Netflix has won the exclusive U.S. rights to stream Sony Pictures’ releases beginning with their 2022 titles.
The streaming service will cover the studios pay TV window for next year’s features and Netflix will be replacing Starz as Sony’s service of choice. The relationship between Sony and Netflix isn’t new, as Netflix is already home to their animated films. This deal will further the partnership between the two companies and create a better balance in the content Sony offers through Netflix.
Sony is home to plenty of popular exclusives and this deal will extend to them, including the sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, Morbius and Uncharted. The deal will extend to the companies other studios like Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures Classics, Screen Gems, and TriStar Pictures. Netflix will have first rights in refusing future releases from Sony, but then the company will be free to launch the content on competitor streaming services.
While Netflix is still the world’s largest streaming service with other 200 million subscribers across the globe, many movie studios are catching up with the trend and developing their own services to keep their content in the family so to speak. Disney now has Disney+, with over 100 million customers in just a year, and that’s where you can find all the exclusive Marvel content aside from that owned by Sony already. Warner Bros controls HBO Max, holding their own content exclusively as well. Though Netflix is still ahead of these other services, popular titles like The Mandalorian, WandaVision and Zack Snyder’s Justice League are helping it’s competitors catch up quickly.
Sony will deliver all future releases of popular franchises like Spiderman, Venom and Jumani to Netflix after the theatrical and home releases of the films. Any fans that want to catch the companies films once they’re out of theatres will have to make sure they’re subscribed to Netflix, but chances are, they already are.
