Netflix Is Losing Rights to One of Its Biggest Blockbusters

Once the king of all streaming platforms, Netflix has fallen on hard times. In the United Kingdom, for example, the streamer has lost numerous popular series — including Modern Family, How I Met Your Mother, and Sons of Anarchy — to Disney+, and found itself losing the battle to keep 750,000 subscribers in that region.

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In the United States, Netflix has also been struggling to maintain subscribers amid the rise of other options like Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max, NBC’s Peacock, and more.

As a matter of fact, Netflix recently lost the rights to all of its Marvel series — Daredevil, Jessica Jones, The Punisher, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and The Defenders.

The shows have now landed on Disney+ following the official Marvel Cinematic Universe debuts of two fan-favorite Daredevil characters, Matt Murdock/Daredevil (Charlie Cox) in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) and Wilson Fisk/Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) in Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld’s Disney+ Original Hawkeye series.

Related: ‘Star Wars’ Actor Hopes to Replace Regé-Jean Page In ‘Bridgerton’

Millie Bobby Brown-led Stranger Things Season 4 gave the streamer a much-needed boost — and critics are certainly keen for NC-17-rated Marilyn Monroe biopic, Blonde, to release — but other than that, Netflix has been experiencing something of a downward spiral.

Now, the service is set to lose streaming rights to one of the biggest blockbuster it currently has in its catalog. August 31, 2022 will be the last day for viewers to watch Titanic (1997) on Netflix.

Related: Leo DiCaprio Turned Down “More Money Than I Ever Dreamed Of” For ‘Hocus Pocus’

The film, which saw director James Cameron bring Kate Winslet (Rose Dewitt-Bukater) — who is set to reunite with Cameron in Avatar 2, Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) — and Leonardo DiCaprio (Jack Dawson) together for the first time, remains third in all-time box office earnings, surrounded by films that fall under The Walt Disney Company banner:

1. Avatar (2009) – $2,847,397,339 2009
2. Avengers: Endgame (2019) – $2,797,501,328 2019
3. Titanic (1997) – $2,201,647,264 1997
4. Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015) – $2,069,521,700 2015
5. Avengers: Infinity War (2018) – $2,048,359,754

Related: Benedict Cumberbatch “Refused to Speak” to Fellow Marvel Star on Netflix Set

Although fans will no longer be able to catch the historical film on Netflix, a new, high frame rate version of Titanic will be returning to theaters for a special event in February 2023. It is also currently available on Disney+.

More on Titanic

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The official description of Cameron’s famous romance movie reads:

James Cameron’s Titanic is an epic, action-packed romance set against the ill-fated maiden voyage of the “unsinkable” Titanic, at the time, the largest moving object ever built. She was the most luxurious liner of her era—the “ship of dreams”—which ultimately carried over 1,500 people to their death in the ice-cold waters of the North Atlantic in the early hours of April 15, 1912. Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet) is a 17-year-old, upper-class American suffocating under the rigid confines and expectations of Edwardian society who falls for a free-spirited young steerage passenger named Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio). Once he opens her eyes to the world that lies outside her gilded cage, Rose and Jack’s forbidden love begins a powerful mystery that ultimately echoes across the years into the present.

Do you think Netflix will continue to lose streaming rights for major films?