There was a time, more than a decade ago, when Netflix was the best platform in the world to watch the classic movies you always wanted to see, or to discover something fantastic. But as the streaming wars became more competitive and crowded, films with older releases appeared in fewer and fewer places. Fortunately, with the streaming war slightly decreasingwith companies like Disney and Warner Bros. By emphasizing theatrical releases over streaming, Netflix is returning to the classic movie game.
The streaming service announced on Wednesday that it would start a new series called Milestone Movies: the anniversary collection, which highlights classic films celebrating major anniversaries this year. First off, the site has already launched a series of 50-year-old movies from 1974, including Blowing saddles, Alice no longer lives here, The conversation, California Split, Death wish, Chinatown, The parallax visionand more notable critical hits.
New collections will follow in April, July and October, featuring films from 1984, 1994 and 2004 respectively. Netflix has not yet released the planned titles for these later mini-packs.
Netflix historically hasn’t been big on curating its own content. It rarely wraps new additions to its platform around a consistent theme, as opposed to using its algorithm to group films into specialized subgenre lists like “Cerebral Movies” or “Award Winning Dramas.” It doesn’t even seem like there’s a good place to find the Milestone Movies collection on the streaming portal itself: you have to go to the announcement page for links to the full list. Still, with this new collection, it’s clear that Netflix also wants to become a destination for fans of classic films, and not just for fans of Netflix originals.
Of course, just because I like movies The conversation not being streamed on Netflix in recent years doesn’t mean they weren’t available anywhere. Most mainstream classics can be streamed if you look for them. But just because a movie is on the Criterion Channel, Max, or Paramount Plus doesn’t make it easy to watch: It’s rarely worth subscribing to a new service just for that one movie you’re craving.
But now studios like Paramount, Universal and Warner Bros. are starting to realize that streaming services aren’t the piggy banks they were hoping for, all these classics (and dozens of lesser films that range from great to terrible) are being relicensed for streaming on Netflix, still the most popular streaming service in the world.
And that’s the real value of great movies on Netflix. For all the things the service isn’t good at, like gives shows time to develop or by bringing the best films to theaters, it’s a great tool for helping people discover films they might not otherwise see. Last week, 2014 Exodus: Gods and kings was the fourth most popular movie on Netflix. This is no insult to Sir Ridley Scott at all, but it certainly ranks among his lesser films, and more importantly, it’s one that no one has given much thought to since its release. But there it is in 2024, with thousands of people streaming it on Netflix.
Now that companies are licensing movies to the streaming giant again and Netflix is paying for it, perhaps the streamer can bring that kind of attention to great films. After all, if it’s terrible Cold chase can stay in the Netflix top 10 for a month, why not Chinatown?