension throughout is palpable (especially for Blunt's pregnant character), as is the chemistry of the entire cast. Millicent Simmonds, who plays a hearing-impaired preteen, has a particularly moving turn. The sequel, in which the family must depart from their beloved farmhouse and head for the coast, is equally compelling.

11. Arrival (2016)

Denis Villeneuve's gift for emotion-rich spectacle, and one of Amy Adams' finest performances showcasing her quiet, layered intelligence, made this deliberately paced drama—about a linguistics expert striving to communicate with earthbound extra-terrestrials—a delicate masterpiece. Arrival takes its time, exploring its themes with gravity and curiosity. It all amounts to a surprising final act of spiritual oomph that floors you. This movie is a spiritual experience.

12. Babylon (2022)

Damien Chazelle's bombastic ode to the golden age of Hollywood was misunderstood, dismissed and maligned when it was released. The over-three-hours-long epic, however, includes some of the director's best work and deserves a second chance. Not only are the crafts here (including a rowdy score, gorgeous costumes and stunning production design) unmatched, but the ensemble including Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt turn out top notch performances. The opening party sequence, the desert filming day and the soundstage scene are each perfect little morsels within the fuller movie. Word on the street is that Chazelle cut this down from his original 4-hour-long movie and I, for one, am desperate for that director's cut.

13. Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

When this movie came out in the summer of 1986, it was an instant hit. Matthew Broderick stars as a high-school senior who puts together an elaborate plan to convince his parents and most of his peers that he is deathly ill so that he can skip school. His principal, Edward Rooney (Jeffrey Jones), suspects that Ferris is faking his illness and sets out trying to catch him in the act. Meanwhile, Ferris brings his neurotic best friend, Cameron Frye (Alan Ruck), and his girlfriend, Sloane Peterson (Mia Sara), along for the ride as they have the time of their lives in Chicago.

Related: The Best Patriotic Movies of All Time

14. Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)

Masterful, and a little infuriating by design, the Coen Brothers' dark musical explores the torture of an unfulfilled, unmade creative life like perhaps no other film. There's a star-making performance from Oscar Isaac here, and the movie benefits greatly from the entrancingly smoky cinematography of Bruno Delbonnel (who also shot Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the best-looking film in that series).

15. Titanic (1996)

Pure and simple, strong and true, Titanic is one of the most extraordinary, extraordinarily entertaining of all films, a bar-setting masterpiece of the craft.

In a highly publicized ordeal quite similar to the production of “Disney’s Folly,” James Cameron bet the farm on a meticulously detailed epic pitched as “Romeo and Juliet on the Titanic.” The budget was record-breaking, the production turbulent. It looked like Titanic would be a disaster movie in a cynical sense. Instead, it became an instant classic.

Any backlash in the decades since is, frankly, unfounded. Particularly in its second half, Titanic is spellbinding in a way few pictures have even aspired to be. The love story is simple—but is that even a fault? That accessibility paired with great performances (Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet are as captivating as the picture around them) and groundbreaking effects gripped international audiences; Titanic obliterated box-office records, and is tied with Ben-Hur and Return of the King for most Oscar wins (11 in total).

16. & 17. The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974)

The most famous movie about organized crime remains the best. Francis Ford Coppola transformed Mario Puzo's pulpy page-turner into a sprawling, groundbreaking work of art and box-office leviathan. Upon repeat viewings (and let's be real; we've seen this movie a billion times), Al Pacino's mesmerizing performance perhaps stands out the most. This saga with richly realized characters and its own code of ethics never fails to pull us in.

Followed two years later by a sequel that many say tops the original; then 1990's The Godfather: Part III undeniably dropped the ball a bit.

18. The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

Leonardo DiCaprio delivers the best performance of his career in Martin Scorsese's indulgent, breathless, masterful satirical biopic about former stockbroker and convicted felon Jordan Belfort. In a scene-stealing supporting role, this was Margot Robbie's big breakthrough. Now, she's arguably the most sought-after film star on the planet.

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