Streamers Send Top Franchises to Competitors - Why Are Star Trek, Batman, and James Bond on the Move?
Movie studios are not known for playing nicely with their competitors. In 2019, most entertainment companies pulled up their drawbridges and hoarded their crown jewels of intellectual property. Batman movies are owned by Warner Bros., so they belonged to then-HBO Max. Paramount owns the Star Trek franchise, so they made a home at Paramount+. The pattern continued across the industry.
But now, something curious is happening. Some of the most closely guarded franchises are moving to unexpected places.
When you watch “The Godfather” and its 1974 sequel, the Paramount logo appears. While the films are still on Paramount+, you can also find them on Apple TV+ and Peacock.
If you’re in the mood for a Tom Cruise “Mission: Impossible” movie, they are all on Paramount+ as they should be, but some titles are on Peacock, one is on Apple TV+, and one is on MGM+.
Warner Bros. loves its superhero franchises. But the 1980s and '90s Batman films and the beloved “Batman: The Animated Series” are on both Max and Prime Video. “Wonder Woman” is on Max and Disney-owned Hulu.
The Star Trek franchise is a powerful Paramount asset, yet the big-screen adventures of Kirk and Spock are on Max today. Ditto for Captain Picard. Each of the 2009-16 cinematic reboots are available on at least two streamers.
James Bond movies begin with the MGM lion, making MGM+ or MGM-adjacent Prime Video a logical landing place. But today, only one Bond flick is included with Prime Video, none is on MGM+, and 12 are on Max.
The Transformers movies are wildly popular, yet parent company Paramount is sharing some with Apple TV+ and Max.
If you’re in the mood for dinosaurs, ignore the Universal logo before any “Jurassic Park” movie. Universal’s streamer (Peacock) only has one. You can find the dino-flicks on Netflix, Max, Hulu, and STARZ.
To complete Universal’s “Fast and Furious” franchise, you’ll need to detour through Max and Prime Video in addition to Peacock.
What’s going on here?
In the stay-at-home days of the Covid-19 pandemic, most entertainment companies believed they could thrive by hoarding their libraries. Netflix started looking a little empty as competitors clawed back their titles.
Disney CEO Bob Iger said at the time, “I woke up one day and thought we’re basically selling nuclear weapons technology to a third-world country, and now they’re using it against us. So we decided at the time that we would stop licensing to Netflix, and do it ourselves.”
It was a pattern replicated across the industry.
But a funny thing happened as vaccines rolled out and people went back to their lives. No one wanted to pay for a dozen streaming services anymore. Subscriber growth flatlined or reversed. Streamers raised prices to compensate. The gold rush is over, and now streamers and audiences are at a stalemate.
Of all the entertainment companies, only Disney has a library strong enough to hold out for now. If you want Pixar or Marvel or Star Wars, you have to pay the mouse. But all the other media titans are coming around to Sony's point of view: maybe it’s better to be an arms dealer than a platform owner.
If we look at stock performance over the last five years, Netflix destroys its peers, up 66%. In second place is Comcast (Peacock) with a loss of 6%. If you bought Warner Bros. Discovery when it became a standalone entity, you lost two-thirds of your money. If you bought Paramount five years ago, you’re probably not reading this because you jumped off a bridge.
This is why we say the streaming wars are over and Netflix won. They have the biggest subscriber base and they’re profitable. They can afford to crack open the wallet and borrow content from anyone. All the competitors are stuck in triage mode, frantically borrowing and renting out content to try to stay alive.
How dire is the streaming landscape? Nielsen numbers show the free service Tubi is pulling more viewing time than Peacock, Max, or Paramount+. That’s a five-alarm fire in the boardroom.
The Pipeline Problem
To gain and keep subscribers, streaming services need a reliable flow of new content.
Even if you love HBO content like we do, the channel is glacially slow to add new seasons, which spells trouble for Max. In the pre-streaming days of “The Sopranos,” the show took enormous breaks between its final four seasons (484 days, 456 days, and 645 days, respectively). For a more recent example, “The Last of Us” aired its first season finale March 12, 2023. Season 2 won’t air until sometime in 2025. Do they expect fans to pay month-to-month for two years while they wait?
Max’s critically acclaimed “Euphoria” first aired in 2019. We’re now more than two years since the end of season 2, and some of the stars have gone on to mega movie fame, while another died of a drug overdose. This does not bode well for a season 3.
The entire existence of Paramount+ seems to hinge on how fast Taylor Sheridan can write. The creator of “Yellowstone,” “1883,” “1923,” “Mayor of Kingstown,” “Tulsa King,” “Special Ops: Lioness,” “Lawmen: Bass Reeves,” and the upcoming “Landman” may be prolific, but he’s stretched a bit thin. The ultra-popular “Yellowstone,” which now has its logo slapped on beef jerky and waffle irons, seems to be doomed to oblivion since Kevin Costner is tired of working on the show. (That wouldn’t help Paramount+ anyway, since the show is on Peacock.)
Disney+ has shown an inability to find an original streaming hit outside Marvel and Star Wars (a minor Percy Jackson blip notwithstanding).
Only Netflix has a firehose of content aimed at its subscribers. Inexpensive standup comedy, international series, and reality shows pour out at a reliable clip. The frantic pace is necessary since Netflix owns precious little original IP. While Warner Bros. Discovery must take great care with every Batman-adjacent property, Netflix has no such sacred obligation. Even if Amazon wanted to jumpstart a James Bond cinematic universe, the rights-holding Broccoli family is notoriously cautious. Disney appears to have oversaturated its key franchises, leading to enormous uncertainty moving forward.
Feeding a streaming service is like programming dozens of live TV channels at the same time. There’s a bottomless appetite for new content. Even if you have a cinematic treasure chest like Max, it’s impossible to crank out new Kubrick, Miyazaki, or Fellini films. At some point, the audience will have seen all the archive content they want to watch.
Unless streamers are willing to spend up for an endless barrage of new content, the audience is likely to look elsewhere for their next thrill.
What’s Next?
Analysts have long believed we’re due for consolidation in the industry. We may be at the tipping point soon. There are too few subscribers and too many expensive options. Paramount seems ripe for acquisition. Would a new owner try to bolster Paramount+ or abandon the streaming war to sell off the library to rival streamers? Will Apple TV+ continue its deliberate pace or will CEO Tim Cook abandon the little-watched service as a distraction? Will David Zaslav’s Warner Bros. Discovery spending spree end in a much-predicted sell-off? Will Lionsgate give up on STARZ? Did you even know STARZ existed?
If consolidation doesn’t occur, are we doomed to watch these services continue swapping their key franchises? It may be fun to see an unexpected movie appear on your service, but that likely comes with the loss of movies you expect to see.
One way around this is to buy the movies or shows most important to you. Physical media like Blu-ray discs or digital purchases can ensure access to a beloved title, no matter what happens with your streaming lineup. Some movies or shows like the 2004 “Battlestar Galactica” reboot have gone completely AWOL from streamers, so a purchase safeguards your entertainment options.
In the meantime, Netflix is likely to continue extending its lead in the streaming wars. Even Disney's Bob Iger admitted Netflix is the “gold standard” of streaming. Disney+ should chug along with its army of children who would mutiny without access to Elsa, Buzz, and Moana. The HBO library likely makes Max a survivor. But for every other streaming service, the future is murky. Even for streamers with deep-pocketed parent companies, a shift in corporate priorities could mean the end of the platform.
If you need to know where your favorite movie or show is streaming, be sure to use our search box at the top of this page and we’ll point you in the right direction. Today’s exclusive title may soon become a baton passed in a grueling race for survival, and very few of the contestants look like they’ll make it to the finish line.