HBO Max Launch
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The latest contender coming for Netflix's streaming crown is one of the oldest movie studios in Hollywood history: Warner Bros has (pretty confusingly) taken their (already confusing) HBO Now/HBO Go streaming platform and "Max"-imized it, adding a ton of classic catalog films (the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Cabaret, Enter the Dragon), a sizable chunk of the Criterion Collection (Seven Samurai, Eraserhead, Godzilla, Paris, Texas), a bunch of Looney Tunes shorts both old and new, Doctor Who and other BBC offerings, and as a particularly fine feather in their acquisitions cap, the North American streaming rights to the Studio Ghibli library (Castle in the Sky, Princess Mononke, Spirited Away). The cost is a little bit higher than Netflix, but if you're already subscribed to HBO through most online means—like we said, it's kind of confusing, make sure you doublecheck how you subscribed—you don't have to do anything, or pay any more per month to get the HBO Max content, which will eventually include a Friends reunion. BOBBY ROBERTS