Inasmuch as the index at JustWatch is accurate, it paints a dire picture of the movie library at Netflix. The fact that Netflix makes it incredibly difficult to navigate their library based on things like release date makes it hard to confirm this, and it’s hard to come away thinking that navigation choice isn’t deliberate.
The oldest movie Netflix currently features seems to be “White Christmas,” from 1954. In fact, that seems to be their only movie older than 1962.
https://www.justwatch.com/us/provider/netflix/movies?release_year_until=1961&sort_by=release_year
Is that accurate? How could we be sure? Clicking on the names of the actors in that movie doesn’t pull up any other movies, even though Bing Crosby was in more than 100. That’s suggestive.
In 1962, a second movie appears! Its original title is “प्रोफ़ेसर”, but in English it translates to “Professor.” Then in 1966 we get “आम्रपाली” and in 1969 we get “Prince,” another Hindi movie. If you’re looking for something in English, your second choice is a 1972 documentary called “FTA,” about Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland’s opposition to the Vietnam War and the titular Army engaged in it.
1954, 1972, and then in 1974 we get the disaster movie “Earthquake.” Finally in 1975 we get “Jaws,” a Robert Redford movie, and “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” Three whole movies! From a year which IMDB reports had 3,682 movies, although that admittedly include a lot of non-English films.
Back when I got red envelopes mailed to my house, I could watch basically any movie ever made, or at least any movie released on DVD, and I am sure I watched more than three movies made before 1975.
JustWatch believes that the Netflix movie library currently has 3,916 movies, which is quite a comedown from what Marketwatch once described as “4,335 in March 2016 and 6,494 in March 2014.” Still, it’s higher than when I checked JustWatch in May of 2021, which reported 3,622 movies then.
We’re paying more and more for less and less. Companies are pulling movies and shows from streaming to abuse tax law, and we have no legal recourse. This isn’t the fault of Netflix, or at least not Netflix alone, but it’s badly broken.
Perhaps you don’t care about movies from the early 1900s, and if you wanted to dig into film history, you’d use something other than Netflix. Okay, good luck with that, but it’s a fair point that not everybody cares about movies made before 1954.
How many movies do you suppose Netflix carries from before 2000?
Wednesday, August 30, 2023, I checked and found 149. I remember noting that the run of Airport movies were there, starting with the Burt Lancaster original “Airport” in 1970, but also “Airport 1975,” “Airport ‘77,” and “The Concorde: Airport ‘79.” None of those are there now, though, and yet the total number of movies from 1900-1999 is now 153.
https://www.justwatch.com/us/provider/netflix/movies?release_year_until=1999&sort_by=release_year
Of those 153 movies, roughly 61 are not in English, most in Hindi, but also a few others. That leaves roughly 92 English-language movies from prior to 2000, from White Christmas to Stuart Little. That’s it!
The list changing from three weeks ago makes me think I should note what’s there now, for when it gets better or worse. So…
White Christmas
FTA (documentary)
Earthquake
Jaws
The Great Waldo Pepper
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Midway
Rocky
Hitler: A Career (documentary)
Slap Shot
Jaws 2
The Deer Hunter
The Wiz
The Jerk
Richard Pryor Live In Concert (Standup)
Monty Python’s Life of Brian
Rocky II
The Electric Horseman
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Conan the Barbarian
Rocky III
Dune
The Karate Kid
Rocky IV
The Breakfast Club
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
The Karate Kid Part II
Stand By Me
The Money Pit
Adam: His Song Continues
Dragnet
Jaws: the Revenge
The Secret of my Success
Strange Voices
Quiet Victory
A Stoning in Fulham County
Too Young the Hero
Midnight Run
Hard Lessons
Coming to America
Uncle Buck
The Very Best of Monty Python’s Flying Circus
The Ryan White Story
Steel Magnolias
The Karate Kid Part III
Field of Dreams
Heartstopper
Unspeakable Acts
Rocky V
In Defense of a Married Man
Out of Life
Hook
Victim of Beauty
Triumph of the Heart
A League of Their Own
Reservoir Dogs
In the Line of Fire
Sankofa
Cliffhanger
Groundhog Day
Sinbad: Afros & Bellbottoms (Standup)
Clear and Present Danger
Leon
Legends of the Fall
Heavy
Jumanji
Heat
Kicking and Screaming
Sinbad: Son of a Preacher Man (Standup)
Matilda
The Cable Guy
Sinbad: Nothin’ But the Funk (Standup)
Donnie Brasco
Liar Liar
Titanic
Starship Troopers
The Devil’s Own
The Negotiator
Vampires
Monty Python Live at Aspen
One Last Shot
Jerry Seinfeld Live on Broadway (Standup)
The Last Days (documentary)
Blue Streak
Girl Interrupted
Stuart Little
I count 85 English-language movies now that I’ve gone through them more carefully, rather than just skimming the list. That’s all Netflix carries for 1902-1999.
Plus another 68 movies not in English. Some of which are really good! But I’m trying to avoid being tricked by Netflix “stuffing” their numbers by loading a back-catalog of Hindi movies to offset their ever-dwindling collection of English-language movies.
@pwinn It wouldn't be such a big deal if the content continued to be available via some avenue, but it seems like the streaming services are moving away from buying up rights to works in order to have some sort of depth of catalog advantage. Instead, you see companies burying their old stuff because they want everyone watching their new stuff and talking about their new stuff.
Streaming is morphing into what Blockbuster did with their video stores, just one big *New Releases!* section.
I meant to include the MarketWatch link from which I quoted: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/its-not-your-imagination-netflix-doesnt-have-as-many-movies-as-it-used-to-2019-12-04