HBO Has Made Detective Pikachu, The LEGO Movie 2 And More Movies Free For Everyone

Detective Pikachu

Times are particularly tough right now, what with the COVID-19 pandemic wreaking havoc on our daily lives. In order to help flatten that coronavirus curve, it’s been strongly encouraged that people stay home as much as possible. So finding ways to entertain oneself while social distancing/quarantining because all the more important to keep sane.

As a result, streaming has become an even bigger deal over the last several weeks, with folks turning to services like Netflix, Hulu and Disney+ to watch all sorts of movies and TV shows to pass the time. Now HBO is opening up select portions of its content library free to stream for a limited time, including the following Warner Bros movies:

ArthurArthur 2: On the RocksBlinded By the LightThe Bridges of Madison CountyCrazy, Stupid, LoveEmpire of the SunForget ParisHappy Feet TwoIsn't It Romantic?The Lego Movie 2: The Second PartMidnight SpecialMy Dog SkipNancy Drew And The Hidden StaircasePanPokémon Detective PikachuRed Riding HoodSmallfootStorksSucker PunchUnknown

Starting tomorrow, April 3, if you visit HBO NOW or HBO GO, you’ll be able to watch all these movies without needing a subscription for either service. But that’s just the tip of the content iceberg, as the nearly 500 hours of provided free programming also includes full runs of HBO shows like The Sopranos, The Wire, True Blood and Veep, as well as documentaries like The Apollo, Elvis Presley: The Searcher and McMillion$.

As far as the cinematic selection is concerned, we have a wide variety of stories to choose from. The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part and Pokemon Detective Pikachu are among the more recent releases, with both movies, as well as Blinded By the Light and Isn’t It Romantic?, showing in theaters last year. While both The LEGO Movie 2 and Detective Pikachu were met with a solid amount of positive reception, the latter movie made the bigger splash at the box office and currently ranks as the highest-grossing video game movie adaptation of all time.

Should you have already seen these movies, there’s plenty of older stuff to take in, from the Clint Eastwood-helmed The Bridges of Madison County and the Christian Bale-led Empire of the Sun, to nostalgic content like My Dog Skip and Crazy, Stupid, Love. And for the Zack Snyder fans out there, you’re welcome to give Sucker Punch another watch as the wait continues for whether or not Warner Bros will deliver the Snyder Cut of Justice League as so many have requested.

It’s unclear how long HBO will make these movies, documentaries and TV shows available for free, but considering that this announcement was accompanied with the hashtag #StayAtHomeBoxOffice, it’s possible all this content will remain accessible until the spread of the coronavirus starts to slow down.

For now, keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more streaming news and updates, and keep track of all the movies that have had their theatrical releases delayed with our comprehensive guide.

Adam Holmes
Senior Content Producer

Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.