There was a time, more than a decade ago, when Netflix was the best platform in the world to catch up on classic movies you’ve always wanted to watch or discover something fantastic. But as the streaming wars became more competitive and crowded, films from older releases began appearing in fewer and fewer places. Luckily with that Streaming war slightly decreasingwith companies like Disney and Warner Bros. As Netflix puts more emphasis on theatrical releases over streaming, it’s returning to the game of classic films.
The streaming service announced on Wednesday that it is launching a new series titled Milestone Films: The Anniversary Collection, highlighting classic films celebrating major anniversaries this year. Firstly, the site has already published a number of 50-year-old films from 1974, including Flaming saddles, Alice doesn’t live here anymore, The conversation, California divided, Death wish, Chinatown, The parallax viewand other notable critical hits.
New collections will follow in April, July and October with films from 1984, 1994 and 2004. Netflix has not yet released the planned titles for these later mini-packs.
Netflix has historically not placed much emphasis on curating its own content. New additions to its platform are rarely grouped together under a unified theme, as opposed to using its algorithm to split films into specific subgenre lists like “Cerebral Movies” or “Award Winning Dramas.” It doesn’t even look like there’s a good place to find the Milestone Movies collection on the streaming portal itself: you have to go there Announcement page for links to the full list. Still, it’s clear that with this new collection, Netflix also wants to be a destination for lovers of classic films, not just fans of Netflix originals.
Obviously, just because you like movies The conversation If you haven’t streamed on Netflix in the last few years, that doesn’t mean they haven’t been available anywhere. Most mainstream classics are available to stream if you’re looking for them. But just because a movie is on Criterion Channel, Max, or Paramount Plus doesn’t mean watching it is easy: It’s rarely worth subscribing to a new service just for the one movie you’re in the mood for.
But as studios like Paramount, Universal, and Warner Bros. begin to realize that streaming services aren’t the piggy bank they were hoping for, all of those classics (and dozens of smaller films, ranging from great to terrible) are back being licensed for streaming on Netflix, still the most popular streaming service worldwide.
And that’s the true value of great movies on Netflix. For all the things where the service isn’t particularly good, like Give shows time to develop or bringing the best films to the cinema, it’s a great tool to help people discover films they might not otherwise see. Last week, 2014 Exodus: Gods and Kings was the fourth most popular film on Netflix. This is by no means an insult to Sir Ridley Scott, but it is certainly one of his lesser films, and more importantly, it is one that no one has given much thought to since its release. But here it is in 2024, and thousands of people are streaming it on Netflix.
Now that companies are licensing movies to the streaming giant again and Netflix is paying for them, perhaps the streamer can bring that kind of attention to great films. At least if that is unfathomable Cold pursuit can stay in Netflix’s top 10 for a month, why not? Chinatown?
