Best Movies of 2026 So Far, Ranked: Top 7 Picks — A Samurai Mystery Beats a Talking-Coyote Lawsuit and the Best Resident Evil Ever

Nia DaCosta takes over from Danny Boyle for the fourth film in the 28 Days Later series, working from a script by Alex Garland. The sequel follows young Spike (Alfie Williams), who is pulled into the satanic cult of "Sir Lord" Jimmy Crystal (Jack O'Connell), while Ralph Fiennes' Dr. Ian Kelson forms an unexpected bond with an Alpha infected named Samson. It is the stranger, more intimate half of the story begun in 28 Years Later, and critics responded: it holds 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, with an IMDb rating of 7.2.

What lifts it above ordinary franchise horror is its willingness to slow down. Fiennes gives a warm, odd, deeply human performance in the middle of a film about cruelty, and O'Connell's cult leader is frightening because he is so sure of himself. It sits at number seven only because the films above it are more complete as standalone experiences. FilmRated score: 85.

Phil Lord and Christopher Miller direct Drew Goddard's adaptation of Andy Weir's novel, with Ryan Gosling, who also produced, as Ryland Grace, a middle-school teacher who wakes up on an interstellar spacecraft with no memory of how he got there. Sandra Hüller co-stars, and the film's breakout is Rocky, an alien friend with no face who is realised largely as a practical puppet.

The film is a rare big-budget science-fiction picture that is optimistic about problem-solving and about friendship across a language barrier. It holds 95% on Rotten Tomatoes and 77 on Metacritic. The reason it is not higher is simply that the three-hander of science, comedy and heartbreak is a little more conventional in its shape than the winners above it. FilmRated score: 86.

The film that nearly never existed: Warner Bros. shelved the finished picture in 2023 as a tax write-off, then public backlash and a sale to Ketchup Entertainment brought it to cinemas in August 2026. Directed by Dave Green from a script by Samy Burch (story by James Gunn, Jeremy Slater and Burch), it mixes live action and animation as Wile E. Coyote hires a down-on-his-luck lawyer (Will Forte) to sue the Acme Corporation for its faulty products. Lana Condor and John Cena co-star.

It is 103 minutes of slapstick with a real legal-comedy spine, and critics were delighted: the Hollywood Reporter called it "a hilarious delight", while the New York Times made it a Critic's Pick. It holds 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, 77 on Metacritic, an A CinemaScore and an IMDb rating of 7.4. It is the crowd-pleaser on this list. It is on digital now. FilmRated score: 87.

Writer-director Curry Barker's supernatural horror debut starts with a small, relatable lie of the heart: Bear, a shop clerk, breaks a mysterious "One Wish Willow" to make his crush Nikki fall in love with him. He gets exactly what he asked for, and Nikki's devotion spirals into something violently uncontrollable. Barker also edited the film himself.

It is the best-received first feature on this list: 95% on Rotten Tomatoes and 7.8 on IMDb, the highest audience rating of the seven. What audiences and critics keep returning to is how much dread Barker gets from a small cast and a cheap-sounding premise, with a story that works as both a fright machine and a sour comedy about wanting to be wanted. FilmRated score: 88.

Zach Cregger, the director of Barbarian and Weapons, reboots the video-game franchise as a lean 94-minute siege picture. Bryan (Austin Abrams), a medical courier, is pulled into an Umbrella Corporation containment breach over one collapsing night, thrown together with an Umbrella scientist (Zach Cherry) and an Umbrella enforcer (Kali Reis). Cregger and co-writer Shay Hatten keep the geography legible and lean on practical creature effects.

The numbers are remarkable for a game adaptation: 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, 79 on Metacritic and 7.6 on IMDb, making it the best-reviewed film based on a video game on both aggregators. It also became the franchise's biggest box-office hit. Our full verdict is in the Resident Evil review. FilmRated score: 88.

Olivia Wilde directs and stars alongside Seth Rogen as a bickering married couple who host their new neighbours (Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton) for what should be a low-key dinner. It is an English-language remake of the Spanish film The People Upstairs, and A24 won a bidding war for it after its Sundance premiere. Over one evening, small talk curdles into a chamber piece about jealousy, desire and the long grind of marriage.

Reviewers singled out the four-way ensemble and how caustically funny it is: it holds 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, 82 on Metacritic and 7.4 on IMDb. It is adult, talky and best seen with someone you will want to argue with afterwards. FilmRated score: 89.

Kiyoshi Kurosawa, who also wrote the script from Honobu Yonezawa's Naoki Prize-winning novel Kokurojo, sets a murder mystery inside a besieged castle in 1578. The lord Araki Murashige (Masahiro Motoki) has rebelled against Oda Nobunaga and holed up in Arioka Castle, and a strange crime unfolds while the siege tightens. Masaki Suda and Yuriko Yoshitaka co-star, and the film runs 147 minutes.

It premiered in the Cannes Premiere section on 19 May 2026 and opened in Japan on 19 June, and it is the best-reviewed movie we have scored this year: 97% on Rotten Tomatoes (89 reviews), 84 on Metacritic (22 critics, "universal acclaim") and 7.1 on IMDb. Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com gave it four stars and called it "a dense chamber piece with big ideas and riveting performances." It is a historical thriller that rewards close attention, and it earns first place on both consensus and craft. FilmRated score: 91.

How we ranked: the order follows our FilmRated score, a blend of critic consensus (Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic), audience ratings (IMDb) and our own editorial read. Where two films tie on the FilmRated score, we put the one with the higher Rotten Tomatoes figure first. Every film here is a narrative feature released in 2026 that we have scored; films still waiting for a critical consensus, such as the big winter tentpoles, are not eligible yet.