Netflix may be synonymous with binge-watching, buy viewers are learning that, in the age of too-much TV, there are some types of shows that are more binge-able than others.
This story and video include spoilers for seasons one and two of Mr. Robot.
It’s Jeremy Clarkson versus the Queen.
If you tried to watch YouTube on an Amazon Fire TV this week, you probably encountered a disconcerting message: “Starting on 1/1/2018, YouTube will not be available on this device.” It directed viewers to a list of other smart TVs, media players, game consoles, and set-top boxes, where Google’s exceedingly popular video app is still available. Amazon devices were not on it.
Since the internet made it easier to illegally download and stream movies and TV shows, Hollywood struggled with people pirating its works online. About $5.5 billion in revenue was lost to piracy globally last year, Digital TV Research found (pdf), and it’s expected to approach $10 billion by 2022.
Characters like Thor, Iron Man, Wonder Woman, and Batman have come to dominate the annual cinema calendar. Marvel now releases about three movies a year, on top of the films based on its characters that come from other studios like 20th Century Fox and Sony. And there are a whole slate of films based on DC Comics released every year.
Everyone in prestige TV is looking for the next Game of Thrones—except its own network. HBO CEO Richard Plepler said the same chatter was alive a decade ago when its definitive hit The Sopranos ended.
It’s the end of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as we know it. After more than 10 years and 20 movies starring heroes like Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor, Marvel will conclude its current theatrical run with Avengers 4 in 2019.
A low-budget indie film is now the best-reviewed movie on Rotten Tomatoes.
Netflix won its first Oscar this year, not for a feature film, but for a documentary short about Syrian first responders called The White Helmets. Another Netflix documentary, Ava DuVernay’s 13th was also nominated for an Academy Award.
Netflix hasn’t obsoleted the video store just yet.
China’s biggest movie of the year wasn’t a popular Western actioner like the Fast & Furious and Transformers films. It was Wolf Warrior 2, a homegrown action sequel about a Chinese special forces agent who comes out of retirement to fight Western mercenaries.
The patriarch is toppling in Hollywood in 2017.
This is part of our series on The gift of good TV. Stay tuned for new stories over the next four weeks.
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes have spoken. Justice League is decidedly mediocre.
With his longtime executive producer, Harvey Weinstein, out of the picture and Weinstein’s independent studio flirting with bankruptcy, Quentin Tarantino is looking for a home for his movies for the first time since his first, Reservoir Dogs, in the early 1990s.
We will watch it on a plane. And in the dark. And on a train. And in a car. And in a tree. Okay, maybe not that last one. But people will watch movies and TV shows practically anywhere.
Amazon is acquiring a taste for ads.
Earlier this year, Disney said it would stop sending new movie releases to Netflix, its soon-to-be streaming rival, in 2019. Disney—as with its theme parks, consumer products, and films—is hoping its brands can help it survive in a Netflix world. Star Wars, Marvel, and Pixar will be front and center in Disney’s own streaming service, due out that year.
Netflix’s first acquisition—the Scottish comic-book publisher Millarworld—is a becoming a breeding ground for stories that could hit the service.
AT&T’s planned merger with Time Warner has far-reaching implications, not just for the two US companies, but for the broader media landscape. And it could all come down to CNN.
There’s nothing new about what Netflix is doing in film, says Christopher Nolan. What’s different is selling it to Wall Street as innovation.
Walt Disney’s reported talks to buy most of the film-studio assets of 21st Century Fox aren’t about Disney or Fox. They’re about Netflix.
AMC won’t let its stumbling zombies die.
