We’re living in the age of streaming services. It all started off with a small company called Netflix and since Netflix started other companies have invested big in their own services to the point where we now have Amazon Prime, NOW TV, Disney+, Freevee, BritBox, Apple TV+ and just recently Paramount+ along with many more. There’s way too much choice now and each one offers a wealth of content to the point that it’s almost impossible to watch everything. The global pandemic helped normalise television binging and finding easy access to a catalogue of films old and new, and you can watch these anywhere, from phones to tablets to laptops. Everyone’s preference is different, but today I want to go through some of the popular streaming services and what they have to offer this year in terms of film content.
Disney+
Just recently Disney announced they have more subscribers than Netflix has, proving how big and popular their service is. It’s not all animation films that are on demand either, there’s also more mature content and some long-lost classics too. This year we’ve had surprise hits such as Chip ’n’ Dale: Rescue Rangers and Prey, with some reimagined classics such as Pinocchio, with Tom Hanks as Gepetto, and Peter Pan and Wendy, with Jude Law as Captain Hook, coming to the small screen before the end of the year. There’s not a lot of new content this year, nor original content, but their massive library makes up for it and they seem to be prioritising long-form television series over films as well with Andor and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law soon to be debuting on the service.
Netflix
The daddy of them all and the one service to rule them all! Films such as The Gray Man and The Adam Project prove that Netflix is willing to risk making new and original films with big budgets, and that will continue in the later half of the year too with some big sequels in the works such as Enola Holmes 2 and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, which balances out with original films such as The School of Good and Evil, a controversial Marilyn Monroe biopic called Blonde and a fantasy adventure film called Slumberland all to look forward too. There’s no better place to get the big screen experience than with Netflix.
Amazon Prime
Amazon Studios is investing more in top tier films this year. Thirteen Lives, by filmmaker Ron Howard, is one of the biggest successes of the year for the service, and we have a lot of different films coming later this year from horror film Run Sweetheart Run, LGBTQ period drama My Policeman with Harry Styles, Samaritan, a grounded superhero film with Sylvester Stallone, and quirky comedy Catherine Called Birdy. Amazon has recently brought MGM meaning any of their upcoming films could also stream exclusively on the service too.
Apple TV+
Apple has invested a lot in quality over quantity regarding their film selection. Their films might not have the same blockbuster quality as Netflix’s, but they make up for it in star power and filmmaker-driven stories. Zac Efron’s The Greatest Beer Run Ever, from the filmmaker behind Green Book, is soon to debut on the service and we’ve already had The Tragedy of Macbeth and Cha Cha Real Smooth come to Apple TV+ earlier this year. The only big blockbuster film that is due this year on the service is Matthew Vaughn’s Argylle with Henry Cavill, so there is something for everyone.
Thanks for reading today’s blog!
Alex Murray, the Head of Eyesight Productions
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