Mark Hamill’s $169M 2025 smash hits Prime Video — plus all the new arrivals this week
Prime Video fires up the week with an animated crowd-pleaser featuring Mark Hamill as The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants sends Bikini Bottom’s finest chasing the Flying Dutchman to prove his mettle to Mr. Krabs — with more new arrivals landing June 15–21.
Looking for something new to stream this week? Amazon Prime Video is dropping a shortlist of films and live events that, honestly, cover quite a bizarre spectrum—from animated sea shenanigans to historic Olympic sprints, plus some sport if you actually like watching real people run about instead of cartoon sea sponges.
The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants
First up, and yes I can’t quite believe I’m typing this either, is the latest SpongeBob film, 'The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants'. Out Friday, it’s your usual undersea mayhem, but this time with a bit of a twist: SpongeBob is dead set on proving to Mr. Krabs that he’s not all fluff and no substance. To do this, he goes chasing after the Flying Dutchman—who, for reasons best left unexplained, is voiced by Mark Hamill. Luke Skywalker, a spectral pirate—only in Hollywood.
Tom Kenny’s back voicing SpongeBob and Gary, so you’re not missing the classic sounds. Reception-wise: Critics thought it was pretty solid (78% on Rotten Tomatoes), audiences slightly less so (67%). If you're someone who lives by IMDb, it's sitting at 5.7, which, let's be honest, probably means you’ll have seen much worse family films. Moneywise, it didn’t exactly flop: $169 million made at cinemas worldwide, which is nothing to sniff at given the box office these days.
Race (2016): Jesse Owens Biopic
The other big film out this week is 'Race', and no, it's not about Formula 1 or horse racing. We're talking Jesse Owens, the historic African-American track and field legend who put the world on notice at the 1936 Berlin Olympics—right under Hitler’s nose, no less. Stephan James plays Owens, and he’s joined by a surprisingly heavyweight supporting cast: Jason Sudeikis (a break from the Ted Lasso energy), Jeremy Irons, the late William Hurt, and Carice van Houten.
The film’s directed by Stephen Hopkins, and the critical reception was about as middle-of-the-road as you'd expect for a sincere sports biopic: 64% on Rotten Tomatoes with critics, 77% from audiences, and an IMDb of 7.1, which is actually rather respectable. Worldwide box office came in at around $25 million—not blockbuster numbers, but then again, it's a tough sell against superhero films and singing animal animations.
Live Sport on Prime
If watching actors pretend to run isn’t quite your thing, there’s plenty of actual live sport heading to Prime as well, including a bit of MLB, WNBA basketball, and NASCAR for those who prefer their drama un-scripted.
- Tuesday, June 16: Race (2016)
- Wednesday, June 17: Yankees on Prime
- Thursday, June 18: WNBA on Prime
- Friday, June 19: The SpongeBob Movie: Search For SquarePants (2025)
- Sunday, June 21: NASCAR on Prime
If you want to dig further into what’s coming up (including the prequel TV show to Legally Blonde, no, really), Prime Video’s latest trailers are worth a peek.