Criterion’s upcoming streaming service, aptly titled The Criterion Channel, has set an April 8 launch date — and has started signing up subscribers to its repository of classic movies.
The service will be available in the U.S. and Canada to start, and will run on several devices, including Amazon Fire, Apple TV, Roku, Android and iOS.
Subscriptions will cost $10.99 a month, or $99.99 a month per year if you pay all at once, and streamers who sign up before the April launch date will get a discounted rate of $9.99 a month or $89.99 a year. Early subscribers get other perks as well, including a free 30-day trial when the service goes live and early access to its movie of the week choice.
The service brings with it Criterion’s collection of more than 1,000 classic movies, with thematic programming, regular filmmaker spotlights and actor retrospectives, featuring major classics and hard-to-find discoveries from Hollywood and around the world, complete with special features like commentaries, behind-the-scenes footage and original documentaries.
It also fills a void felt by cinephiles since the shuttering last November of WarnerMedia’s FilmStruck streaming service, which also included films from Turner Classic Movie’s vast catalog.
The Criterion Channel will continue to produce its guest programmer series, “Adventures in Moviegoing,” which so far has already featured such cinephile luminaries as Barry Jenkins, Guillermo del Toro, Bill Hader and Mira Nair. Criterion’s monthly 15-minute film school, “Observations on Film Art,” “Tuesday’s Short + Feature,” and the Friday double-bill, will all be back as well.
Among the newest additions to the Criterion Collection that will soon be available on the service include Rob Reiner’s cult 1980s classic “The Princess Bride,” Ingmar Bergman’s “Shame,” and two of Sidney Poitier’s most famous performances, “A Raisin In The Sun” and “In the Heat of the Night.”