The best movies leaving Netflix, Prime Video, and Criterion Channel at the end of December 2024

The end of the year is just around the corner, and while that means a lot of things, one thing that may be lost is how many streaming services are clearing out their catalogs for 2025. Of course, there will be plenty of movies added to platforms. like Netflix, Prime Video and Criterion Channel next year, but for now we’ll focus on the best movies coming out in late December.

This month’s film selection includes a perfect companion to one of the year’s most surprising games, a perfect companion to this Christmas’s Bob Dylan biopic, one of the best comedies of the 2010s, and a horror classic.

Here are the best movies streaming in December.

Editor’s Choice: Raiders of the Lost Ark

Director: Steven Spielberg
Stars: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman
To leave Prime Video: December 31

The new Indiana Jones game, Indiana Jones and the Great Circleis one of the biggest and best surprises of the year in gaming. So if you’ve already picked up the game and are craving some more Indiana content, there’s no better place to play than where the game starts: Raiders of the Lost Ark.

You’ve probably seen this movie at least once, but it’s always a good time to rewatch one of the best action-adventure films ever released. Raiders of the Lost Ark is a masterpiece of character development, humor, suspense and cinematic blocking, and a great reminder that when Harrison Ford wants to, there isn’t a more charming star in the history of Hollywood.

Director: Will Gluck
Stars: Emma Stone, Stanley Tucci, Lisa Kudrow
Leave Netflix: December 31

After Emma Stone’s last few years of wonderful weirdness, it’s easy to forget that for a brief period in her career, she was effortlessly one of the funniest actors in Hollywood. Chief among her comedic performances is Easy Aa smart high school comedy that felt both ’80s humor and modern innovation.

The film follows Olive Penderghast (Stone), who concocts a desperate lie to escape from a camping trip, which invades the entire school and labels her a vagabond thanks to some gossip by her devoutly religious classmate. But instead of dissuading her classmates, Olive leans on reputation and turns the entire school upside down in the process.

Movies leaving Prime Video

Director: Robin Hardy
Stars: Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee, Diane Cilento
To leave Prime Video: December 31

The wicker man follows a police officer who is assigned to a remote island to investigate a girl who has been reported missing. What he finds instead is a society that follows an ancient pagan religion, with views he has no understanding of. But as their behavior becomes stranger, he begins to wonder how much danger he is in.

Strangely perfect for the holidays, in a crazy way, The wicker man is a horror classic whose influence still thrives today.

Exit criterion channel

Director: Joël and Ethan Coen
Stars: Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Adam Driver
Exit criterion channel: December 31

The slightly more official biopic of Bob Dylan, A complete unknownmay have just been released in theaters, but the best evocation of the New York folk scene of the 1960s remains the excellent work of the Coen brothers Inside Llewyn Davis.

The film follows Llewyn Davis, a struggling folk musician in the 1960s who is tragically talented but on exactly the wrong side of the line to make it big. The film follows Llewyn’s eternal quest to get his foot in the door of the industry without sacrificing the artistic integrity he believes lies in the soul of folk music, no matter what anyone around him says.

This melancholic masterpiece about pursuing art and passion wherever you go is one of the brothers’ best films ever, and features an absolutely incredible central performance from Oscar Isaac, one of the best acting of the 2010s. So if you need an extra dose of folk music before or after seeing Timothée Chalamet’s version of Dylan, this is the perfect place to stop.