WarnerMedia just released its brand new streaming service, HBO Max, and its selection of movies and TV shows is already superior to what Disney+ has to offer. Considering the number of properties owned by the studio, it’s no surprise that HBO Max would be packed with content, as it is the home of DC, Cartoon Network, TNT, and more.
With the size of its library, HBO Max has joined the streaming wars and is likely to be a good competitor against the other big names in the business, such as Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video. Priced at $14.99, it’s more expensive than even Netflix, and leans a great deal on the exclusive content already owned by HBO, like Game of Thrones and The Wire. As with several of the other platforms, HBO Max will have its own original shows and movies, but most of them won’t launch until much later, including Green Lantern, the Justice League Snyder Cut, and the Friends reunion special.
What’s impressive about HBO Max isn’t its original content – yet – but its range of existing movies and TV shows. In fact, their library is currently better than Disney+. Disney’s streaming service has long been criticized for its lack of content, despite boasting a sizable collection of Disney’s animated and live-action classics, and movies associated with the Marvel and Star Wars brands. Subscribers to Disney+ can watch most movies in the MCU. HBO Max, on the other hand, pulls from a much greater number of franchises.
HBO Max subscribers have access to the complete Harry Potter saga, the DCEU (and older DC movies), numerous Godzilla movies from the 1960s and early 1970s, the Alien and Jaws films, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and more. On top of that, HBO Max’s launch content encompasses an extensive range of shows, from Game of Thrones to Looney Tunes, whereas Disney+’s variety of shows is comparably limited.
There’s also the matter of HBO’s selection of old movies. Outside of its animated favorites like The Jungle Book, Disney+ does boast a few live-action classics like Old Yeller and Miracle on 34th Street, but this unfortunately can’t compare to HBO Max, which offers Casablanca, Gone with the Wind, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Yojimbo, and Ben-Hur.
Does this mean that HBO Max is better than Disney+? Not necessarily. HBO Max’s diverse library appeals to a wider of variety of people, but it’s twice the price of Disney+. Also, both services are suffering from the same problem, which is that they don’t offer much in the way of exclusive shows and movies at launch. This is perhaps a bigger issue for HBO Max than it is for Disney+, who at least has The Mandalorian. HBO Max’s biggest original property at the moment is arguably the new Looney Tunes Cartoons. So right now, HBO Max will have to rely primarily on the size and scope of its collection of both old and new movies and TV shows.
