Is Being On TNT More Important Than Movie Theaters?

In 2023 I went to the New York City premiere of Air, the Ben Affleck directed film about the creation of the Air Jordan shoe. It was held at Warner Bros. NYC offices at Hudson Yards, a somewhat muted affair for a movie starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. But it was fun. I drank some wine. Then I never thought about Air again. Not because I didn't enjoy the movie. I did. But because it lived on Prime. And to watch Air again, I would have to eschew basically every other movie made in the history of movies, many I have not seen, to watch Air again. This just isn't going to happen. Well, that is until Air was put into heavy rotation on TNT last month. I've now seen Air five times.

I've written about this before back in 2019 (in a piece no longer on the internet), how once exclusive streaming only movies start living on their platforms, they are basically just gone. As opposed to movies that get a healthy cable run and how those movies can live forever. Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas is on probably right now as I'm typing this. Casino probably is, too. I have seen both of these movies in the last two weeks. I have not watched The Irishman since it premiered at the New York Film Festival in 2019 even though I could watch it right now. I just won't. But if it just happened to be on TBS or TNT as I turn on the television, I would watch it.

We have more access to films than we ever have had before. But this isn’t about access. It’s about movies that play so often on cable they become a communal reference point. Our society is in desperate need of communal reference points. When I watch a movie that's on cable I feel like I'm watching it with other people, even if I'm by myself. I think this is important.

I was actually shocked to see Air on TNT. I just assumed it was forever locked on Prime. (Though, apparently it also aired on ABC in 2024.) I asked someone who would have knowledge about this film why this streaming film in particular is now playing on basic cable. Though this person did not have the specific details for this one film, this person did know that this sort of agreement would have been, "baked into the initial deal, that the movie would retain rights to be licensed to cable providers at a certain point ... just like they had a deal for it to go into theaters."

So, this would be my advice to any filmmakers making movies for streamers right now...

(This is a free post for "free tier" subscribers. But, The Hard Pass truly only exists because of paying subscribers. If you are not a paying subscriber and enjoy reading this post, please do consider becoming one. Then you can read the story I was told about Tom Cruise that is now my favorite Tom Cruise story, risking humiliation by approaching Philip Seymour Hoffman to ask him about Along Came Polly, and asking cast members from Ocean's 12 if their characters all know they look like famous people since Tess knows she looks like Julia Roberts.)