Apple TV Plus has added 50 licensed movies to its library, but two big details let it down

Apple TV Plus has expanded its movie library with more than fifty licensed titles from studios such as Universal, Sony and Warner Bros. Pictures.

Last Friday (March 1), the tech giant unveiled its Great Movie feature – a collection of third-party movies now available through the back catalog of its streaming service. Movies included in the Apple TV Plus movie selection include award-winning and classic films such as Titanicthe first two by Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movies, Saving Private RyanAnd Kill Bill parts one and two (i.e. two of the best Quentin Tarantino films). To see what other titles are available, visit Apple’s dedicated Great Movies web page.

Those who subscribe to one of the world’s top streaming services can also enjoy the above-mentioned titles and much more at no additional cost. So if you’re looking for a reason to use the Apple TV Plus free trial, or if you’ve exhausted all of Apple TV Plus’s available movie options, you now have a lot more content to stream.

Unfortunately, there are two major caveats to Apple’s Great Movies initiative. As the X/Twitter post (above) revealed, so can these 50+ films only streaming on Apple TV Plus in the US. They are also only available for a limited time – Variety report that some films will leave just a few weeks after landing on the platform, while the rest will depart sometime in April.

Ny Breaking has reached out to Apple for official comment on whether the Great Movies feature will be rolled out internationally in the future. We also asked if more licensed films will replace the original lineup once they retire from the service. We will update this article if we receive a response.

A step in the right direction, but Netflix isn’t worried

It’s nice to see that Apple is open to expanding its movie library beyond its own originals. Until recently, the tech giant seemingly had no interest in licensing films from other studios on its streaming platform. Our list of the best Apple TV Plus movies was then (and still is, to be completely honest) the home of original Apple TV movies.

As the aforementioned Variety article reminds us, Apple has offered a number of licensed titles on Apple TV Plus in the past. It added a small selection of films starring Jennifer Lawrence to its film catalog as its Apple-developed film Causeway was released. The same thing happened with a small collection of Sidney Poitier films in the docufilm Sydney also launched on the platform.

So Apple has an earlier form of bringing third-party movies to its user base. However, the nature of its limited-time deals means it will continually struggle to compete with some of its biggest streaming rivals, such as Netflix and Prime Video, in the film space.

While Apple TV Plus boasts its highly regarded movie collection, including the 2022 Best Picture Oscar winner CODA – making it, and not Netflix, the first streamer to win this prestigious award – the observable lack of licensed content is holding it back. Why would potential subscribers open an Apple TV Plus account for $9.99 / £8.99 / AU$12.99 per month when the library is small compared to Netflix and Prime Video? These streaming titans offer so much more bang for your buck – albeit at their cheaper, ad-supported tiers – than Apple with their thousands of movies and TV shows. A quick look at our best Netflix movies and the best Prime Video movie guides will serve as proof of that.

Unless Apple commits to bringing more licensed movies and TV shows to its streaming platform, it will lag behind the aforementioned duo, as well as Max, Disney Plus and Hulu, whose movie libraries are also much larger. Sure, it deserves credit for building an impressive slate of first-party content, but if you have ambitions to replace Netflix as the most popular platform in the world, Apple needs to bite the bullet and offer its user base more to watch, even if it is. licensed material.

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