The best 4K and Blu-ray releases coming out in August 2025
New physical media must-haves include a pair of timeless classics celebrating milestone anniversaries, horror and queer hits, and oceans as battlefields.
Each month The A.V. Club does our part to keep you up to date on the best of what’s coming out on Blu-ray and 4K UHD, which is especially important as streaming services become less and less reliable homes for films worth watching. This is such a solid month for upgraded releases and anniversary editions that major players like Arrow and Criterion are left out completely from our roundup—it’s just too strong a field out there! August 2025’s Blu-ray and 4K releases include a pair of timeless films hitting big milestones, horror and queer classics, and oceans as battlefields. Read on and find films from James Wan, Billy Wilder, Peter Weir, Mamoru Hosoda, Jamie Babbit, and more.
Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World 4K SteelBook
Dads around the world felt a magnetic draw to their living rooms, in unison, as if pulled by an invisible force to stand next to the TV with their hands on their hips while watching the entirety of a feature-length film. And now, that film gets to be in glorious 4K. The excellent Master And Commander, which combines gripping sailing footage with the endearing bromance between Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany, is one of the best modern naval films, with a well-earned reputation even among those of us without children. A feather in filmmaker Peter Weir’s cap now gets a home release visually befitting its epic scope (even if the bonus features are a bit scant).
A stone-cold (and cold-blooded) classic from Billy Wilder, Sunset Boulevard gets the 4K treatment from Paramount as it approaches its 75th anniversary this month. Both a quintessential noir and a perfectly haunted L.A. story, the movie about an ex-film star (Gloria Swanson) and the wannabe writer (William Holden) who floats from her orbit to her pool, Sunset Boulevard has been restored via a 35mm print from the Library Of Congress, with a new audio mix that’ll also accompany the film as it heads back to theaters for a weekend in early August.
Wolf Children 4K SteelBook
Available August 5, 2025
Shout Factory and GKIDS continue with their Mamoru Hosoda streak after upgrading Summer Warsback in April with this story of a woman whose relationship with a werewolf bears a pair of wolf-human hybrids. An unabashedly emotional tale about parenthood, this was the film that led Hosoda to found Studio Chizu, which would produce all his future films—including Scarlet, out later this year.
It Follows 4K SteelBook
Available August 12, 2025
Filmmaker David Robert Mitchell won’t release Flowervale Street until next year, but it’s never too early to get aboard the hype train by watching his clever and nervy breakout horror It Follows. A few years after British label Second Sight’s deluxe treatment, Lionsgate is bringing the 4K Stateside, maintaining the bevy of special features that made the boutique release so alluring in the first place. The gnarly suburban nightmare, both out of time and easily allegorical, is one of the stronger original horror films of the modern era.
Monty Python And The Holy Grail 4K SteelBook
Available August 26, 2025
There’s not much that can be said about how good Monty Python And The Holy Grail is without accidentally typing out most of the film’s script. So, in an attempt to avoid this blurb becoming an IMDb Quotes page, let’s just underline the facts here: It’s in 4K for the first time, it’s the 50th anniversary, it’s one of the funniest movies ever made. Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam’s medieval send-up, which went on to emblazon a million T-shirts, is presented here chock full of extras, including many that’ve been crammed into the countless releases the film has gotten before, as well as a half-century retrospective featurette with “over 25 comedy luminaries” talking all things Python.
But I’m A Cheerleader 4K
Available August 26, 2025
Jamie Babbit’s queer classic But I’m a Cheerleader gets a nice visual boost from Lionsgate, making the pillow-princess pinks pop all the brighter in this hilarious and poignant coming-out comedy. With Natasha Lyonne, Clea DuVall, and Melanie Lynskey leading the cast, the film remains a sneering takedown of conversion camps and a plasticky marvel of superficial production design.
The Conjuring 4K SteelBook
Available August 26, 2025
While the franchise (and spin-off franchises) it spawned got lost in their own rooms filled with haunted toys, the original Conjuring film was a bolt of lightning from James Wan. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson stole the show, but so too did some of the most well-timed and cleverly orchestrated scare tactics in pop horror. The audience reaction to seeing that clap for the first time? Priceless. Now sharpened up by Warner Bros., in 4K alongside some but not all of its series-mates, the first film also features a few new extras with cast and crew looking back at the haunting that helped shape two decades of studio horror.
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