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13 premiere movies and series to watch in January 2026 on Netflix, Prime Video, HBO Max and streaming

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New year, new recommendations. We come with an impressive avalanche of recommendations for you to start the year audiovisually. All platforms, all genres and all tastes. Don’t let 2026 catch you at a different pace, here are our proposals of all kinds for the month of January. him and her Promising six-episode psychological thriller starring Tessa Thompson (who also serves as executive producer) and Jon Bernthal, which follows a former news anchor who returns to her hometown to cover a crime. A detective suspects her involvement, pursuing her until he places her at the center of his own investigation. The twist: they were married, and they both knew the victim. A story full of twists and surprises that has a most attractive cast. On Netflix from January 8 Agatha Christie: The Seven Spheres He whodunit is, without a doubt, in fashion: the success of ‘Daggers in the Back’ or ‘Only Murders in the Building’ corroborate this, so Netflix has decided to resort to the sourdough of all this: three episodes based on one of Agatha Christie’s least adapted works. In a luxurious rural mansion, a high society party turns into tragedy when a practical joke against a known sleepyhead who is given eight alarm clocks set for 6:30 in the morning triggers a murder. In the cast, Mia McKenna Bruce, Helena Bonham Carter and Martin Freeman. Behind the scenes, Chris Chibnall, creator of ‘Broadchurch’, produces and writes. It includes scenarios filmed in Ronda, with the Real Maestranza bullring, the Puente Nuevo and the Palace of the Moro King. On Netflix from January 15 The loot Police thriller directed and written by Joe Carnahan (‘White Hell’, ‘The A-Team’), which reunites Matt Damon and Ben Affleck as protagonists and represents the first collaboration between Netflix and Artists Equity, the production company founded by the two actors. Inspired by true events, it follows a group of Miami agents who during a raid discover $20 million hidden in an abandoned safe house. The discovery unleashes a spiral of mistrust, ambition and moral dilemmas. Carnahan talks about the film as an homage to classic seventies crime thrillers like ‘Serpico’. Firm candidate to be one of Netflix’s first hits by early 2026. On Netflix from January 16 The Bridgertons – S4 New season of the hit series romantic, this time based on the third novel by Julia Quinn, which focuses on Benedict Bridgerton, the second and bohemian son of the family, and who has resisted marital conventions while his brothers have found marital happiness. It will premiere divided into two parts: Part 1 arrives on January 29 with four episodes and Part 2 on February 26 with the remaining four. The season promises a visual tone inspired by fairy tales, with an emphasis on the masked ball as a dream setting, and combining romance, secret identities, class tensions and the classic visual elegance of ‘The Bridgertons’. On Netflix from January 29 Beauty Science fiction and body horror at the hands of Ryan Murphy, with two FBI agents sent to Paris to investigate the mysterious and grotesque deaths of international supermodels in the world of haute couture. His research reveals the existence of a sexually transmitted virus that gives physical perfection to ordinary people, but with lethal consequences. The trail leads directly to a tech billionaire who has secretly designed a miracle drug. A reflection on the cult of the physical, in a film where performers like Isabella Rossellini stand out in a role that dialogues with her witch from ‘Death suits you so well’. On Disney+ from January 21 wonder man A bit of cover (and with a format binge watchingas already proven with ‘Echo’) the new Marvel series arrives at the end of January. With a meta point and some humor, it tells the story of Hollywood actor Simon Williams, who is trying to get his career off the ground. After a chance meeting with another actor, Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley, the fake Mandarin from ‘Iron Man 3’), Simon discovers that a remake of ‘Wonder Man’, a classic superhero film, is being prepared. The two actors, at opposite ends of their careers, will try to get a role. Developed by Destin Daniel Cretton, director of ‘Shang-Chi’, it is the first live-action project of Phase 6 in 2026. On Disney+ from January 27 The Death of Bunny Munro Six-episode British miniseries based on the novel of the same name by Nick Cave published in 2009. Matt Smith plays a sex-addicted beauty product salesman who, after the suicide of his wife, embarks on a chaotic road trip through the south of England with his nine-year-old son while a serial killer disguised as a demon stalks the area. A dark comedy about toxic masculinity and grief where Smith’s performance and his commitment to a repulsive character stand out. On Showtime starting January 30 The Demolition Brothers Action comedy directed by Ángel Manuel Soto (‘Blue Beetle’) that brings together two Hollywood action heavyweights: Jason Momoa and Dave Bautista. The film features two estranged half-brothers, an impulsive police officer and a disciplined Marine, forced to reunite after the mysterious death of their father in Hawaii. What begins as a family reunion quickly turns into a dangerous investigation. Explosive action, characteristic humor of its heroes and setting in the exotic streets of Hawaii. On Prime Video from January 28 crazy old woman Psychological horror that marks the directorial debut of Argentine screenwriter Martín Mauregui. Produced by JA Bayona, it stars Carmen Maura in one of the darkest and most disturbing roles of her career, and in it we will meet a boy who receives a message from an ex-girlfriend asking him to temporarily take care of her mother, who has senile dementia. What seems like a simple act of compassion quickly transforms into a claustrophobic nightmare that addresses, according to Bayona, how violence is transmitted from one generation to another. On Prime Video from January 14 The Pitt – T2 Nine months after the end of its acclaimed first season, … Read more

Spotify killed the record and the industry pivoted to concerts. Netflix killed cinema and the industry was left with a “space crisis”

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Never in history have we seen so many movies: the streaming It allows us to see several a week but, nevertheless, the movie theaters are empty. Literally emptier than ever in decades. We consume audiovisual content en masse, but not where we historically enjoyed it. Meanwhile, concerts have become the leisure alternative par excellence. Why do we pay hundreds of euros to go to a stadium with 50,000 other people, but not fifteen to see a blockbuster on the big screen? The answer lies in how we value physical space in the experience economy. Some figures. Let’s look at some box office figures: the summer of 2025, traditionally the most lucrative season in the industry, has been the most disastrous since 1981 adjusted for inflation. There is no dream of returning to pre-COVID figures: in October 2025 in the US, only 445 million dollars were raised, less than half of last October before the pandemicwhich exceeded one billion. The average viewer attended only 2.31 times to theaters in 2024, a drop of 33% compared to the 3.5 annual visits in 2019. In Spain, theThe 2025 data is equally dark: The total box office falls by 14% (almost 30 million less), and Spanish cinema itself declines by 2.5-3%. The author of this last study, Pau Brunet, expressly says that “the Hollywood fantasy is crumbling.” And the erosion is constant: Spain had more than 105 million viewers in 2019, which represents a loss of a third of its volume in five years: we are now at 71 million. Windows that don’t perform. The problem is so multifactorial that it is ridiculous to focus only on the drop in the box office to explain it. For example, we have the collapse of display windows: The pre-pandemic standard was 90-120 days in theaters, three or four weeks later in digital sales and then home formats and streaming. After the pandemic, these windows were reduced by more than 60%, and although they now vary depending on the studio, Universal and Warner leave a 45-day window for their most sought-after productions (it can be reduced to 17 days), with the exception of Disney, which operates them for 60 days. In any case, the rest of the windows have been shortened or disappeared, and it is common to watch a movie in streaming just a month and a half after its release in theaters. It is one of the main reasons why people have left the theaters: even blockbusters like ‘Wicked’ can be seen streaming just 40 days after their release in theaters. Even China. A few years ago, China was the market that seemed destined to save Hollywood accountsbut experienced its own collapse in 2024: the box office fell 23% to 42.5 billion yen ($5.8 billion), returning to figures from a decade ago. Attendance fell by more than 200 million viewers compared to ten years ago. One of the main reasons is the degradation of the theatrical experience: cinemas without air conditioning and without customer service staff beyond the bar, a characteristic that has been spreading to theaters around the world for years. The crisis has been going on for a long time. In reality, this fall does not have its roots in the streaming not even in the pandemic. The attendance of the American public had been falling since the sixtiesgoing from one visit per person every two or three months to just twice a year before the pandemic. The real price of admission (adjusted for inflation) has remained stable since the 1980s, but consumers have decided that they no longer want to go to theaters. The problem, as this Bain & Company study states The thing is that, for decades, the industry has placed all the emphasis of its production on pure content, but the films have ended up arriving home in a few weeks. Meanwhile, music has come to understand something fundamental: the value is not in the recorded content, but in the unique, unrepeatable event. The triumph of music. He Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour It closed in December 2024 after 149 concerts in 51 cities, ggenerating gross revenues of 2,077 million dollars. That is, more than the annual film box office receipts of entire countries (compare with the pyrrhic 71 million box office receipts in Spain in 2024). AND We’re not just talking about the concerts.: The average expense per attendee ranged between $1,300 and $1,500, including transportation, accommodation, merchandising and dinners. More than fans, they are tourists generating systemic economic impact. “Swiftonomics“has ceased to be a metaphor and has become a real analytical category in government economic reports. Beyond Taylor. Swift is not an anomaly. The global live music market generated $28.1 billion in 2023 and projections place it at $79.7 billion by 2030. That growth is equivalent to tripling the size of the market in seven years, while cinema struggles to recover the levels of a decade ago. What does live music have that cinema has lost? The term “funflation“: Consumers prioritize spending on memorable experiences even during periods of high inflation Festivals have capitalized on this logic: They sell identity, belonging and experiences that are impossible to replicate at home. Just the opposite of cinema: a film is exactly identical all over the world and once seen, the incentive to repeat it in theaters is minimal, especially knowing that it will be in streaming in 45 days. Reinvention is required. The cinema crisis is not a death sentence, but it is a demand for reinvention. Because the physical space of entertainment is not dying, it is being reformulated. The path that the music industry has followed by completely pivoting its business model with the disappearance of physical formats is the one that cinema has to follow. At the moment, theaters have not gotten the premium experiences right (sophisticated restoration, more comfortable rooms, improvements in image and sound quality), but that is because they still do not differentiate themselves enough from the domestic experience. Cinema needs its own Taylor … Read more

The creative death of Marvel’s MCU left a huge hole. One that in my case is filling WWE on Netflix

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Twice a week I like to live a cathartic experience, and it is something that I strictly adhere to since the beginning of 2025. WWE and Netflix they started a million-dollar collaboration (a decade at a rate of 500 million dollars a year) so that their star shows could be seen around the world. Gone are those weekend mornings in Four with La Bomba Batista, Rey Mysterio or Randy Orton who starred in the childhood of an entire generation, but thanks to the platform of streaming, nostalgia hits harder than ever by allowing us to experience nothing less than the farewell tour of the greatest of all time: John Cena. But beyond the trip to childhood, my religious weekly ‘Raw’ and ‘Smackdown’ have helped me realize that with a ring and a handful of wrestlers they are scratching the same part of the brain as I expected the MCU to activate during these last years. The interrelation of the character arcsinvincible enemies, unexpected turns of a hero and alliances on the horn is something that Marvel has lost since ‘Avengers Endgame’ and that I find almost every week in wrestling. All that is needed is a suspension of credulity that is generated by the cathartic nature of the slaps (choreographed, not fake) and by how dedicated the public is to an event that also has the added bonus of being held live. Perhaps it sounds ridiculous for those who have not known about this world for 20 years, or for those who have barely entered it, but once you are part of the wheel, it is difficult not to get hooked by multiple aspects: combats measured to the millimeter with a physical preparation from another planet, soap opera stories between the stars where the distance between reality and fiction is separated by a bad fall or a word out of the script, or demonstrations of aura with entrances like those of Penta either Roman Reigns. But everything has its dark side and, as often happens, being a woman places me (even more frequently) in a dilemma. 7 TRICKS to get the MOST out of NETFLIX Triple H is not spared either The eternal “separating work and author” that does not prevent the bitter taste in the mouth produced by wanting to see the new Woody Allen or Roman Polanski movie or refusing to continue reading to JK Rowling. And the WWE is an almost inexhaustible source of controversies that makes it very difficult to draw the line and be able to simply enjoy a high-quality show and wrestlers who give their all in vibrant fights. The WWE has suffered under the previous management of Vince McMahon and their continuous scandalsbut with the arrival in 2022 of Paul Levesque (known as Triple H for wrestling lovers, and also McMahon’s son-in-law) as the new content director, they wanted to sell a new post-Vince era, establishing a gender equality policy on the roster and moving away from wrestlers with whom racial stereotypes were promoted. Since the replacement took place, there is no doubt that the female presence has increased in WWE, and continues to do so year after year; In its annual report we can see that of its superstars a 40% are womenin front of the 35% from previous year. And not only does it increase in number, but in quality; offering us stories and combats that are often infinitely superior to those perpetrated by male stars on the roster. Names like Rhea Ripley either Becky Lynch They are the female reference and those who lead the way for new recruits. The combination of global streaming thanks to Netflix and the growing number of female talentshas been the key factor that has managed to boost the increase of this audience. And, already in the documentary ‘WWE: Unreal’, the creative director that high percentage stood out: “WWE women have become an integral part of what we do. 40% of our audience is female. So, when you start down the road to ‘WrestleMania,’ you try to approach it with them the same way you do with the guys, you approach the narrative in the same way. “However, at the same time, this reality is continually clouded by putting its stars against the ropes beyond the ring itself. And the figure of Triple H is not exempt from controversy either. It is not only that he has visited the oval office alongside Trump this summer to join the Presidential Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, reminding us once again of the US president’s relationship with the world of WWE and, inevitably, being a reminder of what political side the company joins. Not in vain, when the worst of the pandemic forced bodies to pile up in refrigerated trucks, even in New York, the WWE was one of the first sports practices to resume thanks to an exemption from Republican Florida. But the bulk of the excesses during his mandate are directed at the female public. Wrestlers and female audience against the ropes The WWE, through a agreement with Saudi Arabia which began in 2018 with the celebration of one of its events in the Middle Eastern country, was added to the list of sports that participate in the sportswashing strategic to whiten the image of the regime. This agreement, reprehensible for all that it implies on a political and social level, becomes even more flagrant and uncomfortable if we highlight what it means directly for the women of the company. In those first three events since 2018, the participation of the women’s section was totally prohibitedneither could they compete nor, of course, were female audiences allowed. It seems that, therefore, with that agreement of 100 million dollars annually Triple H easily forgets about that high percentage of female spectators that he brags about. It was not until 2019 when the Saudi authorities, in a display of modernity, allowed female wrestlers to compete, as long as they wore wrestling clothing that completely covered their bodies. … Read more

Netflix entrusted him with more than 70 million for a series. He came with zero episodes and a luxury mattress bill of $638,000

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Carl Rinsch, director of the semi-unknown Keanu Reeves film ’47 Ronin’ has been convicted of defrauding $11 million to Netflix. For the production of a science fiction series that was never made… nor was it planned to be made. Electronic fraud, money laundering and illegal transactions are the charges for this ingenious scoundrel who dared to tease one of the giants modern audiovisual corporations. What happened. The ‘White Horse’ project, later renamed ‘Conquest’, started in 2018 as an ambitious science fiction series about an artificial humanoid species that rebels against its creators. Netflix beat out Amazon, Apple and HBO in a bidding war for the rights to the series, disbursing more than 61 million dollars and granting Rinsch final creative control. 44 million dollars later and after filming in Uruguay, Brazil and Hungary, there was nothing on Mr. Netflix’s table. Crazy investments. In March 2020, as the pandemic spread, Rinsch requested an additional 11 million to, supposedly, complete the series. For some reason, Netflix agreed: Rinsch transferred the funds directly to personal accounts and speculated with stock options for Gilead Sciences, the pharmaceutical company that wanted to end COVID-19 (and COVID finished with her), losing approximately half of the capital in weeks. He later invested in Dogecointurning 4 million into 27. With the profits he unleashed a consumerist hurricane that resulted in five Rolls-Royces and a Ferrari worth 2.4 million dollars, two Hästens mattresses handcrafted in Sweden valued at 638,000 dollars, Swiss watches worth 387,000 and antique furniture valued at 3.3 million. Netflix canceled the project in 2021 after receiving only some promotional fragments of the hypothetical series. The sentence. In an unusual strategy, Rinsch chose to testify in his own defensemaintaining that the 11 million constituted a legitimate reimbursement for own capital invested in the project, and that the material already shot served as a negotiation tool to secure a second season that Netflix would never formally authorize. The prosecution presented bank statements showing direct transfers from the production budget to Rinsch’s personal accounts. Why did it happen? To understand this series of misfortunes for Netflix’s pocket, we must contextualize when it occurred: between 2018 and 2020, Netflix was at the center of a kind of streaming “gold rush”, with spending on content that reached $17.3 billion in 2020. The platform then accumulated 45% of global spending on streaming content since 2010, doubling the investment of your closest competitorAmazon Prime Video. The war for creative talent intensified with the launch of Disney+ in November 2019, followed by HBO Max, Apple TV+ and Peacock. Those were the times when, seeking to create a consistent catalog, Netflix prioritized quantity over quality. In this context, Netflix gave Rinsch that final cut for fear of losing the project to rivals. Other frauds. Rinsch is not an isolated case in an industry increasingly vulnerable to fraud. David Ozer, producer with credentials at Starz Media and Sony Pictures Television, serves sentence after diverting more than $200,000 from the ‘Safehaven’ budget. More recently, in August 2025, David Raymond Brown was accused of orchestrating a Ponzi scheme for 12 million dollars: the producer created a fictitious company that issued invoices for non-existent or already paid services and falsified his profile on IMDb to attract more investors. Header | Dima Solomin in Unsplash

Netflix decided to kill sending content to the TV. Apple has taken advantage of the gap to score a great goal

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Netflix decided to start the month of December by eliminating one of the most basic and useful functions of its mobile application: the ability to send content (cast) from our smartphone to any television with Android TV either Google TV. An essential tool to find content quickly on your mobile and send it to your TV. What we did not expect is that, in less than two weeks, Apple has responded indirectly by bringing its Apple TV for Android the feature that Netflix has decided to kill. Better late. Goodbye to Netflix Cast. It was easy to realize this. At home I have a Google Chromecast with Google TV and a Google Nest. Every time I wanted to send content from my mobile to my television… only the Google Nest appeared. That’s when I read the confirmation of the disaster: Netflix had loaded the Cast without any explanation. The exceptions. In the Netflix support page An exception is specified to continue using the Cast function: having a third-generation or earlier Chromecast device. In other words, versions without remote control. The second, have a plan without ads. If you don’t pay, you can’t send content to TV. Cast icon on Apple TV, make a wish. Given the gap in the squad, great goal. Since yesterday, a couple of weeks after Netflix’s move, the Apple TV application for Android is compatible with Google Cast, a function that was missing since the launch of the app at the beginning of the year on the rival platform. It is necessary to have the app updated to version 2.2 to be able to send our content to the television on any Chromecast. Apple being less Apple. Apple has had to respond to Netflix in the face of an undeniable reality: its service is a minority within the ecosystem of streaming platforms. Netflix is ​​the absolute king, followed by Prime Video and Disney+. And one of the reasons was one that we know quite well: using Apple is using a product tied to its ecosystem. Despite this, Apple TV+ is dangerously close to HBO Max, about to take fourth place in the ranking, according to data from JustWatch. In this context, the introduction of Cast goes beyond a minor function: It is a surrender (more) from Apple towards a more open ecosystem. And this works in your favor Allows Apple TV+ to sneak into homes with Android phones and tablets Reduces friction of use Reduce dependence on Apple’s hardware ecosystem What are you doing to win in Spain. Apple’s strategy to continue growing in Spain is clear: swim against the current with a strategy that does not introduce advertising in the app, a small catalog but with a large presence of proposals (expensive) and own and, now, simplifying the use of its app to reduce friction that had been artificially introduced. It won’t be enough. We told it a year ago and the numbers reaffirm it: there is hardly any war in streamingsince most of the content is converging on Netflix. The post-pandemic stage forced platforms to fight to distinguish themselves, while Netflix went public at the end of December 2024 at pre-pandemic levels. Be that as it may, given the growth of Apple TV in 2025, fight head to head against an HBO focused on quality It is great news for the company. Image | Xataka In Xataka | The best streaming platforms 2025 | Comparison of Disney+, Netflix, HBO Max, Prime Video, Movistar Plus+, Filmin, Apple TV, SkyShowtime and Rakuten TV: catalog, functions and prices

Warner series, franchises and business units that will be owned by Netflix

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Netflix did not need to demonstrate creative capacity: its own production had become the reference for global streaming. However, the announced agreement to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming business introduces a change in scale if regulators end up approving the operation. It is not about adding a few more series, but about integrating a studio with decades of history, the area where HBO is located and a very relevant part of its catalog, in addition to several franchises that have marked popular culture. Faced with such a move, the inevitable question is what, exactly, will become under the control of Netflix, without this meaning that everything will appear tomorrow in its application. The agreement is not closed yet and depends on several formal steps. Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery have announced that the operation, valued at $72 billion in capital and some $82.7 billion in enterprise value, can only be completed after spinning off the new Discovery Global company. From there, the process will be in the hands of the regulators, which could take between 12 and 18 months to review an integration of this magnitude and could impose additional conditions or, in the worst case scenario, block it. The perimeter of the deal: what actually goes into the package. Official communications and media analysis agree that the operation covers the historical core of the study. That includes Warner Bros. Pictures, responsible for its film catalog, and Warner Bros. Television, the basis for some of the most influential series of recent decades. Added to that block are HBO and the HBO Max platform, which are part of the streaming business that Netflix intends to integrate, as well as DC Studios. The inclusion of Warner Bros. Games is not detailed in the first press release. What’s left out: the new Discovery Global. The operation does not cover the entire Warner Bros. Discovery. Before completion, the company must spin off a block of channels and services that will not come under Netflix control. Warner Bros. Discovery’s corporate plans indicate that this group will be integrated into the new Discovery Global, an independent company that will maintain assets such as CNN, Discovery Channel, TBS, TNT in the United States, Food Network, HGTV, Discovery+ and part of the sports operations, including TNT Sports US. Film franchises: from Hogwarts to Gotham. Netflix and Warner’s own joint communication serves as a guide to understanding the caliber of the film franchises involved. It mentions specific titles such as ‘Harry Potter’, the DC Universe, ‘The Wizard of Oz’, ‘Casablanca’ and ‘Citizen Kane’, along with television brands such as ‘Friends’, ‘The Big Bang Theory’, ‘The Sopranos’ and ‘Game of Thrones’, as a sample of the archive that accompanies the study. From that base, media like Newsweek and What’s on Netflix broadens the focus and they point out that, within Warner’s recent filmography, sagas such as ‘Dune’ or ‘The Matrix’ also appear as part of the fund that would remain under the management of the studio controlled by Netflix, always with the caution that it is not an official list title by title. Warner’s animated treasure. Among the assets least visible to the general public, but widely cited in coverage of the agreement, There is the extensive animation catalog that accompanies the Warner studio. There, icons like ‘Looney Tunes’, ‘Tom and Jerry’ and ‘Scooby-Doo’ are mixed with series that defined Cartoon Network’s identity, from ‘The Powerpuff Girls’ and ‘Dexter’s Laboratory’ to ‘Adventure Time’, ‘Regular Show’ and ‘Steven Universe’. The interactive leg of the deal is best understood if we look at what it means, in practice, for Warner Bros. Games to change ownership. Although the first corporate communication did not go into that level of detail, specialized media such as GameDeveloper have cited to a company spokesperson to confirm that the video game division is entering into the operation with Netflix. What is confirmed and what remains unknown. At this point we can draw a relatively clear line between what is confirmed and what still depends on third parties. The perimeter of the agreement falls into the first group: Netflix and Warner have explained that the package includes film and television studiosthe area where HBO and HBO Max and the video game division are included, while the linear channels are grouped into Discovery Global. We also know that franchises such as ‘Harry Potter’, the DC Universe, ‘Friends’ or ‘Game of Thrones’ are mentioned by the parties themselves as examples of the archive they provide. What remains open is when and how this will be reflected in the catalog of each country, what will happen with co-productions and previous licenses already signed and to what extent regulators will impose additional conditions or, in the most extreme scenario, decide to stop the operation. The real impact of this operation will be noticed over time, not from one day to the next. If the agreement receives the approval of regulators, Netflix will manage a studio with a historical weight that is difficult to replicate and a library that has defined much of recent audiovisual culture. What the viewer will see will be a gradual transition, marked by pre-existing licenses and agreements that must be respected, with different schedules depending on the country and type of content. Even so, the movement anticipates a stage in which the platform will stop depending so much on third parties and will consolidate its own base of content that, until now, it could only license. Images | Netflix | Warner In Xataka | All the unanswered questions left by Netflix’s purchase of Warner: a huge mess

Netflix buys Warner Bros, stays with HBO and completes one of the most important movements in the history of streaming

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Warner Bros. knew what it was saying when it commented that it wanted to have a buyer before the end of 2025. After a few weeks in which it seemed that Paramount was going to take the lead, it was finally Netflix, which has acquired the oldest film production company, although we will have to wait: for now, Warner has to conclude its global networks division (which includes CNN and Discovery) in a new company. 82.7 billion dollars. Netflix has closed the largest acquisition in its history and one of the most significant operations in the entertainment industry: the purchase of the centenary Warner Bros studio, along with the streaming platform HBO Maxin a deal valued at $82.7 billion in terms of total enterprise value. Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders will receive compensation of $27.75 for each title they own, structured as a payment of $23.25 in cash plus $4,501 in Netflix shares. Organic growth is over. The transaction represents a radical shift in corporate strategy for Netflix, which for two decades had shunned large acquisitions in favor of organic growth. Just two months ago, co-CEO Greg Peters had criticized media megamergers. The agreement concludes an intense bidding war of three rounds in which Netflix beat competitors such as Paramount-Skydance (which sought to buy all of WBD) and Comcast (interested only in the streaming and studio assets). Netflix’s final proposal includes a breakup penalty clause of $5 billion in case regulators block the operation. Just yesterday, Paramount-Skydance accused to the process having been “rigged” with a “predetermined outcome” that favored a single bidder. Netflix’s victory is partially attributed to the close professional relationship between David Zaslav and Ted Sarandos. It still remains. The final closure will not occur until Warner Bros. Discovery completes the separation of its traditional networks division (which includes CNN, TNT Sports, Discovery Channel, TBS and the European broadcast television channels, in addition to the Discovery+ service and Bleacher Report) into a new independent company called Discovery Global. This process is scheduled to end in the third quarter of 2026, at which point Netflix will be able to take effective control of the acquired assets, according to the official calendar broadcast by Netflix itself. What does Netflix have now? With this operation, Netflix will incorporate into its corporate structure the production companies Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group and Warner Bros. Television, DC Studios (responsible for the superhero franchises that rival Marvel and that have just experienced a welcome resurrection), the entire HBO programming including emblematic series such as ‘Game of Thrones’ or the future reinvention of ‘Harry Potter’, and a historical library that includes approximately 12,500 feature films and 2,400 series. All of this, of course, in addition to universally famous franchises and IPs like those mentioned, FriendsThe Lord of the Rings or the entire Looney Tunes catalog, among other things Hanna-Barbera. The deal also gives Netflix physical production infrastructure, including Warner’s legendary Burbank studios in California. In Xataka | Using Netflix in 2018 was much better than now: we have normalized degrading experiences

13 premiere movies and series to watch in December 2025 on Netflix, Prime Video, HBO Max and streaming

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Good! Christmas right there and unless you work as Santa’s elf, everything indicates that you will be able to dig out the blanket from the attic where you have it and organize some good sessions with the stove, slippers and streaming. As these parties usually come loaded on the platforms, here are some ideas so that you don’t miss out on any news. Percy Jackson and the Olympians Among the many franchises that Disney found with the purchase of Fox was Percy Jackson, which had already given rise to two films at the beginning of the last decade that sought, like so many of the time, to find a new Harry Potter. Although they did reasonably well at the box office, their departure from Rick Riordan’s original novels earned them quite a bit of antipathy, which seemed to be moderated with a more faithful Disney+ series. Now comes the second season, where a teenager with a destiny bigger than he imagines travels across the United States fighting monsters and gods to return his lightning bolt to Zeus. On Disney+ from December 10 Mad Men – Complete Series There are series that never go out of style, and ‘Mad Men’ is, indisputably, one of them. After a time away from our screens (unless you subscribed to Lionsgate+), now you have the opportunity to binge the almost one hundred episodes of this satirical epic that perfectly portrays New York in the sixties. Donald Draper, executive of a major advertising firm, is the protagonist of this series that helps us understand each and every one of the vices of the society we live in now, sixty-odd years later. On Disney+ from December 14 The last outburst Is one of the best films in the history of Spanish cinema. Many say that it is the best: a mix of experimental cinema, vampire film and desperate and addictive love letter to cinema. Converted into a cult film, ‘Arrebato’ is the core of this unclassifiable (like its object of study) mix of documentary and fiction that investigates the strange black hole that the film represents for all those who see it and worked on it. ‘The Last Rapture’ follows the clues that would explain the disappearance of Iván Zulueta and his film, accompanied by Jaime Chávarri and the original actors of the classic, Eusebio Poncela, Cecilia Roth and Marta Fernández-Muro. On Movistar Plus+ from December 3 relay Among Movistar’s more or less unreleased releases, this thriller that seems to seek inspiration from the conspiracy thrillers of the seventies especially draws our attention. But updated, of course: now the target is anonymity in the internet age. Directed by the always reliable David Mackenzie, whom we remember from ‘Comanchería’, it stars Lily James, Riz Ahmed and Sam Worthington, and we will follow a scientist who has been fired after warning about the side effects of the project she was working on. But she has evidence that the company is hiding information and believes she is being persecuted. On Movistar Plus+ from December 26 good boy A simple and direct horror gem, practically silent, that in just 72 minutes tells a story told from the perspective of Indy, a dog who, together with his owner, faces supernatural phenomena in an isolated house. Continuously at the height of the dog, giving us a unique immersion in the story, the film avoids the typical anthropomorphic vision of the animal in a minimal budget experiment that plays with atmosphere and sound to create a feeling of constant threat. It took years to film, since the dog is the director’s real pet and is not trained to act. On Filmin since December 19 Zodiac Killer Project Only a killer like Zodiac could spark a documentary true crime like this one, where the important thing is, obviously, not the investigation and the identity of the criminal, but rather a deep reflection on the codes and topics of the genre. We will walk through the typical true crime scenarios, but stripped of all spectacularity, accompanied by a deep reflection on a completely saturated style and taking as a starting point, precisely, an abandoned documentary about the Zodiac Killer. On Filmin since December 26 F1: The Movie The movie that has turned around finances from Apple’s audiovisual division after a series of failures is this fast-paced sports film focused on Formula 1. We will learn the story of the most promising driver of the 90s until an accident is about to put an end to him. Thirty years later, he has become a kind of driver for hire who receives a proposal from a former teammate, owner of a Formula 1 team on the brink of closure. An authentic visual spectacle thanks to the realistic immersion in the races through first-person shots and effects without CGI tricks. On Apple TV from December 12 Fallout T2 One of the most popular science fiction series returns funny and praised in recent timesand also a production that has lifted the curse of video game adaptations, demonstrating that no project is sufficiently ambitious when it is done with knowledge of the facts. We also leave the first season at a very interesting point: Lucy searching for her father after being betrayed and the Ghoul searching for his family, who may have survived the Holocaust. And their steps take them to a mythical location. None other than New Vegas, legendary setting for the franchise. On Prime Video from December 17 Palm Springs Although it has been roaming around on all types of platforms for some time now, this cult comedy is always a delight that can be reviewed again and again thanks to how it reinvents the concept of a time loop with a contemporary tone and melancholic atmosphere. Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti have perfect chemistry and together they go a step further than what we have already seen in classics like ‘Trapped in Time’. Here, Samberg is locked in a loop that repeats the same day over and … Read more

‘Stranger Things’ changed everything for Netflix. Your problem now is finding another brand just as powerful.

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The expectation is through the roof: Netflix has just taken the first steps of the final season of ‘Stranger Things’‘, which will run throughout December with several episodes, many of them feature-length. In fact, the desire of the fans is such that Netflix even saw its servers falter. A (very possibly) triumphant culmination that, however, leaves a few unknowns in the air. Netflix flashes. Netflix experienced a service outage that in some cases It lasted about twenty minutes. (although the thing did not exceed about five, according to the platform’s official statement) with the premiere of the fifth season of ‘Stranger Things’. The incident occurred despite the fact that the series co-creator, Ross Duffer, had shared that Netflix would increase its bandwidth by 30% to avoid precisely this type of incident. All in all, thousands of users reported NSEZ-403 errors that prevented them from accessing the content, or accessed it with problems, which worked as a perfect thermometer of the expectation generated by the series. ‘Stranger Things’ continues to be a phenomenon capable of collapsing digital infrastructures three years after its previous season. Devastating figures. The fourth season accumulated 140.7 million viewsestablishing itself as the third most watched series in English on the platform, only behind ‘Wednesday’ and ‘Adolescence’. Of course, it is the only series with all seasons in the Top 10an unprecedented milestone on the platform. The impact on subscribers is more difficult to quantify: the third season, for example, contributed to add 520,000 subscribers in the United States. The cultural impact. The impact that ‘Stranger Things’ has had on modern pop culture is enough for a book, but let’s stick with some figures that will give us a rough idea. First, the economy: Netflix, for example, closed agreements with approximately 75 brands to promote the third season. Coca-Cola relaunched New Coke, generating 1.2 billion dollars in media value; Similarly, Nike obtained $178 million in media coverage with their Hawkins High collection. But this goes far beyond benefits for some brands: Butts County in Georgia, where the series is set, reported a 12% increase in tourism during the years the series was broadcast. And the small city of Jackson, with barely five thousand inhabitants and a per capita income of less than $30,000, revitalized its economy thanks to thematic tours. And of course, there is the strong role that the series has had in the recovery of the aesthetics and fashions of the eighties. It is no longer just that they have been revitalized Stephen King’s books and John Carpenter’s films: platforms like LTK registered increases of 3,000% in searches for clothing similar to those worn by the characters. What can we expect? For now, Netflix has planned very well to divide this final season into three: 4 episodes on November 27, 3 on December 26 and a final one on January 1. That is, coinciding with Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve, and thus, contrary to what is usual on the platform, stretching the cultural conversation for two months. As for audience expectations, as expected, they are very high: analysts predict new viewing records given the three years of waiting until this end. Of course, the critics have spoken and they point to the signs of exhaustion that were already seen in previous seasons: 87% on Rotten Tomatoesthe lowest rating of the series so far, although the audience rises to 92%. It is not easy to maintain narrative quality after so many years, with obstacles such as the age of the protagonists. The future. The really interesting thing about the phenomenon is wondering what Netflix has ahead. Or to put it more awkwardly: can the platform replicate the phenomenon? It has certainly had successful series in its catalogue, such as ‘Wednesday‘, ‘The Squid Game’ or ‘The Bridgertons’, but except for the first, all of them have finished or are about to do so. It is true that Netflix has the ability to generate new hits like ‘Wednesday’, which also, although it came as a bit of a surprise to everyone, could be well exploited by the platform. Now, Netflix is ​​in a phase of prioritize quantity over qualitymercilessly canceling what does not interest you and attesting that we are in a different moment than the initial success of ‘Stranger Things’: the competition has multiplied and it is more difficult to get noticed among multiple offers. Netflix has all the space in the world before it to compete, but perhaps its main rival is its own legacy: how to make ‘Stranger Things’ forgotten. The series was perhaps, before the almost infinite atomization of the offer of the streamingthe medium’s latest great global success. And that is very difficult to overcome. In Xataka | Netflix loved movie theaters. Then he hated them. Now you have reached a very beneficial middle ground

Disney’s most profitable business for years has been amusement parks. And Netflix is ​​going to follow in their footsteps

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In a turn that will not be too surprising to those who closely follow the finances of entertainment giants like Disney, Netflix has made the leap to the physical world. Last Wednesday, the platform inaugurated its first permanent entertainment center in King of Prussia, a town located 25 kilometers from Philadelphia. A real dive into Netflix products that makes it clear that there are no authors or stars here, but a single corporation with things very clear. What does it consist of? Netflix House is a two-story complex with a surface area equivalent to a football stadium and that allows visitors to tour replicas of scenes from series such as ‘Wednesday‘, ‘The squid game‘ either ‘Stranger Things‘. For example, there is a replica of the room that Wednesday shares with Enid at Nevermore Academy, where visitors solve a murder with Thing through their cell phones, or a escape room based on ‘One Piece’. There is also a nine-hole mini golf course with automatic ball tracking technology, whose courses are themed to series such as ‘Bridgerton’ or ‘The Squid Game’. Finally, there are virtual reality rooms. As a culmination, a restaurant with dishes inspired by the series, and the TUDUM theater, with 229 seats for screenings. The company already plans to open a second headquarters in Dallas on December 11 and a third in Las Vegas in 2027. Admission is free, although the experiences have a cost: from $15 for a game of mini golf to $39 for the main immersive attractions. On the go. The flexibility of the model was demonstrated before the inauguration. The success of ‘The K-pop Warriors’ It caught those responsible for the installation by surprise, but its presence was incorporated into the venue on the fly with life-size figures of its protagonists and merchandising exclusive. And of course, more dedicated content is promised in the coming months. It is one of the strong points of the project: that although there is always the presence of timeless hits such as ‘The Paper House’ or ‘The Squid Game’, last-minute audience bombshells can be incorporated to make it an experience that breathes a certain life of its own. British roots. This concept that Netflix exploits does not come from the United States, but from the United Kingdom: for example, Fabien Riggall founded Secret Cinema in 2007 with the idea of ​​making your childhood wish come true of “living inside a movie.” Its first event brought together 400 people in an abandoned railway tunnel to screen a film whose title was kept secret until the last moment, with stages and actors decorated to give the atmosphere. Since then, the company has raised over £130,000 for charitieswith increasingly spectacular and complex installations. A few years before, in 2000, Punchdrunk already existed, immersive theater collective where the public was not limited to passively observing the work, but went on a tour of spaces where the action took place. London has ended up consolidating itself as global epicenter of these interactive experiences. Like a virus. Of course, this idea did not come from Netflix: its rivals have been operating comparable facilities for decades. Disney is the clearest example given its long experience in amusement parkswill allocate 60,000 million dollars to its experiences division over the next decade. Universal invested 7 billion in its recently inaugurated Epic Universe, based on franchises such as Harry Potter or Super Mario. Let us remember that Disney’s parks division contributes 70% of the profits of the company. Of course, be careful with the powerful comparative advantage of the Netflix proposal: entry to Netflix House is free. It’s just the beginning. This is not an isolated experiment or an extra next to Netflix’s main business: the platform’s decision to stop communicating its number of subscribers should give us a clue about how they have peaked in certain aspects, and need to continue expanding their reach. Netflix has reached agreements with cinema chains in the United States and sporting events have become core part of its offer. He has already made it clear that the plan is to open up to 25 of these Netflix Houses around the world and to continue releasing plays like ‘Stranger Things: The First Shadow‘. We are going to continue hearing about Netflix for a long time. Header | Netflix In Xataka | The chaos of streaming is causing a phenomenon that we thought was in recession: downloads are increasing

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