Ranking The New Movies We Saw In March 2026

So usually when I do this, I consult my AMC app to see what movies I attended. According to the app, I only saw two movies last month. After thinking that could not possibly be right, I consulted the podcast feed for Beware of Spoilers, which confirmed I did, in fact, only see two movies. Apologies for that, it's been a bit of a hectic month and hopefully this month will be better. Anyway, here's the ranking of those two movies to determine the automatic bid for the 2026 Best of the Year Tournament.

2. Hoppers

Now this isn't necessarily to say Hoppers is bad, but when it comes to ranking, one has to be number one and one has to be number two. Functionally, the issue is that Hoppers comes off as an attempt to crowd-please at the expense of story. In a world where people constantly complain about messaging in movies, either that it's too overt or not there enough, Pixar has been trying to thread the needle largely unsuccessfully. To be clear, Hoppers is their best attempt at this, but it still leads to an unsatisfying third act because no character really feels different in a way that feels organic. It's almost a South Park version of centrism where the moral is not to care and if you care too much you're wrong. It's funny, it has heart, and I enjoyed the movie, but the ending just isn't there.

1. Project Hail Mary

Oddly enough, a lot of the criticism of Hoppers similarly applies to Project Hail Mary, though the latter is more consistent all the way through. The ending goes on a bit further than it needs to, arguably we don't need Grace to make the choice to go save Rocky in the aftermath of the revelation that there's nothing left for him on Earth. It makes the decision not to return somewhat undermine the bravery because, even if he did return to a family or people who were waiting for them, who knows what state they will be in when he returns or how different the world would be after a decade in space. Without that, he's just deciding to live out his life with the only person he actually formed a bond to recently which makes more sense. That aside, the movie is beautiful, the pacing is great, and it's one of the best original science fiction movies of the last 10 years alongside Arrival.

With this, the automatic births for the 2026 Best Of The Year Tournament are H is for Hawk, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die, and Project Hail Mary. I wouldn't be shocked if Hoppers ends up taking one of the 4 wild card slots, but we will see depending on the summer and December's relatively stacked release slates.