Streaming service Paramount+ has decided that you need more movies in your life. In fact, you need a proverbial “Mountain of Movies” to the tune of a new one every week. No longer satisfied with filling the platform with Yellowstone spinoffs (that will keep dads on the phone with their kids for the next three years asking if they’ve seen something called 6666 or Y:1883), ViacomCBS plans to debut one new movie every week on the streaming service in 2022 and more than 1,000 titles next month.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, During the ViacomCBS’ first-quarter earnings conference call Thursday, CEO Bob Bakish warned investors that soon he would crush consumers with content, starting with the upcoming Mark Wahlberg movie, the appropriately titled, Infinite. Bakish says that he’s seen the film, calling it “fun” and that it will “create a lot of noise.” Curiously enough, he continues, “People love Mark Wahlberg,” which really puts this whole endeavor into stark perspective.
The “Mountain of Movies” marketing campaign will begin this summer as the company promises to bring the total number of films on the platform to 2,500 by July. Don’t worry, the campaign won’t solely be filled with Mark Wahlberg projects, but rather movies people presumably like, such as The Avengers (the superhero one, not the Ralph Fiennes one), Rocketman (the Elton John one, not the Harland Williams one), and probably one more that fits this joke structure.
As for movies released in theaters (remember those?), Bakish says that they’re going to be giving upcoming potential blockbusters a 45-day theatrical lead. This means you’ll have a month-and-a-half head start on making A Quiet Place Part II fart jokes on Twitter before it hits streamers when everyone will make the same jokes (but you’ll be first, and that’s all that matters). “In addition, new original movies like Paranormal Activity, and The In Between will premiere on Paramount+ by the end of ’21,” he said. “All of this is a preview to a substantial ramping up of original movies next year, when we expect to begin averaging an original movie a week in 2022.”
However, Bakish was a little quieter on how all this will all work, referencing a dozen “short-window pay 1" movies, which sounds a whole lot like you’ll have to pay a premium for the Paw Patrol movie. “We will have more on this in the months ahead,” said Bakish, before pivoting to “People love movies”—and presumably hanging up the phone and getting on a plane to money island.
There you have it. Movies are back, baby. Now, prepare to be crushed under the massive weight of the Paramount+-induced decision paralysis.
96 Comments
Paramount Plus has got to have the least ROI of any of the streaming services. The content you get for the price you pay is so not worth it.
Have you sampled Apple TV+? It’s a bit cheaper than Paramount, but outside of their still pretty paltry amount of original content and some Peanuts cartoons, there’s literally nothing. No back catalog at all. If you want to watch anything else, you have to rent it.
I did sample Apple TV+, yes. Ted Lasso and For All Mankind are absolutely amazing. But you’re right, that’s not a lot to hang an entire streaming service on. That said, it’s five bucks a month cheaper than P+.
Technically, you can get a “limited commercials” version of Paramount+ for $5.99, but yes, the no commercial version is a full $5 more.
Paramount+ is $9.99 for the commercial free version. Apple is $4.99/month?
I’m getting Apple+ free because I got a new iPhone. The only show on there worth watching is Ted Lasso. That Tom Hanks World War II movie looks interesting, but it’s been on there for almost a year and I haven’t watched it, so….
I’m at a loss for why anyone would pay to subscribe for more than a month. I did a free trial so I could watch Wolfwalkers, On the Rocks, and Boys State and they were all varying levels of enjoyable. Caught Beastie Boys Story while I was there. But I was shocked to learn that they didn’t offer anything else. I believe everyone when they tell me that Ted Lasso is good, but there are so many other shows to watch on streaming services that have other content.
I promise For All Mankind is worth your time.
the correct way to use Apple TV+ is to get one month of it, marathon literally everything on the service (which should not take more than two weeks), and then cancel. there’s some really solid stuff on there (Boys State, Ted Lasso, etc) but the lack of quantity is truly hilarious
I thought I must be doing something wrong when I first logged in. I kept looking for the rest of the content.
That’s the correct way to use all these streaming services.
I look at it not as something to retain an ongoing subscription to, but something with a handful of content that I’d happily pay a few bucks to consume once. There’s three or four shows on Apple TV+ I’d gladly watch, and $5 for all that content is exceedingly fair. But once I’d consumed it, I probably wouldn’t resub for another month of ATV+ for another year or two, once they’d built up more content I wanted to see.
Sure. I get that. Just doesn’t seem like a very sustainable business model. Those shows and movies are expensive.
Who says that’s their business model? They have the same business model as every other subscription streaming service: attract people with high-profile content, and then hope they forget to unsubscribe. I’m an outlier, not their core target audience.
Of course they don’t intend for people to unsubscribe. But if they give them very little reason to stick around, they will.
I really want to see Ted Lasso, but it seems to be the only worthwhile thing on Apple TV and it’s just not worth getting one more goddamn service.
Same. I’m sure it’s delightful, but there are a lot of great shows out there.
It’s worth subscribing for a month to burn through For All Mankind, but there’s no reason to keep it going.
i think with apple tv+ they’re banking on the majority of their users taking the free year that comes with a device. which, to me, should be somewhat illegal, but tech loves doing thing that should be somewhat illegal.
Definitely seems similar to the practices that got Microsoft into antitrust trouble years ago. Though I guess it’s not super different from AT&T and T-Mobile are giving out subscriptions to streaming services with their phone plans.
I suspect Apple+ will end up having the most prestige content in the next 5 years. That’s not going to make me sign up now, but it’s shows are very well reviewed and they have some good things in the pipeline.
Maybe. Though Netflix and Hulu and HBO Max all have a good amount of prestige content plus a bunch of random movies you may want to watch.
Yep. I signed up so I could watch Champions League games and clicked around to see what else they had – aside from a handful of older TV shows and B-movies that me go “huh, I’ve always wanted to watch/re-watch that one” I was deeply unimpressed. I will be canceling my subscription as soon as the soccer season ends.
I signed up today so I could watch Arsenal in the Europa League so… I guess I can go ahead and cancel now.
I take it you’re not a Trekkie.
Thing is, even Star Trek is largely available on the other major services (for now….I realize that could change once those contracts expire, if Viacom decides it wants to make them exclusive to its platform). Obviously the newest shows aren’t, and a few of the movies have migrated off Prime/Netflix/Hulu, but all the older shows are easily accessed without a Paramount+ subscription. And since that’s all the truly beloved Star Trek shows really, P+ still isn’t the greatest draw.
And if you’re a super-Trekkie, you have all the old stuff on VHS anyway.
Old Star Trek is on other services. But in the US, new Star Trek shows are only on Paramount+.
Yeah, I specified that in my comment. Also, I’m too new of a fan to be that hardcore but the sense I get is that most Trekkers don’t really care as much for the newer stuff as they do the old anyway lol.
I am, in fact, one of the original Trekkies (before everyone got uptight and started demanding to be called “Trekkers”). The problem is, I’ve seen TOS, TNG, DS:9, and Voyager multiple times at this point, along with all the movies (except Insurrection, which I never got around to), and I saw the first episode or two of Discovery – and really, I need more for my ten bucks a month than rehashing stuff I’ve already seen multiple times.Now, during the week I subscribed to P+, I did get to binge Lower Decks, which I loved – but that’s not enough to keep me on the hook for that much money. If they lower the price point, I’d be happy to give it a second chance. But honestly, for only a couple bucks more I can subscribe to HBO Max which absolutely blows P+ out of the water.There may still be hope for P+ – Peacock started off just as awful as this and has slowly started to improve, and if Comcast can improve, Viacom can certainly do so too.
Don’t bother with Insurrection, it’s a real clunker.
No Treker uses the term Trekkie. No science-fiction (s-f) fan uses Sci-Fi.
I’m betting Teo is a Trekkie and just another reason why there’s no point in subscribing.
The one reason it’s worth it for me is the livestream of the local CBS affiliate. I’m in a rural area, and while I can get my ABC and CW affiliates with an antenna, I have to stream CBS and PBS. I wish Peacock would offer livestreaming of NBC affiliates so that I didn’t have to watch SNL on Sunday.
it does have some comedy central shows i had been meaning to watch (Review), but movie wise it was like 2008 netflix.
Review is one of my favorite shows of the last decade, I hope you dig it!Comedy Central’s programs have been frustratingly scattered or just unavailable on major streaming platforms the last few years. Now at least some of them are available on Paramount Plus. I’m excited to finally watch more of Corporate after catching a few episodes, and Detroiters is great. Their stuff is still not all in one place though, because I have been watching the delightful Awkwafina is Norah from Queens on HBO Max.
I subscribe to a lot of these streaming channels for one or two months at a time every year, and that works out pretty well for me. For $10, I was able to watch all of the new Star Trek shows, plus a few cult things from MTV and Comedy Central that have never really been easily available. I was locked into it for a year, then I’d probably be frustrated, but I think I get my money’s worth going month-to-month.
I feel like the only streaming service I probably won’t be revisiting for a while is Discovery Plus. Outside of storming through the catalog of Good Eats and the big nature docs, it’s pretty much all reality trash that I have zero interest in.
And Paramount Plus still has EXPONENTIALLY more stuff than its precursor CBS All Access. They had new Star Trek, The Good Fight, and sitcoms and dramas that air constantly in syndication, I managed to look through the entire library in like 3 minutes when I checked it out a year or two back.What is completely baffling is that Paramount Plus launched without any kind of queue or save program option. Once you start something it will put it in a “Continue Watching” section, but a queue should be basic expected functionality at this point. I wonder if CBS All Access had a queue? I literally closed the app and never opened it again after my initial scan of the library.
So it bothers you that the Trek-led streaming service doesn’t have a Q?
It’s the only place to watch Star Trek: The Animated Series.
Well (technically) if you’re outside North America , nearly all the trek shows are on Netflix, including TAS , ( Picard and Lower Decks are on Amazon)
I don’t know what made me laugh more, the look of surprise/shock, the robotic spin around or the PULL IN TO REVEAL…
Peacock isn’t exactly overflowing with exciting programming unless you’re a avid fan of all the Law and Orders and old three-camera NBC sitcoms.
Right now, I’d agree. Its basically Star Trek+, and if you don’t like Star Trek, there’s little reason to pay right now.
Pluto is free and better than that shit.
I actually like PlutoTV, but I’m also an old who doesn’t mind sitting through commercials and binging, say, Bob Barker TPIR and American Gladiators.Hard to beat free, too. Only thing I hate about Pluto is that it’s also the most accessible repository of pro-Trump propaganda available.
Pluto is hands-down my favorite. I do love watching 30-year-old shows though. I have something going on Pluto in the background most of the day.
I dumped it after I went through ST: Picard and Lower Decks. The rest of their stuff is crappy CBS shows.
The only price I’m seeing for it is $5.99, that doesn’t seem too bad.
I know that I am in the vast, vast minority here. . . but I originally subbed to this for the Big Brother Live Feeds. I kept it because I liked binging seasons of their reality shows. . . then I kept it for Star Trek Discovery. . . and then the entire Trek Explosion happened. . .and now Picard isn’t a real person anymore and Seven of Nine is now a bloodthirsty vengeance drone. . . and Lower Decks is funny too. . . .So, yeah, they keep getting my money every month, I am ashamed to say. Very seriously doubt they are gonna get any premium money from me though. For me, the best subscription I’ve paid for, the best I’m watching on a regular basis, is HBO Max. I have a few more, but seriously, I spend most of my TV time just watching YouTube and counting down the seconds until I can press “Skip Ads” every 5 minutes. LOL
Subscribe for a month if there’s a new show you want to watch, then cancel it. There’s no reason to keep a standing subscription to a lot of these streaming services.
The MCU is such a Disney thing now its weird to remember that Paramount owns a share of all of Phase 1. Surprised Disney has not just rolled a van of money up to them to buy that out already
Nobody’s willing to part with those pre-existing Marvel licenses, even with the Disney money van involved. Universal gleefully sits on its right of first refusal for Hulk movies, forcing Bruce Banner to always play second-fiddle to another character’s story. Sony was merely willing to share custody of Spider-Man with Disney – and only for a very specific and limited period – while feverishly trying to develop their own “Spiderverse-Without-Spider-Man” film series with the wide array of villains, second-tier heroes and background characters they still have the rights to (I imagine the Sony execs just spin a wheel trying to come up with new pairings: “Flash Thompson and…Robbie Robertson? Is there something there, like a Finding Forrester thing? How about…Betty Brant and Leap-Frog? Could go with a rom-com vibe…” )
Sony shares Spider-Man with Disney because they don’t have to poor a dime into the MCU while collecting a hefty share of the profits.
I don’t think that’s true. As I understand it, the original deal had Sony financing the Spider-Man films and taking the lions share of the income. Disney got 5% of the Box Office and the ability to use Spider-Man in their own movies. (And, I think merchandising.)The details of the new deal aren’t clear, but Disney had wanted to split the Box Office in exchange for paying half of the financing costs. Presumably, they settled somewhere in the middle.
Into the Spider-Verse is, by far, the best Spiderman adaptation, tho…
It was, which is why they’re falling over themselves to redo it in live action with No Way Home (Even with the justification of “Well, following the events of Endgame exploring the Multiverse and divergent timelines is a central element of the MCU moving forward,” it still reeks of “Hey, people LOVED that Spider-Man cartoon we did, why don’t we just do that again?”)
I think Universal still own the rights to Namor the Submariner, granted not the biggest Marvel character in the world (but he is their oldest).
They really missed the boat in not getting The Rock to play Namor in early 2000’s, considering they were trying to make Scorpion King be a thing around the same time.
They’ll get their rights back. Go ask TBS/TNT about Star Wars. Yes it’s different than TV rights but a lot of money.
Probably just easier to buy the whole company in a decade or so after Disney+ crushes the life out of all the competition.
Pretty sure that WB/At&t have some rights to the old 3 Blade movies
You might say Paramount is “making a mountain out of a molehill” with this effort.
Boooooo, and here’s your star.
You might, I don’t think we’re gonna.
Internet Poster Murry Chang says ‘Fuck it…Paramount+ that is, fuck that service.’
I predict that the use of torrents will be rising. When it was 2-3 streaming services, you could sign up to all of them and watch most everything you want without pirating. Now that there is 20 streaming services everything is too split up.
Why pirate? It’s farking streaming potluck out here. You buy one maybe two and swap them for other ones between family and friends. I buy HBO Max And Prime, but I have access to all of them except Discovery+.
Great. Fine. Whatever. But P+, just add a damn watchlist already!
Holy shit, they dont have a watchlist yet? Netflix literally had that from day one of their streaming service over 10 years ago lol
Nope. CBS All Access had it, but it disappeared somewhere near the end of its life and it was not resurrected with P+. The closest thing it has is “Continue watching” which does show new episodes of shows you’ve previously watched, but you have no control over what appears in this list and you can’t remove anything in it.
And it’s absolutely maddening. I have the Bruce Willis Celebrity Roast and a random episode of Lower Decks stuck in “Continue Watching” and I cannot get rid of them. The way it usually works – exiting near the tail end of the credits – doesn’t for those two titles for some reason. Let me mark it as played or remove it from the list!
Netflix had a watchlist back when they were just mailing dvds.
1. I will never see a reference to the movie Rocketman and not immediately start thinking The Rocketeer.2. The phrase “Paw Patrol movie” just filled me with dread all the way to my core.
I will never see a reference to the movie Rocketman and not immediately start thinking The Rocketeer.Same here. I really wonder why that didn’t start a franchise.
I only got around to seeing it like a year ago, and I really enjoyed it. One of those cases where I kick myself for not having seen it years ago.
It only did so-so at the box office. It was very clearly riding on the Indiana Jones ‘serial’ style action films. It’s fascinating because the Rocketeer was referring to something 50 years ago, like doing a movie about the 70s today. It deserved a sequel and I believe it’s in the works with one being set…in the 60’s/70’s starring a PoC? But maybe that was just talk. But I think it’s a Disney+ project right now.
It did. The First Avenger.
If you want to slap a jetpack on Elton John and have him fight crime in the 30s with Jennifer Connelly, I would 100% watch that movie.
I…I don’t NOT want to!
Most people barely know who Mark Wahlberg is.
He was the one in the movie about the trees rebelling against mankind and Zooey Deschanel. He’s not the guy on Blue Bloods who isn’t Tom Selleck
I know he’s very concerned about saying hi to peoples mothers.
I tweeted “Say Hi to your mother for me” on the same day his mother died. It did not go over well.
Obviously he’s better known as Marky Mark, I don’t think his acting career has taken off yet.
I think most people know him from the Ted movies and Transformers 4
He’s that dude who beat up a guy for being asian and nearly killed him, then built a major music/Hollywood career, right?
you mean Donnie’s brother?
It seems with all these streaming services that quality is going to get watered down.
https://www.theonion.com/fuck-everything-were-doing-five-blades-1819584036
I’m into grazing the services at this point. I ran through all the series I really wanted to see on Netflix and canceled my subscription; now I’m watching the new Star Trek series and catching up on the Good Fight on P-Plus, but I’ll dump that and move on after I’ve checked out some I Love Lucy’s, Gunsmokes, and Perry Masons… Now if I can just figure out who’s streaming the last season of Curb Your Enthusiasm…
HBO Max, the place where the show comes from.
the fuck is Paramount Plus?
The new worst streaming service behind Apple+
We canceled Hulu and replaced with Paramount Plus so we could watch old and new Star Trek and Perry Mason. Eventually we will cancel Paramount Plus and go back to Hulu.