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Streaming service wars news and trends
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523 posts in this topic

18 minutes ago, Bosco685 said:

My kids have watched this film so many times, I am surprised the bluray never gets scratched or worn out. They are going to really enjoy this portion of the HBO Max library.

I know the feeling.  I had several copies of these early demos and shared them with my daughter . When she was younger she would play them over and over until the tape was stretched and break. Eventually they released the Ghibli boxed set which I got for her, but she was disappointed that they were not translated quite the same and edited.  Specifically Kiki's Delivery Service  the cat GiGi... she enjoyed these all so much between the animation and storytelling it inspired her to pursue art. Over the years she has done so many things due to the inspiration of these films.  One year she insisted on even making her own Birthday cake as few knew what Kiki's was much less make a themed cake featuring Gigi.. 20180329_194255.thumb.jpg.21b73b0ed4c2132ba5545954eebba50c.jpg

which of course the cake she had to include some of her other favorites including the Ash /Soot sprites and No Face from Spirited Away...

20180328_223307.thumb.jpg.f5b20856bc16d396cdb2413edfed9131.jpg

now these have become very popular so she feels right at home. Speaking of which here is a mural my daughter painted on the wall of the office of the Gotham skyline which the pictures do not do Justice to the actual size/scale as this mural is big it covers almost the whole wall...20200527_081658.jpg.7894163f2c361dc987deb3a609a759cb.jpg

 

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Although the HBO Max service is taking some hits for not setting up agreements with Roku and Amazon Firestick out of the gate, there is quite a lot to like. Though honestly, the rollout with partners was very poorly handled.

 

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This is interesting, as to make the pending Roku and Amazon Fire Stick subscriber base appear to be in the tens of millions of users HBO Max was not subscribing yet (total userbase of those services), the actual existing HBO enrollment is much smaller.

HBO Max has arrived, but you can't watch on Roku or Amazon Fire TV

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Amazon was a bit more aggressive. In a statement Wednesday, the company indicated that it is upset that AT&T isn't just adding Max's content to the regular HBO offering that's available through Amazon's Prime Video Channels. 

 

"With a seamless customer experience, nearly 5 million HBO streamers currently access their subscription through Amazon's Prime Video Channels," a company spokeswoman said. "Unfortunately, with the launch of HBO Max, AT&T is choosing to deny these loyal HBO customers access to the expanded catalog.

 

"We believe that if you're paying for HBO, you're entitled to the new programming through the method you're already using. That's just good customer service and that's a priority for us."

Still a large number. But far from the 60M-80M being reported by many sites. And that is straight from Amazon's press release.

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Looks like HBO Max is moving rapidly to build out its catalog even further.

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June 1

  • Adventures In Babysitting (HBO)
  • Amelie (HBO)
  • The American (HBO)
  • An American Werewolf in London (HBO)
  • Another Cinderella Story
  • Beautiful Girls (HBO)
  • Black Beauty
  • Bridget Jones's Baby
  • The Bucket List
  • Cabaret
  • The Champ
  • Chicago
  • A Cinderella Story
  • A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song
  • Clash Of The Titans
  • Cradle 2 the Grave
  • Crash (Director's Cut) (HBO)
  • Doubt (HBO)
  • Dreaming Of Joseph Lees (HBO)
  • Drop Dead Gorgeous
  • Dune (HBO)
  • Elf 
  • Enter The Dragon
  • Far and Away (HBO)
  • Final Destination
  • Final Destination 2
  • Final Destination 3
  • The Final Destination
  • Firewall
  • Flipped
  • Forces of Nature (HBO)
  • The Fountain (HBO)
  • 4th & Forever: Muck City, Season One
  • Frantic
  • From Dusk Til Dawn
  • Full Metal Jacket
  • Gente De Zona: En Letra De Otro (HBO)
  • The Good Son (HBO)
  • The Goonies 
  • Hanna (HBO)
  • Havana (HBO)
  • He Got Game (HBO)
  • Heaven Can Wait
  • Heidi
  • Hello Again (HBO)
  • The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
  • The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
  • The Hunger
  • In Her Shoes (HBO)
  • In Like Flint (HBO)
  • The Iron Giant 1999
  • It Takes Two
  • Juice 
  • The Last Mimzy 
  • License To Wed 
  • Life (HBO)
  • Lifeforce (HBO)
  • Lights Out (HBO)
  • Like Water For Chocolate (HBO)
  • Looney Tunes: Back in Action
  • The Losers
  • Love Jones
  • Lucy (HBO)
  • Magic Mike
  • McCabe and Mrs. Miller
  • Misery
  • Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (HBO)
  • A Monster Calls (HBO)
  • Mr. Wonderful (HBO)
  • Must Love Dogs
  • My Dog Skip
  • Mystic River
  • The Neverending Story II: The Next Chapter
  • The Neverending Story
  • New York Minute
  • Nights In Rodanthe
  • No Reservations
  • Ordinary People
  • Our Man Flint (HBO)
  • The Parallax View
  • Patch Adams (HBO)
  • A Perfect World
  • Pedro Capo: En Letra Otro (HBO)
  • Personal Best
  • Presumed Innocent
  • Ray (HBO)
  • Richie Rich (Movie)
  • Rosewood
  • Rugrats Go Wild
  • Running on Empty
  • Secondhand Lions
  • She's The Man (HBO)
  • Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (HBO)
  • Space Cowboys
  • Speed Racer
  • Splendor in the Grass
  • The Stepfather (HBO)
  • Summer Catch
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3
  • Tess (HBO)
  • Tim Burton's Corpse Bride
  • The Time Traveler's Wife
  • Titanic
  • TMNT 
  • Torch Song Trilogy 1988
  • Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie (HBO)
  • Tweety's High-Flying Adventures
  • U-571 (HBO)
  • U.S. Marshals
  • Unaccompanied Minors
  • Uncle Buck (HBO)
  • Veronica Mars
  • Walking and Talking (HBO)
  • We Are Marshall
  • Weird Science (HBO)
  • When Harry Met Sally
  • Wild Wild West
  • Wonder (HBO)
  • X-Men: First Class (HBO)
  • You’ve Got Mail

 

June 2
Inside Carbonaro, season one (TruTV)

 

June 4
We’re Here, Season Finale (HBO)

 

June 5

  • Alison Rosa/HBO
  • Betty, Season finale (HBO)

 

June 6

  • Ad Astra (HBO)
  • Yvonne Orji: Momma, I Made It! (HBO)

 

June 7

I May Destroy You, Series premiere (HBO)

 

June 10
Infinity Train, Season two premiere

 

June 12
El asesino de los caprichos (AKA The Goya Murders) (HBO)

 

June 13

  • Chiabella James/Warner Bros.
  • The Good Liar (HBO)

 

June 14

  • Merie W. Wallace/HBO
  • I Know This Much Is True, Limited series finale (HBO)
  • Insecure, Season 4 finale (HBO)

 

June 16

  • #GeorgeWashington
  • Age of Big Cats, Season One
  • Ancient Earth, Season one
  • Apocalypse: WWI, Season one
  • Big World in A Small Garden
  • The Celts: Blood, Iron & Sacrifice, Season one
  • Cornfield Shipwreck
  • The Daunting Fortress of Richard the Lionheart
  • David Attenborough's Ant Mountain
  • David Attenbourough’s Light on Earth
  • DeBugged
  • Digits, Season one
  • Dragons & Damsels
  • Ebony: The Last Years of The Atlantic Slave Trade
  • Expedition: Black Sea Wrecks, Season one
  • First Man
  • Going Nuts: Tales from Squirrel World
  • Hack the Moon: Unsung Heroes of Apollo
  • The History of Food, Season one
  • Hurricane the Anatomy, Season one
  • Into the Lost Crystal Caves
  • Jason Silva: Transhumanism
  • King: A Filmed Record… Montgomery to Memphis (Part 1 and Part 2), Season one
  • Knuckleball!
  • Leonardo: The Mystery of The Lost Portrait
  • Looney Tunes, Season one
  • Man’s First Friend
  • Penguin Central
  • Pompeii: Disaster Street
  • Popeye, Season one
  • Pyramids Builders: New Clues
  • Realm of the Volga, Season one
  • Sacred Spaces, Season one
  • Scandalous: The Untold Story of the National Enquirer, Documentary premiere (CNN)
  • Scanning the PyramidsScience vs. Terrorism, Season one
  • The Secret Lives of Big Cats, Season one
  • Secret Life of Lakes, Season one
  • Secret Life Underground, Season one
  • Secrets of the Solar System, Season one
  • Space Probes!, Season one
  • Speed, Season one
  • Spies of War, Season one
  • Tales of Nature, Season one
  • Tsunamis: Facing a Global Threat
  • Versailles Rediscovered: The Sun King’s Vanished Palace
  • Viking Women, Season one
  • Vitamania
  • Whale Wisdom
  • The Woodstock Bus

 

June 18

  • Summer Camp Island, Season 2 premiere
  • Karma, Series Premiere

 

June 19

  • Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn, Documentary Premiere (HBO)
  • Entre Nos: The Winners (HBO)
  • Bajo el mismo techo (AKA Under the Same Roof) (HBO)

 

June 20
Ford v Ferrari (HBO)

 

June 21
Perry Mason, Limited series premiere (HBO)

 

June 22
Hard, Series finale (HBO)

 

June 24

  • South Park, Seasons 1-23
  • Transhood, Documentary premiere (HBO)

 

June 25

  • Adventure Time Distant Lands: BMO, Special premiere
  • Doom Patrol, Season 2 premiere
  • Esme & Roy, Season 2A premiere
  • Search Party, Season 3 premiere

 

June 26
Hormigas (AKA The Awakening of the Ants)

 

June 27
Doctor Sleep (Director's Cut) (HBO)

 

June 28

  • Robyn Van Swank/HBO
  • I'll Be Gone in the Dark, Docuseries premiere

 

June 30
Welcome to Chechnya, Documentary premiere

 

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5 hours ago, Bosco685 said:

Current streaming media player service provider distribution.

streaming_customers.jpg.cfd2f9ebaaaa07f262709c95196b280b.jpg

Gotta say I'm stunned that HBOmax is currently not on Roku or Amazon Fire stick, those two streaming services account for 80 million people.

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2 minutes ago, media_junkie said:

Gotta say I'm stunned that HBOmax is currently not on Roku or Amazon Fire stick, those two streaming services account for 80 million people.

Yet, Amazon's announcement made it clear that 80M is much smaller with active HBO subscribers (Amazon is 12.5% of its total userbase). A big amount (around 5M users). But not the 40M overall.

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HBO Max hosts an impressive number of Godzilla movies, but quite a few are missing. The brand new streaming service from WarnerMedia features few exclusives at the moment, but is packed with an abundance of older movies and TV shows at launch, especially those from Warner Bros.

 

The service offers a wide range of movies, from Casablanca to Detective Pikachu. It's also the home of several popular movie franchises, such as the DCEU, Alien, Jaws, Harry Potter, and Godzilla. Of the large selection of Godzilla movies currently available to HBO Max subscribers, there's the original 1954 film, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Destroy All Monsters, Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, and more. In fact, it has most of the movies in the Showa series of Godzilla movies, which lasted between 1954 and 1975.

 

The main reason it provides access to so many Godzilla films is because the licensing rights to several of them are held by the Criterion Collection, which is available on HBO Max. Not all of them, though, are in the Criterion Collection. The rights to a significant number of Godzilla movies are currently owned by Sony Pictures, thus keeping them from being added to HBO Max's library, though isn't the explanation for every omission. Here's every live-action movie missing from HBO Max's Godzilla collection.

 

King Kong Vs. Godzilla (1962)

 

Kong-Vs-Godzilla.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=740

 

All Monsters Attack (1969)

 

All-Monsters-Attack-Godzilla-Gabara.jpg?

 

The Return Of Godzilla (1984)

 

Return-of-Godzilla-Cropped.jpg?q=50&fit=

 

Godzilla Vs. Biollante (1989)


Biollante-Fights-Godzilla.jpg?q=50&fit=c

 

Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah (1991)


Godzilla-vs-King-Ghidorah.jpg?q=50&fit=c

 

Godzilla Vs. Mothra (1992)


Godzilla-vs-Mothra-1992.jpg?q=50&fit=cro

 

Godzilla Vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993)

 

Godzilla-vs.-Mechagodzilla-II.jpg?q=50&f

 

Godzilla, Mothra, And King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001)

 

Godzilla-Mothra-and-King-Ghidorah-artwor

 

Godzilla (2014)


Godzilla-2014-Poster.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w

 

Also known as...

 

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Shin Godzilla (2016)


godzilla-resurgence-nominations.jpg?q=50

 

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Another article on the Godzilla and Toho Big Monster films. Turns out they included War of the Gargantuas in the catalog. :banana:

Godzilla Movies Streaming Guide for HBO Max

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With the launch of HBO Max, the new streaming service has already set itself apart from much of its competition in one clear way: classic movies. With an entire branch of the service dedicated to films from the Turner Classic Movies brand, and an overlap with The Criterion Collection, which happens to include most of the classic Godzilla movies from the legendary Toho Studios. Not sure where to start? Unclear about what movies are spin-offs and what's unrelated? We've got a full guide to Toho's kaiju movies and everything Godzilla adjacent below!

 

Luckily there's not a very strict continuity for the earlier Godzilla movies, so leaping around as you see fit and watching whichever sounds the most interesting to you is an entirely appropriate way to watch. We've included a list of our favorites if you just want to hit the highlights, along with the movies in the series that aren't on HBO Max for one reason or another.

 

We'll also note that, seemingly due to limitations in the search function of HBO Max, currently the specific titles must be typed out into the search bar in order to find them. Simply searching for "Godzilla" will not bring up all of the movies featuring the character, which could be a hurdle as some classic movies with the kaiju don't have his name in the title.

 

Related Toho Movies


Only a few of Toho Studios' other kaiju movies are available on HBO Max but luckily they're both winners. The 1956 solo movie Rodan, which introduced the world to the flying kaijiu that would go on to appear in Godzilla movies, is available to be watched. In addition the 1966 movies The War of the Gargantuas can also be seen on HBO Max. The connection between that movie and the Godzilla franchise is a little tenuous (it's a sequel to the unavailable Frankenstein Conquers the World which featured the kaiju Baragon, a monster that appears in Destroy All Monsters), but it's a cult classic monster movie and was previously noted by director Guillermo del Toro as a major inspiration for Pacific Rim.

 

The Best Available Godzilla Movies on HBO Max


Of the fifteen films we've cited above, there are some stands outs in particular:

  • Godzilla (1954) - A general great movie and the start of the franchise
  • Rodan - A kaiju movie that will keep you guessing all the way to the final frame.
  • Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster - The first major kaiju battle movie, pitting four monsters in a major brawl.
  • Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla - The first appearance of the robot antagonist.
  • Terror of Mechagodzilla - The final film in the Shōwa era from Toho and features the underrated monster, Titanosaurus.
  • War of the Gargantuas - Semi-unrelated to the larger franchise but a Toho movie worth seeking out.

 

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BURBANK, CA (June 15, 2020) - Three new comic book superheroes are taking it to the “max” in the brand-new original digital comic book series titled To The Max, published by DC, in collaboration with HBO Max. To The Max features stories about ordinary people achieving their maximum potential when they transform into extraordinary superheroes with the help of another new character, Max the dog. 

 

These new comics also celebrate the recent launch of the new HBO Max and are chock-full of Easter Eggs and fun nods to much of the 10 thousand hours of premium content currently available on the streaming platform such as Friends, HBO’s Game of Thrones, The Big Bang Theory, HBO’s Sex and the City, Scooby-Doo and more. Can you find them all?!

 

Free to download starting today, this initial launch of the digital comic includes three 8-page chapters featuring everyday people, Hector, Brian and Olivia (HBO), who meet Max the dog, gain access to different superpowers and become able to teleport, shape shift, fly and save lives around the world. The comics embody the theme that HBO Max has something for everyone and that everyone can be their own superhero and take themselves to the max!

 

“We are thrilled to partner with the amazing team at DC to present this creative personification of HBO Max as a team of powerful comic book superheroes,” said Robert Greenblatt, Chairman, Warner Media Entertainment and Direct-To-Consumer. “These fun, original stories depict a diverse range of ordinary individuals who are symbolic of the depth and breadth of programming that is available on the platform, driving home the message that HBO Max has something for everyone.”

 

“DC and HBO Max both share in the belief that great storytelling is one of the most powerful ways to engage and connect with people,” said DC Chief Creative Officer and Publisher Jim Lee. “We are excited to share these new and original stories of Hector, Brian, Olivia and Max with the DC fans, and all fans of great entertainment content. These are superhero stories at their core, but they are also a pop culture scavenger hunt for the most media savvy!” said Lee.

 

To The Max Comics Available for Free on Digital Retailers Starting on June 15:

  • To The Max: Hector - When a schoolteacher finds a mysterious device, it sends him flying into an incredible outer-space rescue mission. Cover art by Jim Lee, penciled by Scot Eaton, and written by Ivan Cohen.
  • To The Max: Brian - A scuba instructor is transformed into a superhero who must save innocent people from a deadly storm in Singapore. Cover art by Jorge Jimenez, penciled by Hendry Prasetya, and written by Ivan Cohen.
  • To The Max: Olivia - A down-on-her-luck standup comic is all that stands between her audience and gun-toting criminals who plan to rob a Las Vegas casino. Cover art by Amanda Conner, penciled by Laura Braga and written by Ivan Cohen.

 

To The Max digital comics will be available for free with participating digital retailers, including DC UNIVERSE, DCComics.com, Apple iBookstore, Google Play Store, Kindle, Nook, Hoopla, Overdrive, and in the DC Comics app, ComiXology app and Madefire app for iOS and Android.

 

Edited by Bosco685
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Hey @Bosco685.  With all the streaming services out there I was wondering if you had any thoughts on the aggregators?  What's best?  Is there any way to honestly do a 'popular now' feature across platforms?  Do any allow you to play direct as opposed to linking?  Do any allow you to save favorites across platforms and track what you've seen and what you haven't?

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16 hours ago, thunsicker said:

Hey @Bosco685.  With all the streaming services out there I was wondering if you had any thoughts on the aggregators?  What's best?  Is there any way to honestly do a 'popular now' feature across platforms?  Do any allow you to play direct as opposed to linking?  Do any allow you to save favorites across platforms and track what you've seen and what you haven't?

Morning.

JustWatch is the one that comes up often as the most thorough streaming aggregator. I think I posted an article about it somewhere in this thread. But it also looks like someone is maintaining a wiki page comparing the various aggregators.

Comparison of video streaming aggregators

They also note JustWatch as top of the heap for now. Hope this helps.

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