Return of the Streaming King - Netflix Library is Better Than It Has Been for Years
For the last few years, Netflix seemed to have sprung a leak. Once the one-stop shop for movies and TV, the world’s most popular streamer took a beating as rival services emerged. Disney+ and Max clawed back movies for their own streamers, and it seemed no one wanted to share libraries under any circumstances.
But times have changed.
Desperate to add revenue, rival streamers have once again opened their vaults to Netflix. The result is the best library Netflix has had in several years.
It’s Not TV, It’s Not HBO, It’s Netflix
One major pivot is how Max is allowing some of its HBO crown jewels to drift to Netflix. It began with the groundbreaking “Insecure,” cited by Rolling Stone as one of the 100 Best Sitcoms of All Time. Starting today, Netflix users will also be able to binge the highly acclaimed “Band of Brothers” and “The Pacific.” Eventually, Netflix will also get the beloved “Six Feet Under,” a show often cited as having one of the best final episodes ever.
While we don’t expect HBO would ever let “The Sopranos,” “Game of Thrones,” “Sex in the City,” or “Euphoria” go to Netflix, this group of borrowed shows is notable, and probably paves the way for future collaborations.
Netflix is also now home to many Warner Bros. movies that previously were Max-exclusive. You’ll see great movies like “The Departed,” “Prisoners,” and Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, including “The Dark Knight.”
Plundering Paramount, Plucking Peacock
Max isn’t the only streamer to surrender valuable parts of its library. Paramount+ is letting Netflix swipe great flicks like “Titanic,” “Heat,” “Up in the Air,” “The Wolf of Wall Street,” “Coming to America,” “Arrival,” “The Big Short,” and the 2009 “Star Trek.”
Other popular movies from rival studios to join Netflix include “Rocky” (United Artists); “Spider-Man” and “Superbad” (Sony);, “La La Land” and “Hacksaw Ridge” (Lionsgate); the first five “Fast & Furious” films, “The Deer Hunter,” “Field of Dreams,” “Ray,” “Liar Liar,” and “Bridesmaids” (Universal); “Anchorman” and “Collateral” (Dreamworks).
Netflix also benefits from its licensing deal with Sony, so recent films like “Bullet Train,” “Morbius,” “A Man Called Otto,” and “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” streamed there first. In the coming months, Netflix will also get the Jennifer Lawrence comedy “No Hard Feelings,” Ridley Scott’s epic “Napoleon,” and the dazzling animated adventure “Across the Spider-Verse.”
The Rich Get Richer
While Netflix has had success with incredibly popular series like “Squid Game,” “Wednesday,” and “Stranger Things,” its biggest weakness has been in the movie department. Despite seemingly unlimited investment, films like “Bright,” “Red Notice,” “Midnight Sky,” “The Adam Project,” and “The Gray Man” haven’t had the same cultural impact as those released by traditional studios. Even when acclaimed directors like Martin Scorsese or Adam McKay partner with Netflix, the output has fallen short of their usual standard.
With so many streamers duking it out to find the next big thing, it’s still important to offer some familiar favorites. Without the help of these other studios, Netflix would fail there. But the tide has turned. Netflix is once again home to a high-quality movie library with standouts from almost every studio. Disney seems to be the most ferocious about shielding its library from Netflix, though most others have caved.
This is not to say that Netflix is the streaming silver bullet that eliminates the need for the other streamers. Max still has a brilliant movie library and almost all the gems of the HBO crown, Prime Video is a huge library with lots of hard-to-find titles, Disney+ has a lock on superheroes and sci-fi blockbusters, Paramount+ has a top-notch kids TV library and several star-studded series from Taylor Sheridan, Apple TV+ offers big-budget high-concept TV. The list goes on.
But every time a major studio hands over a great film, it only adds value to the Netflix subscription. And right now, that value is as high as it has been in several years.
Netflix
Netflix is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 3,000+ movies, 2,000+ TV Shows, and Netflix Originals like Stranger Things, Squid Game, The Crown, Tiger King, and Bridgerton. They are constantly adding new shows and movies. Some of their Academy Award-winning exclusives include Roma, Marriage Story, Mank, and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.