New Netflix Movies in October 2026: Dates for All 9 Original Films

• Netflix has nine original movies on its October calendar, starting with Tyler Perry’s Doing Life on Friday, Oct. 2.
• The big one is Animals, Ben Affleck’s kidnapping thriller with Kerry Washington, in select theaters and on Netflix on Oct. 9.
• Four of the nine are documentaries about comedians, including Judd Apatow’s Norm Macdonald film and Bob Saget’s last project, on Martin Mull.

Nine new movies, and four of them on one Friday. Netflix’s October movie calendar opens with Tyler Perry’s Doing Life on Oct. 2 and peaks on Oct. 16, when a Chris Evans and Anya Taylor-Joy thriller and a Norm Macdonald documentary land alongside two more films.

Here’s every date, what each movie is and who it’s for. These are Netflix’s own films, from its fall calendar; the full October list, which adds licensed movies, hadn’t been posted as of Sept. 27.

What is ‘Animals’ about?

A kidnapping, and a campaign. Ben Affleck plays Mark Kimball, a Los Angeles mayoral candidate, and Kerry Washington plays his wife, Abigail. When their son is taken, they scramble to raise the ransom and, in Netflix’s words, make “choices – and reveal secrets – that could tear their world apart.”

Affleck also co-wrote and directed it. Gillian Anderson, Steven Yeun, Adriana Paz, Luis Gerardo Méndez and Ray Fisher co-star. The film runs 1 hour and 48 minutes, is rated R and was shot in and around Los Angeles; it comes from Artists Equity, the studio Affleck co-founded with Matt Damon.

Animals opens in select theaters and starts streaming on Netflix the same day, Oct. 9. Here’s Netflix’s full trailer.

What else comes out on Netflix on Oct. 16?

Four films in one day. Sacrifice, from director Romain Gavras, is set at a celebrity charity gala, where a movie star in the middle of an existential crisis, played by Chris Evans, is taken hostage by a radical “warrior,” played by Anya Taylor-Joy, and her followers.

The cast around them is stacked: Vincent Cassel, Ambika Mod, Sam Richardson, Charli xcx, John Malkovich and Salma Hayek Pinault.

Norm: The Tale of Norm Macdonald, from Judd Apatow, is built entirely from archival footage, personal photos and home videos sent in by fans and friends, so Macdonald, who died in 2021 at 61, tells his own story, from Saturday Night Live‘s “Weekend Update” desk on.

The same day brings The Disciple, the story of an outsider who works his way into the Wu-Tang Clan’s inner circle to record a controversial album, and Therapy Done Right, an Argentine film with Ricardo Darín and Diego Peretti about a psychoanalyst who stops following the rules.

Which comedy documentaries are coming to Netflix in October?

Four, and Netflix is promoting them as a set. Who Is Martin Mull?, out Oct. 7, is the last project of Bob Saget, who co-directed it with Neil Berkeley before his death in January 2022.

Mull, the comedian, musician and painter, died in June 2024 at 80; Steve Martin and Tom Waits are among those interviewed.

After the Norm Macdonald film on Oct. 16 comes Paralyzed by Hope: The Maria Bamford Story on Oct. 23, which Apatow and Berkeley filmed for almost four years, tracing Bamford from her childhood in Duluth, Minnesota. SCTV: The Greatest Show You’ve Never Heard Of closes the month on Oct. 30.

That one follows the Canadian sketch show that gave John Candy, Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Andrea Martin and Martin Short early breaks, with interviews and a reunion of the surviving cast in Toronto.

Which Netflix movies hit theaters first?

Four more Netflix films open in theaters in October but won’t stream until later: La bola negra (theaters Oct. 16, Netflix Dec. 2), Lee Chang-dong’s Possible Love (Oct. 23, Nov. 6), Gentle Monster with Léa Seydoux (Oct. 30, Nov. 18) and Peter Berg’s The Mosquito Bowl (Oct. 30, Nov. 25).

The wait runs from two weeks for Possible Love to almost seven for La bola negra. Animals is the only October title that plays in theaters and on Netflix on the same day.

More to watch: here’s what’s real in Netflix’s Unabomber, which came out last Friday, and who’s who in Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story. On network TV, Marshals Season 2 starts Oct. 4. More in Movies & TV.

— Bruno Monteiro

Sources: Netflix Tudum, “All the New Netflix Movies to Cozy Up with This Fall” (Aug. 26, 2026, checked Sept. 27, 2026), “In the Animals Teaser, Ben Affleck and Kerry Washington Face a Mysterious Threat” by John DiLillo (Aug. 12, 2026), the Animals trailer article and “4 Netflix Comedy Documentaries Premiering This October”; Netflix’s Animals title page (runtime and rating); The Playlist on Who Is Martin Mull? (Sept. 21, 2026). Photos courtesy of Netflix.