Just how many people are streaming movies?

Streaming services built their business on streaming TV shows, but you've likely noticed a rise in the number of movies recently and the large amounts of money spent making them/buying them for streaming services. The reason for this is reportedly that the metrics have shown that while TV shows are a great way to drive new subscriptions to a streaming service, retention of existing subscribers is best achieved through movies.

Which makes sense if you look at Netflix. Realistically, the Netflix service has almost reached the ceiling of new subscribers it can bring on board. So the game there is about keeping subscribers on the service, which is why we are seeing so many more films made by Netflix.

But what is the actual viewership of these films? It's one thing to keep subscribing to a service because you plan to watch a movie there, but it's another thing to actually get around to it.

This weekend saw the release of The Tomorrow War on Amazon Prime Video. Amazon bought the film from Skydance for roughly US$200 million. According to analytics firm 2.41M US households watched the film during the July 4, four-day holiday weekend. For a point of comparison, the recent Tom Clancy Without Remorse (starring Michael B Jordan) saw an opening weekend of 2.3M, while the second Borat film had 1.6M households. HBO Max streamed the new Steven Soderbergh film No Sudden Move to an audience of 567K U.S. households over the weekend. That's a quarter of the Tomorrow War audience, but also I'm sure that No Sudden Move didn't cost HBO Max $200 million to buy.

Of course, this is just opening weekends - these titles will live on for months/years to come on each of the services. And this only accounts for US viewership (Amazon will have strong success with The Tomorrow War globally). But I can't help but keep coming back to the idea that the viewership for these hugely pricey films is on par, if not less, than the viewership for your average episode of NCIS.

The value for that retention rate must be worth it.

The Seinfeld Mega Mix

Step aside Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers, Internet funsters Seinfeld2000 and The Hood Internet got together to produce this ridiculous mash-up of Seinfeld and music from all the years that Seinfeld was on the air (1989-98).

Helloooooo!

TeeVee Snacks

Greg Berlanti, who currently has 14 TV shows on the air, has just signed a deal with Netflix to produce movies for the streamer by way of his production company with Sara Schechter. Read: Deadline
Black Widow is out in cinemas later this week. It'll also be available to stream via Disney+ for subscribers willing to fork out extra money to watch it via it's Premier Access tier. But if you don't want to pay the premium price for it and aren't going to the cinema, you might be happy to know that the film will be on Disney+ as part of the regular package from Oct 6.

Fleabag: you've watched the show, now drink the gin

Phoebe Waller-Bridge has collaborated with Edinburgh Gin to design a limited edition Fleabag gin bottle that has acerbic lines from the show written across the bottle.

Ha ha ha - I'm laughing and drinking to excess just thinking about it.

Here's how they are selling Paramount+ down under

On Monday night apparently Australia's 10 Network aired a promo for the Aussie launch of Paramount+.

We already knew what some of the launch titles include. But, more interesting is what titles are being promoted in the trailer. The majority are titles that we either knew were coming to the service or could safely assume were going to be on platform. The title that jumped out at me was Evil, which will debut it's second season on Paramount+. The first season streamed in Australia on Stan.

Here's the list of titles showcased in the promo and the promo itself:

Movies:
Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen
Pulp Fiction
Raiders of The Lost Ark
Clueless
The Godfather Part II
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
World War Z
Mission: Impossible 2
Mission: Impossible 3
Any Given Sunday
Top Gun
Transformers: Age of Extinction

TV:
Everyone is Doing Great
Anne Boleyen
Why Women Kill
Leonardo
Five Bedrooms
Ray Donovan
Key & Peele
Kamp Koral: Spongebob's Under Years
Geordie Shore
Dexter (2021)
Two Weeks To Live
Coyote
NCIS (every episode)
Blue Bloods
Rugrats
Evil (New season)
iCarly
Paw Patrol

Sports:
Westfield W League
A League
Socceroos

Trailer Park

Succession returns on HBO later this year for it's third season.

My Unorthodox Life debuts on Netflix July 14.

Follow Julia Haart, Elite World Group CEO and a former member of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, and her adult kids in this reality series.

Naomi Osaka debuts July 16 on Netflix.

What does it feel like to be one of the best tennis players in the world? An intimate look inside the life of one of the most gifted and complex athletes of her generation offers insight into the tough decisions and ecstatic triumphs that shape Naomi Osaka as both an elite global superstar and a young woman navigating a pressure-filled world.

How To Sell Drugs Online (Fast) returns for a third season July 27.

When Lenny's health takes a turn for the worse, the crew puts their differences aside to raise money for his treatment. But new threats loom.

Documentary Val debuts August 6 on Amazon Prime Video.

Who is Val Kilmer? He's Batman. He's Iceman. He's Jim Morrison. And he's a lifelong filmmaker.

Post Mortem: No One Dies in Skarnes debuts on Netflix August 25.

Post Mortem: No One Dies in Skarnes begins when Live Hallangen is declared dead. Hours later she suddenly wakes up on the forensic table. A dark, insatiable hunger has awoken in her. Meanwhile, her brother Odd tries to keep the family driven funeral home afloat, but the stagnant death rate in the small Norwegian town of Skarnes makes it impossible. Live has to learn to control her new dangerous nature and decide if she is willing to sacrifice people's lives for her own survival, which ironically goes hand in hand with the survival of the family business.

Aussie drama RFDS is coming soon to Channel 7 / 7Plus.