FilmStruck, the service we thought looked too niche to make it in the long run did not make it in the long run. The service had many built in problems with the biggest being that its appeal was targeted toward a crowd that notoriously avoids being part of any sort of system. The art house film fans of the world believe that the only way to truly enjoy film is to watch it on film at a theater. They were never going to totally buy in on watching movies on a phone, Tablet or TV, if they even owned one. There are ways that a service like FilmStruck could be an asset to many but as a standalone service in a sea of competitors it was not nimble enough to work.
The service has never disclosed its subscriber numbers, so we cannot say how many or how few subscribers it has but it is not a stretch to assume that if it had a large and profitable subscriber base it would have remained operational.
The concept of FilmStuck is built around the idea of providing classic movies from Turner’s archive as well as integrating films from the art house leaning community called the Criterion Collection. The Criterion Collection, which had been housed on Hulu for years before moving on to FilmStruck will now have to find a new place to set up shop and most likely lower its asking price. It would not be a shock to see it back in the hands of Hulu. Other likely landing places could be big shops like Netflix and Amazon or even more likely an offering like Tubi TV or Crackle with large corporate backing and a greater need for archival content.
