On the news that FilmStruck has been struck down, fans — including Hollywood directors Barry Jenkins, Guillermo del Toro and Rian Johnson — vented their shock, sadness and anger on social media.
FilmStruck will cease operations on Nov. 29 after two years in operation, Turner and Warner Bros. Digital Networks announced Friday. The move comes amid a strategic shift to mainstream direct-to-consumer entertainment services by WarnerMedia, which is now owned by AT&T.
The service hosted hundreds of classic, arthouse, indie and foreign films — many of them exclusively, including titles from the Criterion Collection catalog.
Jenkins, Oscar-winning director of “Moonlight,” initially tweeted a one-word, all-caps reaction to FilmStruck’s imminent closure: “F—.”
He followed with a more thoughtful post, saying about the FilmStruck team, “these were flesh and blood people who really, truly cared about the work they were doing and the people who made and appreciated film.”
Del Toro, who won Oscars for “The Shape of Water” and “Pan’s Labyrinth,” sounded a more upbeat note: “We will find a way to bring it back- We will!”, he tweeted.
Rian Johnson, whose directing credits include “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” and “Looper,” mourned the service’s demise, tweeting, “FilmStruck was too good to last. I see it sadly floating away from the charred wasteland that is 2018, Lorax style.”
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In a blog post Friday, the Criterion Collection team wrote about the imminent closure of FilmStruck, “Like many of you, we are disappointed by this decision,” adding that “we’ll be trying to find ways we can bring our library and original content back to the digital space as soon as possible.”
Writer and social-media strategist Michelle Buchman said on Twitter, “This is a horrible, sad blow to film culture. How are we supposed to bring up a new generation of filmmakers and creators when we are making our cinematic history as inaccessible as possible?!” She added that FilmStruck “actively took the time to highlight films made by women, people of color, minorities, and countries often not represented at all by other streaming services.”
Titles most recently available on FilmStruck include 1976’s “A Star Is Born” starring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson, “Papillon,” “Love in the Time of Cholera,” “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb,” “The Maltese Falcon,” “The Bridge on the River Kwai,” “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” and “The Damned Don’t Cry.”
Earlier this year, FilmStruck added classic Warner Bros. films previously available on the Warner Archive service, whose subscribers were migrated to FilmStruck.
FilmStruck had cost $10.99 per month with access to the Criterion Collection library — it was the exclusive streaming home to the Criterion titles in the U.S. — and $6.99 per month without it.
In a statement about the shutdown, Turner and WB Digital Networks said, “While FilmStruck has a very loyal fanbase, it remains largely a niche service.” The companies said they plan to take “key learnings from FilmStruck to help shape future business decisions in the direct-to-consumer space and redirect this investment back into our collective portfolios.”
Other reactions to FilmStruck’s shutdown from fans, film writers and critics, and the service’s own staffers: