To the uninitiated, Apple TV is a streaming service like all others. When it launched in 2019, it was arguably late to the game, as Netflix, Hulu, and Prime Video were all premium streamers offering both original and licensed content. In fact, while Netflix started in the late ’90s as a DVD rental service, its foothold in the streaming world in subsequent years has seen the concept of “Netflix” being used as a catch-all label for any streaming service. However, Apple TV wasn’t the only one seemingly getting a late start, as Disney didn’t launch its streaming service until that year either.
Still, there was a significant factor that set Apple TV (initially launched as Apple TV+) apart from all competitors: rather than offering licensed movies and TV shows to stream on the service, it only offered original, exclusive movies and TV shows. You could both rent and purchase movies from the platform, though it didn’t have established movies or TV series created by other studios. One major exception is that, having secured the rights to Peanuts, Apple TV became the home of classic Charlie Brown TV specials.
Subscribers recently noticed a major change to the platform earlier this week, and it’s not one that has earned a major promotional push by Apple TV. Along with the service’s original programming, more than a dozen beloved movies have landed on the service at no additional cost to subscribers. Given how little attention has been paid to this change, it’s currently unknown if this is a temporary offer or if this is merely the first step in a long-form plan from the streamer.
The available titles will vary based on the region in which you live, but in the U.S., Apple TV subscribers have access to the following movies:
- 21 Jump Street
- A Beautiful Mind
- Arrival
- Charlie’s Angels
- E.T.
- Forgetting Sarah Marshall
- Gone Girl
- I, Robot
- Looper
- Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
- The Aviator
- The Bourne Identity
- The Martian
- The Proposal
- The Rookie
- The Sixth Sense
- Titanic
- Zodiac
- Zoolander
There doesn’t immediately appear to be much rhyme or reason behind the selection, though a closer look confirms at least some of these movies come from filmmakers who have worked with Apple TV. 21 Jump Street, for example, came from directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who developed the two-season TV series The Afterparty. The Sixth Sense was directed by M. Night Shyamalan, who developed the TV show Servant. The Aviator was directed by Martin Scorsese, who also directed Apple’s Killers of the Flower Moon.
Hopefully, the coming weeks will reveal more information about the update to the platform, and subscribers will appreciate getting access to more titles, so it’s a shift in the right direction. However, some platforms have frustrated subscribers with the low standards of the titles selected for each respective library, so as long as Apple TV aims to maintain a higher standard, it could become a major force in the streaming wars.
