The Best Shows and Movies Leaving HBO Max (March 2022)

HBO Max may be the best streaming service for contemporary and classic blockbuster movies, but it's not immune from having stuff expire. Some great movies and TV shows are leaving HBO Max in March 2022. The titles departing from the streaming service on March 31 include classic movies and shows from many different decades. There's film noir from the 1940s, action from the 1980s, and sexy drama from a decade ago.

We've rounded up a selection of our picks for the best things leaving HBO Max in March, but there's a ton of stuff about to be HBO Gone — the full list can be seen below. These are our picks for what to watch before the streaming clock runs out. We also have lists of the best movies and shows leaving Netflix and Hulu in March, if you want to cast a wider net.

Looking for more recommendations of what to watch next? We have a ton of them! We also have hand-picked selections based on shows you already love, as well as recommendations for Netflix (movies/shows), Amazon Prime Video (movies/shows), Hulu (movies/shows), Disney+ (movies/shows), HBO Max (movies/shows), Apple TV+, and Peacock.

The Dark Knight Rises (March 31) 

For fans of: Good superhero movies

Don't let the high Metascore give you the idea that conventional wisdom is right about The Batman. The latest iteration of the Caped Crusader is not a good movie. The characters are thin, the story is incoherent, and something unintentionally hilarious happens every few minutes. But you know what is a good movie? The Dark Knight Rises, the third and final chapter of Christopher Nolan's peerless Batman trilogy. Batman Begins and The Dark Knight are also on HBO Max and are not expiring, so this will be your last chance to stream the whole trilogy in one place. Watch them and remember what good superhero movies look like.

Magic Mike (March 31) 

For fans of: Sexy dancing men, deceptively sophisticated drama

Everyone loves Magic Mike. It's impossible not to be charmed by Channing Tatum as the titular male stripper and director Stephen Soderbergh's keenly observed character study of a man who wants something more out of life but doesn't know how to get it. The film is inspired by Tatum's own pre-fame experiences as a stripper in Tampa, and follows Mike, who creates a perfect fantasy for the women he strips for but has trouble turning his own dreams into reality. He wants to stop stripping, start his own custom furniture business, and be a good boyfriend to Brooke (Cody Horn), the sister of a young stripper named Adam (Alex Pettyfer) whom Mike takes under his beefy wing. But to the world — and even to himself sometimes — he's just Magic Mike. This is one of the key films of "the McConaissance" — the period last decade when Matthew McConaughey reestablished himself as a great actor — and McConaughey is incredible as Dallas, the greedy owner of the club where Mike and Adam work.

Mildred Pierce (March 31) 

For fans of: Film noir, early psychological thrillers, complex female characters 

Joan Crawford won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1945 for this exemplary noir drama from Casablanca director Michael Curtiz. Crawford plays the titular woman, who will do anything to provide a better life for her daughters, including marrying men she doesn't love, working her hands to the bone, and covering up violent crime. And her older daughter Veda (Ann Blyth) doesn't even appreciate her. It's a proto-feminist story that still feels powerful today, thanks to Crawford's unforgettable performance. The 2011 HBO limited series remake with Kate Winslet in the title role — a more faithful adaptation of James M. Cain's 1941 novel — is not expiring, but you should still watch the original Mildred Pierce before it goes, because who knows when it will come out of the Warner Bros. vault again?

Roots (March 31) 

For fans of: Historically significant television

There aren't many TV shows expiring from HBO Max this month, but the biggest one is a big one indeed. It's the historical — and historic — limited series Roots. The limited series was watched by tens of millions of people when it first aired in January 1977, and remains one of the most-watched television events of all time, and was groundbreaking in its depiction of slavery, which had never been portrayed so wrenchingly in a mainstream TV show or movie before. It follows Kunta Kinte (LeVar Burton as a young man, John Amos as an older man), an African man who is kidnapped and sold into slavery in America but refuses to let his spirit be broken, and his descendants as they endure the barbaric institution. Roots was a product of its time, but it still retains its power today. The sequels Roots: The Next Generations and Roots: The Gift are also expiring on March 31.

The Running Man (March 31)

For fans of: RoboCop, Ah-nuld, old movies that are more relevant now than when they were made

Arnold Schwarzenegger stars in this sci-fi action movie, a (very loose) adaptation of a Stephen King novel. He plays Ben Richards, a man incarcerated for a crime he didn't commit. The most popular TV show in the dystopian, totalitarian America he lives in is The Running Man, a game show where convicts try to win freedom by surviving being hunted by mercenaries. We're a little bit closer to that reality than we were when this came out in 1987, don't you think? The satire in The Running Man isn't as sophisticated as it is in RoboCop, which was released the same year, but it's in the same vein. 

Everything leaving HBO Max in March

8 Mile, 2002
A Royal Affair, 2012
Ballet 422, 2014
Best Man Down, 2012
Bill And Ted's Bogus Journey, 1991
Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure, 1989
Blindness, 2008
Blood Father, 2016
Broken City, 2013
Client 9: The Rise And Fall Of Eliot Spitzer, 2010
Darkness Falls, 2003
Dinner For Schmucks, 2010
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, 1988
Dr. Dolittle Million Dollar Mutts, 2009
Dreamgirls, 2006
Drop Zone, 1994
Evil Dead 2, 1987
Fear, 2005
Firestarter, 1984
Happily N'Ever After 2: Snow White, 2009
Happily N'Ever After, 2007
Herbie: Fully Loaded, 2005
I Am Number Four, 2011
Imagine That, 2009 (2009) In & Out, 1997
Joe, 2014
Johnny English Strikes Again, 2018
Kicking & Screaming, 2005
La Odisea De Los Giles, 2019
Lina From Lima, 2019
Magic Mike, 2012
Marathon Man, 1976
Mildred Pierce, 1945
Miracle On 34th Street, 1994
New In Town, 2009
Night Catches Us, 2010
Norbit, 2007
Pepito, 2020
Proof Of Life, 2000 
Roots, 1977
The Running Man, 1987
Slipping Into Darkness, 1971
Sliver, 1993 (Extended Version)
Strange But True, 2019
Take Me Home Tonight, 1986
Talk To Me, 1985
Ted, 2012 (Unrated Version)
The Bourne Legacy, 2012
The Campaign, 2012 (Extended Version)
The Dark Knight Rises, 2012
The Devil's Double, 2011
The Eichmann Show, 2015
The Evil Dead, 1983
The High Note, 2020
The King Of Staten Island, 2020
The Man With The Iron Fists, 2012 (Unrated Version)
The Rite, 2011
The Running Man, 1987
The Serenade, 1939
The Watcher, 2000
Tully, 2018
War, 2007