The streaming platform Mubi is massively bolstering its film catalog with an expansive new content deal with Sony Pictures that will bring over 50 classic films to the service per Deadline. All the new films will cycle through the service and be available for certain windows of time with some titles already going live on the platform. Containing a mix of arthouse films and mainstream hits, the haul of films will filter onto the platform through 2024.

Mubi has slowly built up a catalog of films in the U.S. that’s 900 titles strong with one new film coming to the platform every day. With the Sony deal, it adds serious firepower with the headliners including Stephen Spielberg‘s extraterrestrial classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Peter Bogdanovich‘s The Last Picture Show, and Martin Scorsese‘s The Age of Innocence. That’s only scratching the surface of what Mubi gains with the deal as films by acclaimed directors like Wes Anderson, Pedro Almodóvar, and Guillermo Del Toro are all included in the package.

There’s a ton of variety to the Mubi deal for film lovers of all kinds, showing off the sheer variety in Sony‘s catalog. Other highlights include 2046 by Wong Kar-wai, Safe by Todd Haynes, To Sleep With Anger by Charles Burnett, Paprika by Satoshi Kon, The White Ribbon by Michael Haneke, The Rider by Chloe Zhao, Orlando by Sally Potter, Husbands by John Cassavetes, and Synecdoche, New York by Charlie Kaufman. Among the films representing Anderson, Almodóvar, and Del Toro are Bottle Rocket, Volver, and The Devil’s Backbone respectively.

In the context of how protective most companies are of their properties, the Sony deal is a steal for Mubi. Sony Pictures has yet to create a streamer of its own even though it certainly has a mountain of content to rival that of Paramount or any other company. Instead, the company has been pretty open to sharing, even signing a deal with Netflix in 2021 that would give them the rights to stream some of Sony Pictures‘ newest films starting in 2022 with titles like Uncharted and Morbius.

Mubi Is Quickly Increasing Its Footprint in Film Production and Distribution

The indie film streaming service is starting to become known as more than just another platform for classic and arthouse movies. Last year, Mubi picked up Park Chan-wook‘s acclaimed film Decision to Leave ahead of its Cannes world premiere, a move that paid off in spades as it quickly became its most streamed movie in North America. Charlotte Wells‘s much-lauded debut feature Aftersun also joined the Mubi fold last year, sitting atop the streamer’s global viewership charts. Production is starting to become a focus for the company as well as it announced Zia Anger’s My First Film had wrapped production last fall with Odessa Young starring.

Mubi subscriptions start at $12.99 or $17.99 with Mubi Go, a premium service that gives subscribers one movie ticket to a selected film each month in specific markets.

via Collider