But Is It on Netflix? - Streaming Video Service Thread: Hulu, Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, Disney+, Peacock, YouTube TV, AT+T Watch, Philo, Playstation Vue, HBO Max, HBO Now, Facebook Live and many more

This has the potential to be a very good thing. HBO's marketing is pretty highly tuned and often excellent, so if they decide to push non-superhero/non-tentpole movies to members who have previously shown an interest in that type of material, it'll likely have the effect of increasing the audience for that type of stuff and thereby causing more of that type of stuff to be made.

(N.B. I hate going to movie theaters.)

So prime video had channels on sale during black Friday. I decided to get MGM thinking I'd put on some musicals that I could half-watch while playing with my phone.

The MGM channel doesn't have any musicals.

― wasdnuos (abanana), Wednesday, December 2, 2020 12:36 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Pretty much all of the classic MGM musicals are, like most of the pre-80s MGM studio catalogue*, is now owned by Warner Bros.

*As in films made by the MGM as a studio, which were sold off to Ted Turner. MGM's currently touted vintage catalogue are all films they acquired through buyouts of United Artists, Orion etc.

I did a quick glance, and I've been wrong before (or, alternatively, am usually wrong!) but a huge number of musicals, from Top Hat to Oklahoma!, aren't included in any of the streaming services right now.

as i understand it rights tend to be more difficult with musicals because of the number of different people's permission you have to secure (and rights to buy) - there's the script, the music, the performance, etc

X PBoth of those were RKO productions, which are al so controlled by Turner/Warner's in the states.

Oklahoma can be rented from Microsoft, Redbox, Apple, Amazon, Google Play, Youtube, Vudu, and DirectTV. Top Hat can be rented from Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Google Play, Youtube, Fandango, Vudu and DirectTV. That means they're both extremely available compared to any previous time in the last 85 years tbf.

You can always pay, buy, etc. I mean included on subscription streaming services.

josh needs to watch top hat many, many times though

I know it's clearly just me, but it bugs me when I have pay subscriptions to (at least?) five major streaming services, have a few other free with ads ones, have a couple links to stuff like Kanopy and Hoopla, and *still* have to pay extra if I wanted to watch something like Top Hat or Oklahoma, even though both are owned by *one of the subscription services I pay for.*

Disappointment scales with number of services paid for. I get Netflix/HBO/Disney/CBS free via cell phone provider, family and password trades, Peacock/Tubi are free across the board, so all I pay for is Criterion and PBS - finding good stuff on the other ones always feels like a win.

brotherlovesdub, you do know that there are theatres where tickets don't cost a fortune and don't play an hour's worth of commercials beforehand, right?

This very much depends on which country you're in, for a start.

Once again I obnoxiously stumble into the thread to say: I can watch all kinds of musicals any time I want because hand-picked physical media is the ultimate streaming service.

This very much depends on which country you're in, for a start.

v true but this is also a function of consolidation of studios, not of the actual concept of going to a cinema

(Sydney's last indie/rep theatre lasted an extra six months after a giant mall/shopping centre, with a Hoyts inside, opened half an hour's walk away, because they got exclusive rights on a first-run surf doco. But that was 20 years ago.)

(ie brotherlovesdub and unperson dislike seeing movies projected on film on a giant screen, feeling the thrill of sensorally overwhelming art or entertainment as part of an audience of 10-1000 people, and therefore are arguing that nobody else should ever be able to enjoy that experience. the counterargument is that this experience could still exist, but they would not be forced to participate.)

Here's a non-netflix original suggestion: my wife and kid devoured all four seasons of Life in Pieces over the course of about 2 weeks. I saw probably half of it and it was excellent, what a good sitcom. Was surprised to find that it had been on CBS for four seasons (because I rarely watch anything on network tv now and almost always equate that to being awful) and also disappointed to learn it was cancelled unceremoniously with a series cliffhanger. Anyway, recommended if you like...I dunno. early seasons of modern family, but it's much funnier?

some good business observations here:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/filmmaker-steven-soderbergh-on-hbo-max-the-death-of-cinema-and-vibing-with-meryl-streep?ref=scroll

paywalled

incognito window

did not work on ios

Weird. I opened it up via Twitter and just copied the link, so don't know why it didn't work. My computer is currently inoperable, so I'm not sure how else to do it. I do know I didn't have to pay for it.

Soderbergh on the future of movies: "The theatrical biz is not going away. There are too many companies that have invested too much $$$ in the prospect of putting out a movie that blows up in theaters—there’s nothing like it. It’s all going to come back." https://t.co/Plq5OKrAPA

— Marlow Stern (@MarlowNYC) December 5, 2020

thanks Josh. just tried going via the tweet on desktop and on my phone, in incognito windows and didn't work unfortunately :( maybe it's a uk thing

put the most relevant stuff over here: the Disney-Fox merger and film/TV production/exhibition hegemony in general

I agree with him, it's kind of inconceivable to me that theaters would collapse entirely and I still don't see how studios can recoup their costs by taking things to subscription services. maybe home on demand rentals. But there will always be a theater-going audience if theaters exist, I think, for big films.

I forgot that Hulu did a 11/22/63 series. Worth watching? Thought the book was solid for latter day King.

it's quite watchable bollox iirc

thanks sic!

I liked it.

The Insider is on Amazon Prime!

man they're really gonna try and destroy two major American art industries just because Netflix is unprofitable and they tried to make a Netflix

― huge rant (sic), Friday, December 4, 2020 5:41 AM (four days ago)

turns out I have been otm in had this exactly right

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/04/att-dismantles-time-warner-to-battle-netflix-the-inside-story.html

We probably need a separate thread at this point to document all the ways AT&T/WB is punching itself in the face rn. The latest: the central players of Wonder Woman 1984 got massive payoffs to hype the film's move to HBO Max but most other affected filmmakers weren't informed until 90 minutes prior to the announcement that all of WB's 2021 film slate would be premiering on HBO Max.

Saw Christopher Nolan bitching about that and lack of "talent management" and idk, yeah its almost as if WB doesnt value the the filmmakers behind Space Jam 2, Mortal Kombat 2, Suicide Squad 3, and live action Tom & Jerry

Saw a couple articles yesterday that strongly imply the HBO Max and Roku deal is even farther away from happening than ever before. This shit is insane. At this point, part of me hopes it blows up in both of their faces and they don't get anything worked out before these 2021 movies start streaming there.

I gave in and bought a Fire Stick. Don't know if I'll keep HBO Max into January after my trial ends

I installed hbo max on my firetv before it was officially available fairly easily after searching how to do it. does that work on rokus also?

I'm close to bailing on my roku, not least of all because the remotes keep failing to connect to it. Also no fuctional Twitch app.

As far as I know, there are HBO Max/Roku workarounds for certain smart and/or 4k TVs, but haven't found one for our Roku.

https://www.cbr.com/roku-feature-hbo-max-workaround/

I never like doing the casting solution though - seems buggier and less smooth in my experience

Yeah, I saw that. Apparently our Roku device is too old for that update?

I never know whether "HBO Max" actually means HBO Max (the new service) or whether it's just being used to mean HBO (what used to be HBO Go/Now). For most people, the two are functionally synonymous, but for Roku users, they aren't. Basically, I want to know: Will I be able to watch these Warner Bros. movies on Roku, or nah?

As of right now, without any of the workarounds linked in the articles above, no.

There is an HBO app you can get on Roku if you subscribe, but it's only HBO content (no Warner stuff) that you would have if you paid for HBO through your cable company.

I recommended the Seth Roger pickle movie (was fun) to a friend who then searched for it on HBO, assuming it was part of being an HBO subscriber, but nah.

*Seth Rogen

xxp Yeah, I use that HBO Roku app all the time to watch HBO TV shows and movies that are included with the basic HBO streaming service. I just didn't know if the Warner deal was a general HBO deal or was specifically limited to the HBO Max service.

Specifically limited to the HBO Max service, as I understand it.

So far, the only thing I have wanted to watch but have been unable is Season 3 of Search Party.

It must be fun to have hundreds of billions of dollars on hand to patch over the inevitable fallout from your chronic incompetence.

It is baffling how they didn't convert the millions of existing HBO subscribers to Max better... when most of them get it for free anyway?

Yeah, and to be clear, I can watch HBO Max on my laptop...but I don't particularly want to.