FilmStruck was a film streaming service from

Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of At ...

which catered to cinephiles and focused on rare, classic, foreign,

arthouse An art film (or arthouse film) is typically an independent film, aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience. It is "intended to be a serious, artistic work, often experimental and not designed for mass appeal", "made primarily ...

, and

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

cinema. It launched in November 2016 and succeeded Hulu as the exclusive online streaming home of

The Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home video, home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scho ...

. It was discontinued on November 29, 2018, and was replaced by the Criterion Channel nearly two years later.

History

FilmStruck was launched on November 1, 2016, after being announced in April 2016. At the time of its launch, FilmStruck had 500 movies available to stream, 200 of them from the Criterion Collection library. As of February 2018, the combined channels on the service provide access to over 1,600 films, including more than 1,200 films licensed from the Criterion Collection. On April 26, 2018, FilmStruck absorbed sister stand-alone service Warner Archive Instant, with current and new subscribers to the FilmStruck website. On October 26, 2018, it was announced FilmStruck would shut down on November 29, 2018, due to

WarnerMedia Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States. It was originally established in 1972 by ...

's restructuring. In response, a group of film directors and actors signed a letter dated November 12, 2018, appealing directly to

Warner Bros. Pictures Warner Bros. Pictures is an American film production and distribution company of the Warner Bros. Pictures Group division of Warner Bros. Entertainment (both ultimately owned by Warner Bros. Discovery). The studio is the flagship producer of ...

Group chairman

Toby Emmerich Toby Emmerich (born February 8, 1963), is an American producer, film executive, and screenwriter. He has been with Warner Bros. for much of his career, and formerly served as the chairman of the Warner Bros. Pictures Group. Biography Emmerich ...

in an attempt to save the service. The letter was signed by

Paul Thomas Anderson Paul Thomas Anderson (born June 26, 1970), also known by his initials PTA, is an American filmmaker. He made his feature-film debut with '' Hard Eight'' (1996). He found critical and commercial success with ''Boogie Nights'' (1997) and received ...

, Damien Chazelle, Alfonso Cuarón, Guillermo del Toro, Leonardo DiCaprio, James Gray,

Alejandro González Iñárritu Alejandro González Iñárritu (; American Spanish: ; credited since 2016 as Alejandro G. Iñárritu; born 15 August 1963) is a Mexican filmmaker and screenwriter. He is primarily known for making modern psychological drama films about the hu ...

Barry Jenkins Barry Jenkins (born November 19, 1979) is an American filmmaker. After making his filmmaking debut with the short film ''My Josephine'' (2003), he directed his first feature film '' Medicine for Melancholy'' (2008) for which he received an Inde ...

Rian Johnson Rian Craig Johnson (born December 17, 1973) is an American filmmaker. He made his directorial debut with the neo-noir mystery film '' Brick'' (2005), which received positive reviews and grossed nearly $4 million on a $450,000 budget. Transitio ...

Christopher Nolan Christopher Edward Nolan (born 30 July 1970) is a British-American filmmaker. Known for his lucrative Hollywood blockbusters with complex storytelling, Nolan is considered a leading filmmaker of the 21st century. His films have grossed $5&nb ...

Barbra Streisand Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand (; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success in multiple fields of entertainment, and is among the few performers awar ...

, and others. Previously, Steven Spielberg and

Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of many major accolades, inclu ...

had urged Warner Bros. to continue the service. Four days after the letter was released, WarnerMedia and Criterion announced that The Criterion Channel would launch as a standalone service in Spring 2019, with a smaller version of the service also being available via

HBO Max HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Netw ...

, WarnerMedia's upcoming streaming platform when it launched on May 27, 2020.

Library and programming

Films available on FilmStruck came from studios and distributors such as Film Movement,

First Run Features First Run Features is an independent film distribution company based in New York City. History First Run was founded in 1979 by a group of filmmakers in order to advance the distribution of independent film. In the 1980s, the company focused ...

Global Lens The Global Film Initiative (GFI) was a non-profit film organization that supported cinematic works from developing nations and promotes cross-cultural understanding through use of film and non-traditional learning resources. Its most notable progr ...

Flicker Alley Cecil Court is a pedestrian street with Victorian shop-frontages in Westminster, England, linking Charing Cross Road and St Martin's Lane. Since the 1930s, it has been known as the new Booksellers' Row. Early background One of the older thoroug ...

, Icarus Films,

Janus Films Janus Films is an American film distribution company. The distributor is credited with introducing numerous films, now considered masterpieces of world cinema, to American audiences, including the films of Michelangelo Antonioni, Sergei Eisenstei ...

, Kino,

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

Milestone A milestone is a numbered marker placed on a route such as a road, railway line, canal or boundary. They can indicate the distance to towns, cities, and other places or landmarks; or they can give their position on the route relative to so ...

, Oscilloscope Laboratories, Shout! Factory, and

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

FilmStruck organized films in themed collections, while the Criterion Channel had original content such as their "Meet the Filmmaker" and "Adventures in Moviegoing" series, five-minute micro-lectures, as well as thematic programming like Friday double features and Tuesday short and

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

pairings. Some films featured hosted introductions. In early 2018, FilmStruck announced it had acquired hundreds of classic film titles from the Warner Bros. library, including '' Casablanca'', '' Citizen Kane'', and '' Singin' in the Rain''.

Reception

The Verge ''The Verge'' is an American technology news website operated by Vox Media, publishing news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, consumer electronics news, and podcasts. The website launched on November 1, 2011, and uses Vox Media ...

'' praised the availability of "best films ever made", while criticizing the catalog search functionality in July 2017. Geek.com praised the delivery on home theater streaming media devices and the mobile app, but criticized the desktop delivery dependency on

Flash Flash, flashes, or FLASH may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional aliases * Flash (DC Comics character), several DC Comics superheroes with super speed: ** Flash (Barry Allen) ** Flash (Jay Garrick) ** Wally West, the first Kid F ...

International availability

FilmStruck Curzon was announced in January 2018. The service became available in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

in February 2018, with launches in other markets to have come over the next two years. Plans to launch in France and Spain were announced in May 2018. In France, the SVOD service features films from Carlotta Films, MK2,

RKO RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheu ...

, and

StudioCanal StudioCanal S.A.S. (formerly known as Le Studio Canal+, Canal Plus, Canal+ Distribution, Canal+ D.A., Canal+ Production, and Canal+ Image and also known as StudioCanal International) is a French film production and distribution company that owns ...

and was launched in June 2018. In Spain, the service serves up films from Wanda, Caramel, and A Contracorriente Films. It offers a combination of the local content as well as European and global films.

References

External links