Picture: Warner Bros. Pictures
The year is ending and Netflix isn’t done with the surprises just yet. Those in the United States have been treated to four of Warner Bros. Pictures’ theatrical slate, with two previously unannounced titles among the new additions to Netflix today: Horizon: An American Saga: Chapter 1 and The Watchers.
Horizon: An American Saga comes from Kevin Costner, who produces, directs, and stars in the Western and has been riding high following his stint on the popular series Yellowstone. It tells the story over 15 years following the pre- and post-Civil War expansion and settlement of the American West.
According to our friends at WhentoStream.com, the movie arrived on Netflix months after its initial theatrical release and subsequent PVOD and SVOD releases, which came in quick succession. It was released in theaters in late June and appeared on PVOD only a month later in mid-July, ahead of its Max release on August 23rd, 2024.
A second part, which has already completed filming, was due out in August 2024, just a couple of months after the first, but ultimately has been pushed back to release sometime in 2025 despite already releasing at the Venice Film Festival.
Moving onto The Watchers, this movie is a supernatural horror directed by the daughter of M. Night Shyamalan, Ishana, and is based on the 2021 novel of the same name. Starring Dakota Fanning and Georgina Campbell, the plot revolves around a young artist who becomes stranded in a forest in Western Ireland in a shelter with several strangers who are being stalked by a mysterious creature.
Unfortunetely, reviews for this horror weren’t particularly strong, but that’s often the case with horrors. Paste Magazine’s Jesse Hassenger was perhaps the most forgiving in his review, saying, “There’s room in the horror space for a movie like this – a daft campfire tale best told in the damp morning after, part creature feature and part noodling about the nature of humanity. The Watchers may even find an enthusiastic sleepover audience, with its endearing PG-13 spookiness. But unlike other Shyamalan forays into the uncanny, it’s more functional than fully formed.”
Again, WhentoStream reports that this movie had an extremely short theatrical window, with it being released in theaters in early June before being released on PVOD at the end of the month and released on Max on August 30th, 2024.
These aren’t the only Warner Bros. Pictures movies released in theaters in 2024 that have made their way onto Netflix today or in the past week. As we first revealed last week, Netflix got both Mad Max: Fury Road and the prequel Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga today. Netflix also got a double dose of Godzilla on December 23rd, with 2021’s Godzilla vs Kong added alongside Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.
All of these titles will be streaming on Netflix US for three months meaning they’re all set to expire in late March 2025, so watch while you can!
Why is Warner Bros. Pictures licensing some of their biggest titles over the holidays? Last year, for example, a large portion of the DCEU movie slate was added to the streamer in the US for a limited time, with most leaving in April. The addition of these titles does not impact the availability of Max, which serves as the long-term streaming home for the movies. We suspect these carveouts of the first window are to benefit Warner Bros. Discovery’s balance sheet with licensing money, and for Netflix, it provides some very watchable movies in a period over the holidays with more eyeballs on Netflix. Win-win.
Will you be checking out any of these four Warner Bros. Pictures movies on Netflix in the US? Let us know in the comments.
