Paramount+ has been the sole streaming home for all 13 Star Trek feature films; however, that changed at the beginning of 2024. If you want to stream one of the TOS or TNG movies in the USA, you will have to do it on Max.
Trek to the Max
As of January 1, 2024, the six TOS-era Star Trek movies (The Motion Picture, The Wrath of Khan, The Search for Spock, The Voyage Home, The Final Frontier, and The Undiscovered Country) and four TNG-era movies (Generations, First Contact, Insurrection, and Nemesis) are streaming exclusively on Max in the USA. This includes the new 4K Directors Edition of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The Star Trek feature films have also started airing on HBO. History is repeating: In November 2022 the same 10 movies jumped from Paramount+ for HBO Max (now just Max), then returned in July of 2023. The three Kelvin-era movies (Star Trek 2009, Into Darkness, and Beyond) are still available on Paramount+.
It is unknown how long HBO and Max will have the exclusive license for the 10 Star Trek feature films this time. Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery are in talks about a potential merger, but the licensing deal for the Star Trek films is not related to those talks.
The Star Trek movies on Max
Licensing Star Trek
All 13 Star Trek feature films were first consolidated on Paramount+ exclusively in November 2021, and by July 2022, all 5 “classic” Star Trek TV shows were also exclusive to Paramount+ in the USA. During the height of the streaming wars, most media companies were keeping their own content on their own streaming services. More recently there has been an industry trend back to licensing. In fact, Warner Bros. Discovery has been licensing much of its content to other streaming services, including Netflix.
This move back to more licensing has already been seen with Star Trek: Prodigy moving from Paramount+ to Netflix. We may see more exclusive and non-exclusive licensing deals for Star Trek TV shows. Perhaps Paramount would even consider producing a new original Star Trek show for another service. There is some precedent for this, as Netflix paid much of the cost for the early seasons of Discovery for the international streaming rights. Amazon did the same for Picard and Lower Decks.
One thing is clear, Paramount+ will also have to update their latest “Home of Star Trek” promo (released during Comic-Con 2023), as it includes clips from the feature films.
Find more news on streaming and home video at TrekMovie.com.
It just doesn’t make sense that Paramount wouldn’t have the rights to Trek for life! Don’t they own the IP since Paramount is the only studio (after Desilu) that Trek has ever been produced by?
Some of the deals go back years.
It’s probably a good thing Trek gets seen outside Paramount plus from time to time.
I mean, Paramount still *owns* the movies; they’re just licensing them to another service for a while.
I am a little surprised they’re doing so exclusively, when they could instead have cut a deal to let Max show them but done so non-exclusively (so that Paramount could also continue to stream them at the same time Max is doing so), but presumably Max wanted them all to itself for a while, and/or Paramount opted for an exclusive deal since it could surely command a better price for that.
I’m not surprised at all. Paramount only cares about the bottom line here, and selling the streaming rights to some of their content on an exclusive basis will net them a much bigger fee from Max if it were non exclusive.
And as I said elsewhere, Paramount also knows that Trekkies won’t dump their service just because the movies are gone: they are still the exclusive home for SNW, LDS, and at the moment, all the legacy Tv shows.
Farming the movies out makes sense for them, as it also gives a taste of trek to non-Paramount subscribers to hopefully lure them to their service.
At the end of the day, though, it shows they really don’t give a f*** about their fans. But that’s par for the course when it comes to major media companies.
Streaming is hurting right now, so side deals like this for legacy movies/shows that bring in even just a bit of cash help the bottom line a little bit.
Paramount probably should of stuck to making content for other streaming services. Let the other companies handle infrastructure and marketing ect. Paramount could just collect the money. Not every company needed a streaming service.
100%
🤓🚨 Instead of “should of,” English (and logic) demand “should have”… you know, as in what they should HAVE done?! The sense in using “of” here, is diddly-squat.
🤷♂️
I sadly make that mistake often if I am typing to fast. I will take my grammar speeding ticket now and be on my way Officer GrammarCop. Apologies good sir.
🤓🚨 There are crucial differences between “to,” “two,” and “too” as well… but I’ll let it slide this time, as you accepted your first grammar speeding ticket with an apology, young citizen.
Be safe out there, and watch your speed! 😎👍
What drives me more nuts than “should of” (and that’s an easy mistake to make as when you say “should have” out loud fast enough it does sound like “should of”), is “all the sudden.” It is “all OF A sudden,” “all THE sudden” makes no sense. Drives me bonkers. But I digress…
You digress? What did you digress from?
They surely got the rights, but it seems the deal they made with Max including that Paramount will take the films down for the period Max have them.. I’m sure Paramount will get a lot of more money because of this, and/because Max presumably will win new potential subscribers when they have “exclusive“ content.
Does this mean the movies aren’t profitable on Paramount+ so they have no choice but to send them off to another streamer to make some money?
Maybe the Berman era shows will go back to Netflix at some point. The streaming quality was better there.
But that’s what I don’t get. If the Trek movies aren’t profitable for P+ then why would HBO even want them?
Whatever HBO paid for them is their market value. At P+, are people going to drop the service because just the movies are gone? Probably not. So given how cash strapped they are, if HBO offered say just $1 mil, they need to take that offer given the bad financial situation the studio is in right now.
Well it’s def true that Paramount is in a bad place right now. I’m still surprised tho cause other than Trek what value is there to P+???
Movies, reality tv, Taylor Sheridan shows, CBS/live sports. I don’t subscribe for much beyond Trek, but I’m not shocked they would test the waters to see how much they could license for cold hard cash and not lose many of the Trekkie subscriptions.
Could also be an old licensing deal they are still honoring.
I think it’s the latter. IIRC Yellowstone and the offshoots are headed to CBS proper.
Even if that’s the case, over-the-air series still have to be streamed somewhere. As the upcoming “short season” of broadcast offerings begins, I wonder if CBS will license its offerings back to Hulu.
I think the future of streaming is returning to more Hulu like models where multiple studios share a service. That was the right thing to do from the start but everyone unsurprisingly got greedy,
They’re not profitable to P+ in the sense that they weren’t making any money in licensing. Now they are.
I have to believe they were at least bringing in some subs.
No. It means they can get more money on a licensing fee, while knowing that Trekkies still won’t leave their service because it offers all the new stuff, TNG, DS9, etc.
P+ isn’t profitable, period. Max made them an offer they couldn’t refuse.
I rather doubt Max is profitable right now either.
I agree with the comment that P+ has not-so-great streaming quality compared to the likes of Netflix. Perhaps P+ should work on that if it expects subscribers to keep the lights on.
Get a better internet service. Paramount works fine for me and always has. Frankly it’s one of the better services in that regard. I ditched Netflix a few years ago and just dumped Amazon after the ad announcement. Paramount and Max are all I have now, and I only have Max because I threatened to cancel and they offered me 6 months for half the price. I’ll be getting rid of it in April.
My internet service is great- but the Paramount+ app frequently won’t load. At all. Commercial breaks will repeat themselves, episodes will get stuck in a loop if you try to fast forward or rewind… it is very buggy in ways that have nothing to do with internet speeds.
Different people apparently have different experiences.
I use the Amazon Prime add-on for P+ and it works fine, beyond the hassle of trying to find live sports every now and then and the P+ dedicated app not understanding that I do have a subscription but not letting me log in
I have zero issues with my Apple + device with a direct P+ subscription. I agree with the other two posters — if you are using a cheap stick or a pc, that is likely your issue, not P+.
“Paramount+ has been the sole streaming home for all 13 Star Trek feature films, however, that changed at the beginning of 2024.”
That first comma should be a semicolon to avoid a run-on. :)
“Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery are in talks about a potential merger, however, the licensing deal for the Star Trek films is not related to those talks.”
Same goes with that sentence. :)
Where were you when I was doing term papers in college?
Microsoft Word is your friend LOL
Here’s a good article on the economics behind licensing the movies to another streamer.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/15/business/media/netflix-licensed-shows.html?unlocked_article_code=1.K00.XX6p.tT8CmD-xAOI-&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Great article — you just proved what I logically surmised in another post here — thanks!
Exclusive licensing needs to die a painful death. It might be good for corporate profits, but it’s horrible for the general public. We were beginning to get into the streaming thing, but because of this kind of tactic, we’re now reducing our streaming and started once again buying physical media so that we know for sure we can watch what we want to watch whenever we want to watch it. Fortunately, we’ve had all the Star Trek movies on disc for quite a while, and it’s saving us in these days of the movies bouncing from one service we have to other services we don’t, and back and forth in idiotic fashion.
Plus there are extras on the disks, and depending on your streaming service, the disks are usually better quality (except when they go bad.)
Physical media is for the elderly. Me, I’m under 90 years old, nobody my age wants to have to touch a physical disc or tape.
If that means I can’t watch some movies that are on a service I don’t have, so be it. I’m not that addicted to content. I have a life, after all.
We are very happy that you have a life. I am and elderly 66 year old with no life. I find that disks, especially 4K UHD, to be noticeably superior to streaming.
Personally like owning the stuff I enjoy so I don’t have to keep paying to watch it when I want to.
Cool — I won’t be considered “elderly” until I hit 90 years old — Who knew? :-)
Don’t ask the average 15-year-old to confirm that.
And people still wonder why I continue to purchase physical media. Streaming’s Glorious Future™️ has turned into a sick joke.
Physical media is the only way to truly own a copy of anything with certainty, and blu ray is still better quality than streaming.
But it’s really falling away as people just opt for convenience and settle. I’m in Malaysia right now, and you’d be hard pressed to find a dvd player in any stores these days.
If you’re a capitalist pig, the acquisition of physical things makes a lot of sense, yes.
Keep it up, hoo-man! Make America Great!
🙄
Ian, I admire your restraint.
Me too, but I couldn’t hold back!
That was rather bizarre, wasn’t’ it?
If you think non-physical copies don’t make you beholden to capitalists…
The key word here is ‘think.’ You clearly do. As to others …
You mean streaming services aren’t socialist paradises?
Owning physical media is protection against when the copyright owner decides that the original has to be altered to fit with the political climate, or the owner’s wife’s religious beliefs, or any number of other things in the book-burner’s handbook.
You may not be addicted to content, but you’re clearly a slave to convenience.
That’s a great point, especially given your alarming report yesterday about what is going on at Goodwill.
LOL
I got news for you, comrade, at 4K, the life cycle energy impact of streaming a movie is marginally greater than a disc viewing of the movie…and it gets progressively worse for the streaming case the more times you watch it.
So by streaming you are actually assisting the bourgeoisie
I still wonder why you buy physical media. Just don’t watch the movies that you don’t have easy access to. It’s that simple. It won’t hurt you.
Okay, now I see, you don’t really feel this way, you’re just trolling the issue because you can see that it is a touchy subject. That makes you a … jerk.
Yes, and seeing he uses age as an insult, a probably very immature jerk. You know, the kind that still thinks he knows it all…
Back when I knew it all or thought I did, I hope I didn’t come off like that!
You are just so misinformed. For example:
in 2017 consumer movie viewing in the USA was almost 8x higher than at the time of peak movie consumption when the physical distribution dominated. The comparative LCA showed that, for the example of global warming potential, the environmental emissions of digital distribution are ultimately higher.
I Love all The Star Trek Movies & TV Series / Even All The New Stuff ( Prodigy ) & Lower Decks
But I Really Wish They Would
Make All of it Available 24/7
For Free Like It Used to be
I Already Bought the 10 Pack
Of movies on Vudu Because
Of this Kind of BS & Also
Bought ( Prodigy ) Season 1
For the same reason C’mon
Guys Unless Y’all Wanna Kill
The Franchise Give us all a
Big Break or at Least Leave
Them available In Multiple
Places ~ I Hate Digging
For Gold Especially When it’s
Hard to Find ….
By chance, do you work at Western Union?
So Many Capital Letters!
Do you always write in avant-grade poetry?
You beat me to it…
Been watching and enjoying Trek for all my life. Some more than others. Yet ever since Disco, Picard, Lower Decks. Not so much.
Prodigy, S1 of Strange New worlds helped me get back into it. I just dont understand what Paramount is doing when it comes to Star Trek.
They moved all of it to their platform, and lost $. Now moving it out again for $.
Maybe they should stop messing around with the formula and stick with what has worked in the past.
I just hope they get back into actual good sci fi stories, and less nonsensical emotional dramas.
I swear it’s like Paramount WANTS me to drop P+! Until the next seasons of SNW or Prodigy I see ZERO reason to keep it.
Prodigy is now on Netflix.
OOPS! Totally forgot!
I went to drop it yesterday and got an instant offer of two months for free, with my next bill not until mid-March now — and that keeps me in given Halo S2 in Feb and DSC in April. It’s funny, but I also went to drop HBO Max (which I get through and Amazon channel) yesterday, and they gave me 3 months for half price by not cancelling — and that gets me to Feb/March with Curb Your Enthusiasm S12 and Tokyo Vice S2.
This is pretty smart of these streaming services to give people some “bridge discounts” like this which get you to stay until the shows you are waiting for are back on.
You’re right, it is. The only 2 services I won’t cancel is Apple and Amazon because it comes with my iPhone and my Prime subscription respectively. The rest? I’m beginning to care less. So they should offer me something to stay because even if they have a show I like, at 10 eps in an entire year it’s totally not worth it and I’ll just buy the physical media copies if I am that interested, which in most cases I’m not.
Can’t they just pick a streaming service and leave the movies there, instead of moving them around all the time?
Just buy the dvds, folks. They’re cheap.
Yep, which I started doing recently.
The times, they are a changing…..welcome to Warnermount.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, If I see Superman fly up and punch the hull of the Enterprise I’ll flip my SH*****
It’d be easy to put Superman in TUC, where the torp goes up through the hull …
Ha that would be kinda funny actually.
That was a torpedo? I thought it was Captain Marvel.
Most photon torpedoes do a lot more damage, I always thought of that as more like a klingon cannonball, since it doesn’t do much besides just tear right through (was inspired by idea, ‘what would it look like to see the dish take a shotgun blast?’ – fun fact: the destruction of the MOONRAKER space station was actually accomplished by off-camera crew shotgunning the model.)
Yes when I first saw that torpedo mostly punch through the hull, I remember thinking a photorp shouldn’t have that effect, but it looked cool and it’s only a movie and the effect is going to be whatever the director wants it to be. And in TWOK, gone are the beautiful blue-white torpedoes of TMP…
I recall the special effects team of A New Hope using some kind of explosive to blow up the Y-Wings models in the Death Star trench. You better make sure you get it right the first time.
In my pointless and unfocused teenage years, I remember setting my AMT Klingon D7 cruiser on fire and wow did it look cool! I was just so disappointed I didn’t have a camera to film it, but anyway I was too occupied on putting out the fire on the carpet. That plastic burns with a deep black smoke man! Almost looked like the Admiral Kuznetsov…
This is part of the reason I still buy Blu Ray, especially for Star Trek.
Plus Blu Ray looks better and sounds better than streaming. I didn’t notice this until today when I went to try and watch the Voyage Home (aka The One with the Whales).
Absolutely. The degree of compression used for streaming can be extreme, even if the resolution is nominally the same.
Star Trek The Motion Picture looks gorgeous
If the entire Prodigy debacle being cancelled by Paramount+ has done one major positive for me is that it convinced me to buy disks again in years. So that’s what I been doing and now, thankfully have all 13 movies on blu ray, even TMP, the one movie I still can’t get through more than 20 minutes lol But I now have those and moved on to the shows. I also have the TOS blu rays. I’m moving on to TNG next and buying everything in production order. No plans to buy any of the new shows yet and I want to wait until they are completed and buy them in one shot like Picard or Discovery since those are now done. But before this, the last time I bought a disk for a movie or show was back in 2008 lol. Just never saw the point, but now that has changed.
I’m tired of this nonsense. I will obviously watch this stuff if it’s on a service I have and I have HBO MAX, but I’m not going to pay extra for it anymore. Paramount+ will probably be cancelled and its library sold off if they sell it to someone but I will have every show and movie by then regardless.
Shows people don’t watch get canceled. It happens every day. Not much of a debacle in my opinion.
No genius, I’m not just talking about it getting cancelled, I’m talking about them removing the entire show completely; that’s the ‘debacle’ I’m referring to.. That was the promise all of these services were making and that original shows/movies would A. be exclusive only to those services and B. That they would always have a permanent home on them regardless if they lasted one season or ten.
And now nearly all of them are breaking both of those promises, correct? And Prodigy was the biggest slap because it was part of its largest IP on the service that they knew people like us signed up all year for–with the promise we can rewatch all these shows and movies anytime we wanted.
Imagine if your precious Discovery was removed off of P+ for good and before season 5 even aired? How would you feel about it? I’m sure there would be a lot of other angry fans and for good reason too.
A34, why do you still waste my time? Seriously. I don’t like talking to you because you only waste my time.
You can’t live without me Tiger. I complete you. 🤣🤣🤣 Well anyway I don’t remember them making a promise that Star Trek would only exist on Paramount plus. I think you just made that part up in your head. Even Disney still has contracts with Netflix btw.
I must protest. P+ prides themselves as the home of ST. When they strike it from their library it is going back on that proclamation.
Thank you. I’m convinced he’s just bored and looking to troll as usual.
Do you not understand what “Home of Star Trek” means? It’s literally what the article is discussing. Why do you think P+ bought DIS from Netflix when that platform launched globally?
Yeah Disney has contracts with them which they made last year. This was also the same company that took all their shows and movies off the site by the time Disney+ was launching because they wanted all their properties in one place. That’s no longer the case now. That’s the point getting made Einstein.
And notice you completely avoided what happened with Prodigy. Do you have shares at Paramount or something? Here’s a tip, sell now. Leave me alone loser.
I only invest in Bitcoin.
Ouch! My sympathies
Probably WB will buy Paramount
I regret donating or giving away a sizeable chunk of my physical media collection about ten years ago. I’d still kept about a quarter of them (maybe 400 DVDs and BluRays), which I now never will get rid of.
To top it off, physical media is no longer sold in my country unless one imports them at ridiculously crazy prices.
Streaming most definitely isn’t the dream it was made out to be.
I’ve never been a collector of media. I don’t even own a dvd player. Streaming has been awesome for me and I prefer to watch new content rather than rewatching old stuff.
Even in America, big top stores like Best Buy are no longer selling DVDs anymore. It is becoming a dying breed. I don’t think it will ever truly go away but I imagine it will be like how people who buy LPs and CDs today in the next twenty years and only for ‘collectors’ and no longer for the masses.
But man I really do wish I listened to people more who kept saying how good it is to have physical media today. I’ve gotten very cynical about streaming the last year or so and it’s probably only going to get worse for the next few years as they keep jacking up prices and shuffling around anything they can sell off.
It sucks you lost so much of your collection.
I have all the Trek I desire to keep forever on disc, including Pic s3 and PRO s1, which I purchased from Amazon. I plan on picking up SNW s1 in a bargain bin someday, but no hurry. And speaking of bargain bins, that’s where I go to get my dvd’s. 400 discs and counting. Thrift stores, mostly, and they have pretty extensive collections. And, it’s a fun cheap hobby to enjoy.
You were one of the people who actually convinced me to start buying physical media again Danpaine. And yeah there are so many crazy deals out there today because how out of fashion physical media has become. I picked up the TOS Blu rays on sale for $45 at my local mall. That’s for the entire show lol. I remember when they were $100 a season a decade ago.
I know we don’t talk, but man that is so great to hear that fans are doing this now. THANKS!
1800 discs and counting…about 1400 of them BR’s, approaching 100 UHD’s.
I hear you!
The whole cloud vs physical conundrum became an issue for me when I wanted to change my Apple itunes/Music account from US to Canada when I moved. I was told I would lose all my music that I had purchased years ago with the awitch – so I had to convert the hundreds of song files and store them on a hard drive.
I still have a turntable, CD, DVD and LD player and even a cassette deck. (I did get rid of my 8 track player haha)
Because I dont know who is going to own the streaming rights to Star Trek in the future, I am buying hard DVD copies of Picard S3 and SNW S2 – just in case they arent available for VOD up here in the future!
Once again, good thing I got the 10-movie box set. And the three Pine-movies on BD, as well.
Please stop acting like you all haven’t seen these movies a hundred times before. Personally I haven’t seen these movies in years and I have no interest in seeing them again anytime soon.
Well, good for you. I may have seen the movies a hundred times before but I enjoy them (well, I to VI anyway) and happily watch them regularly. The criticism from fandom is legitimate given how P+ branded itself as THE home of Trek.
That was just PR since they used ST to launch the network. P+ is the home for Paramount content but that doesn’t mean their content can’t move around.
The Home for all Star Trek… seems legit.
You can’t say you are “The Home of Star Trek” when you don’t have the movies available on your network to watch.
Some Trek, some of the time.
Sounds like something Lincoln would say…
Paramount+ is one of the worst streaming services I’ve ever seen, in terms of functionality. The more they remove exclusive Trek content, the less reason I have to keep my subscription…
I can’t wait for Halo season two
Me too.
Hmm, it works perfectly on my high-end Apple TV device. Perhaps if you are using a cheap stick or your pc, that may be the issue?
I have both services and am actually happy they are back on HBO/Max. I find the quality and streaming much better/more stable than on P+ (I have the Playstation P+ App and it’s terrible).
Also, last time these were on HBO you could go into “You may also like” of TMP, II and VI and it would link to the Directors Cut versions that also streamable (doesn’t look like that is the case this time around).
I would rather the Star Trek movies be on another streamer. Paramount + is the absolute worse streamer interface of them all. It’s weird because when it was CBSAA, that streamer was one of the first. So they had a lot of time to work on that really bad interface.
Here’s hoping all the Star Trek shows will end up on Netflix where they used to be. Netflix is by far the best service (easy to navigate, easy to fast-forward, rewind, pause, change subtitles, find shows, etc.)
If Max and P+ merge, it will become the 4th largest streaming service and within legit striking distance of overtaking Disney+ That would make the top 4 – Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+ and then P+ Max, with Netflix the king at around a quarter billion subs. Based on some of the comments, it sounds like the Max platform may also bring higher quality streaming to P+.
In addition to this deal, the Prodigy to Netflix deal shows that P+ is not averse to licensing out its current properties, so we shall see how the M&A game plays out and how it would affect the Star Trek franchise long-term.
I have all the Blu-ray and 4k Discs. Except for the big box for the motion picture, and the directors cut which they made not a combo set. I just got the standard blu for that. Wish i had the Special Longer version but in a out of print hundred dollar set i don’t think so. I also have all the Kelvin blu’s and 4k. My problem with 1-6 is complete lack of original audio, except for TMP SLV. I shouldn’t have to hold onto laserdiscs and DVDs for original audio.
It’s good to see that the shows, at least the newer ones, apparently aren’t afftected. Just last week I decided to watch Picard s3 again and have two more episodes to go. They appear to still be there.
I really don’t care about the movies, for me Star Trek it’s all about the TV series
Paramount+ will not last.
It’s likely most Star Trek fans have more than a few copies of the TOS/TNG films, physically or digitally. Licensing these out is a good thing since it means they remain valuable properties and continue to raise money on behalf of the franchise while reaching more people. We are also facing a point where Star Trek is being scattered to the winds once again as Paramount+ starts to come apart.
I made a deal with myself to purchase Trek via digital downoad ( itunes). The first time anything trek related gets “yanked” away from a purchased digital downoad, I will switch to physical media. To date , that has yet to happen . Unless that actually happens (not saying it couldn’t) I’m enjoying the convenience of streaming trek (via permanent download) without the fear it being dropped by a subscription streamer
OMG does that mean only the JJ verse movies are on Paramount+ right now?!??
KIll me, kill me now! 😭
Right? Get rid of the timeless classics but keep the Lens Flares, *P+ Logic*
Exactly man, it’s a punch in the groin!
I’m not going to go into a rant like last time lol and I know these movies have their fans (and I do at least like Beyond because it was the least dumb one) but removing the classic movies AGAIN is another reminder why I always cancel my subscription after the last show airs.
Stop calling yourself the home of Star Trek if you keep removing them from their home.
No, no you don’t get it! That way when you cancel P+ it’s going to feel like a direct pushback against the JJ verse drivel!
One more proof my decision to get all on disc is the correct decision!
This will keep happening until the existing distribution deals (that predate Paramount+) expire.
WB is in the same boat — the Harry Potter movies have been going back and forth between Max and Peacock for the last couple of years.
Material on your own streaming service = cost.
Material licensed to another streaming service = revenue (profit).
And this is why I have the DVD’s. Streaming can be a sketchy proposition. I don’t download music either. Proud boomer here.
Glad I held onto my DVD’s! You can’t trust Paramount to keep its word, that’s for sure!