The great promise of streaming video was that we would have unlimited, universal access to nearly every movie ever created. We might expect difficulty finding some niche titles from independent filmmakers, but the most important films should always be available. Unfortunately, as streamers look to save money, it seems they’re cutting back on the crown jewels of cinema. Today, if you want to stream “The Godfather,” “Taxi Driver,” “Apocalypse Now,” or even “Citizen Kane,” you’re going to come up empty.
If you love movies, this is a frightening prospect. What’s the point in signing up for a year-long streaming contract if the service you choose is going to throw important titles out the door? Paramount+ is an especially frustrating service. Although Paramount owns the rights to “The Godfather” series, those films frequently bounce around to competing streamers. If you wanted to watch them today, they’re not available unless you buy or rent them individually. Paramount is similarly loose with rights to the Indiana Jones series, all of which are jumping to Disney+ soon. Nearly every popular Paramount franchise (Star Trek, Transformers, Mission: Impossible) gets farmed out to other streamers piece-by-piece.
Other great titles you can’t stream today include Spielberg’s “Jaws,” Spike Lee’s masterpiece “Do the Right Thing,” the 1984 Oscar magnet “Amadeus,” Kurosawa’s “Ran,” the much-loved Peter Sellars classic “Being There,” the Fellini landmark “La Dolce Vita,” Rob Reiner’s hysterical mockumentary “This is Spinal Tap,” the 70s classic “Dog Day Afternoon,” the holiday favorite “A Christmas Story,” and Jordan Peele’s Oscar winner “Get Out.” Even Spielberg’s classic “E.T.” is absent from every streaming library except Tubi. We can’t watch E.T. phone home without commercials?
Even more frustrating, some titles are starting to shuffle after several years on one streamer. The modern classic “Parasite” was on Hulu for years and years. Today, it lives on Max.
If you love classic movies, Max is still your best bet. Although Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has been reckless with a lot of content on the platform, it still hosts more classic movies than any service.
Your options for these missing titles aren’t great. You could rent or buy them through a platform like Prime Video. The problem with this method is that we have seen examples of previously purchased titles disappearing from digital libraries for one reason or another. You don’t really “own” a digital purchase unless you somehow keep a file on a hard drive.
A more straightforward option is to buy physical media. Blu-Ray and DVD purchases will keep those titles in your personal library. If you hit resale shops, you can scoop up these titles at a great price. The problem there is that you’re tied to the physical media and a device that can play the film.
But what if you still want to stream a movie you own on disc? There is a workaround, although the copyright law on this is a little murky. If you were to rip your movies to your computer, you could use a free service like Plex to make the file easily accessible across all your devices. Is it piracy to make a digital copy of a movie you own? The law isn’t terribly clear here. You’re usually only going to run into trouble if you try to sell or share a ripped copy with others. As long as you pay for the film, and you’re the one watching it, the copyright police aren’t liable to break down your door.
Movie fans would be happy to pay for access to their favorite films, but if those films are going to vanish without warning, it leaves cinephiles in a frustrating spot.