Oh, God!
With little fanfare, and practically no common thread, Warner Bros. Discovery has uploaded 36 films from their back catalog to YouTube.
The movies range from certified classics to cult classics, to, well, frankly trash. But I think a little personal curation isn’t too much to ask when all of these films are being provided for free. You don’t even need to sign in to anything to watch them!
You can start the playlist here or below. Or read on for the full list of 36 currently available movies. There’s more than one Sean Connery film here, and they’re not the ones you’d think.
What’s on tap:
- The Wind and the Lion
- Curly Sue
- The Avengers (the 1998 film based on the British television show, starring Ralph Fiennes and… Sean Connery)
- Michael Collins
- Mr. Nice Guy
- The Incredible Mr. Limpet
- City Heat
- Overnight Delivery
- The 11th Hour
- The Adventures of Pluto Nash
- Chaos Theory
- Waiting for Guffman
- Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes
- American Ninja V
- Mutiny on the Bounty
- Dungeons & Dragons (The one known for Jeremy Irons picking bits of scenery out of his teeth)
- The Bonfire of the Vanities
- Return of the Living Dead Part II
- The Accidental Tourist
- Critters 4
- Murder in the First
- The Year of Living Dangerously
- December Boys
- Lionheart
- Oh, God!
- Crossing Delancey
- Price of Glory
- Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane
- Deal of the Century
- Deathtrap
- The Mission
- SubUrbia
- Hot To Trot
- True Stories
- The Science of Sleep
- The Big Tease
They started uploading across two channels roughly two weeks ago. As for why they’d do this, there’s been no official say as of yet. The likely answer is, however, is that they’re trying to make some money off of their extensive back catalog. A lot of these movies aren’t on Max right now, but more importantly, they wouldn’t really be making money off of them if they were. Having things on Max costs money in upkeep, and if the film or show in question isn’t being viewed enough to justify that upkeep, it’s a loss. On the flipside, they can toss some of their less-viewed movies up on YouTube, enable ads, and make at least a little money off of that.
And, to be fair, capitalizing on their massive back catalog is something Warner Bros. has always struggled with. Back in the late 2000’s-2010’s, they had the Warner Archive Collection, which was essentially a print-on-demand service for their more obscure or low demand films. The Archive eventually came to streaming, and once upon a time, even allowed people to download these films for free. That all ended when David Zaslav took charge, though.
The idea to upload to YouTube has been paying off, though. While most of these movies hover in the 500,000-1,5000,000 range, some, like the 1997 Jacky Chan film Mr. Nice Guy have racked up 16 million views in the two weeks it’s been available in this form. And while YouTube revenue ain’t what it used to be, for 16 million views it’s still nothing to sneeze at.
Source: Gizmodo
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