Netflix killed Blockbuster – and now it's officially left any intention of taking on its role as the place to catch up on new movies in the graveyard with it. That's the biggest item from the newly announced list of films and TV shows coming to your screens in March: If you want a streaming service for the latest movies, to see the recent stuff you skipped in theaters (because, hey, you can only have so many arms and legs to spend), you're going to have to look elsewhere. That's not the company's game anymore.
That's not to say there aren't exciting additions to the streaming behemoth's library next month. For those yearning for the days when Zack Snyder's name attached to a movie was exciting, the bloody blockbuster "300" will hit Netflix on the first of the month, along with fellow box office hit "Ghostbusters," the unfortunately forgotten rom-com charmer "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," Martin Scorsese's crime saga "Casino" and modern cult classics like "Moon," "Wet Hot American Summer" and "The Descent."
And on the originals side of things, the long-awaited second season of Marvel's "Jessica Jones" will finally arrive alongside the triumphant returns of Joel McHale and ... Benji? Sure, Benji!
But if you're looking for any of the latest and greatest theatrical releases finally making their way to your small screen – or even from just the past five years or so – you'll have to keep waiting and hoping until next month. The only major release from the past year on Netflix's new additions is "True to the Game," a crime drama you've almost certainly just heard about right now.
Maybe this is just a light month, but the trends say the streaming service is simply not interested in being your video service anymore. It wants to be an original content producer, building a library of movies and TV shows you can exclusively watch on Netflix and differentiating themselves from the rest of the VOD world. Maybe you'll watch their creations, maybe you won't – and maybe you won't even realize they're available on the site. (Fun fact: Did you know a current Best Foreign Film nominee is available on Netflix right now? Feels like something the service would, or at least should, be interested in telling you about.) As long as you're subscribed, they're pleased.
And for many of you, that's a fine shift – I'd guess most people reading this almost certainly already have more than one streaming service, maybe Hulu or Amazon or HBO or even just renting new movies over iTunes. But if you have Netflix at the end of the year, it'll be almost solely because you like Netflix's originally made material. So I hope you very much enjoy the likes of "Bright," "The Cloverfield Paradox" and "When We First Met" (one of the many movies the site barely bothered to tell you exists) because that's what the future is. Outside movies and shows are coming and going from the site in shorter and shorter increments, and the newer blockbusters it does have – like Disney films – will disappear month by month this year as Netflix focuses on its own content and the House of Mouse focuses on its own service.
So yes, the rental service was once the new Blockbuster, but this year marks it's firmly betting on itself, its own ways and its own material. To win, Netflix needs you, but at the end of the year and at the end of this shift, how much will you need Netflix?
Anyways, here's what's coming to the streaming service for March 2018.
March 1
"300"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "21 Thunder" season 1
"2307: Winter's Dream"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Adel Karam: Live from Beirut"
"Adventureland"
"Algo Muy Gordo"
"Alpha and Omega"
"Battle Drone"
"Beerfest"
"The Brothers Grimm"
"The Bucket List"
"Casino"
"Cruel Intentions"
"Cruel Intentions 2"
"Cruel Intentions 3"
"Deathgrip"
"The Descent"
"The Descent: Part 2"
"The Experiment"
"The Fifth Estate"
"Forgetting Sarah Marshall"
"Ghostbusters"
"Ghostbusters 2"
"The Gift"
"Gridiron Gang"
"Guess Who"
"Hostage"
"I Am Number Four"
"I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry"
"Jackass: Number Two"
"Land Gold Women"
"Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" season 18
"The Lazarus Project"
"Martian Child"
"Moon"
"People Like Us"
"Revolutionary Road"
"Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild"
"True to the Game"
"Untraceable"
"Up in the Air"
"Wet Hot American Summer"
"Women at War 1939-1945"
March 3
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "B: The Beginning" season 1
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Flint Town" season 1
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Girls Incarcerated" season 1
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Les Affames"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Malena Pichot: Estupidez Compleja" season 1
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Natalia Valdebenito: El Especial"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Voltron: Legendary Defender" season 5
March 4
"Expedition China"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "The Joel McHale Show with Joel McHale"
March 5
"F the Prom"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "The World's Most Extraordinary Homes" season 1
March 6
"Benji"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Borderliner" season 1
"For the Love of Benji"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Gad Elmaleh: American Dream"
March 7
"Aftershock"
March 8
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Bad Guys: Vile City" season 1
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Ladies First"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Jessica Jones" season 2
March 9
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "A.I.C.O. Incarnation" season 1
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Collateral" limited series
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Love" season 3
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman: Malala Yousafzai"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Nailed It" season 1
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "The Outsider"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Trolls: The Beat Goes On!" season 2
March 10
"Septiembre, un Llanto en Silencio"
March 12
"Kygo: Live at the Hollywood Bowl"
"Troy: The Odyssey"
March 13
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Children of the Whales" season 1
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Ricky Gervais: Humanity"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Stretch Armstrong: The Breakout"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Terrace House: Opening New Doors: Part 1"
March 15
"The Hollywood Masters" season 2
"Jackass 3.5: The Unrated Movie"
"Power Rangers Ninja Steel" season 1
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Tabula Rasa" season 1
March 16
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Benji"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Edha" season 1
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "The Legacy of a Whitetail Deer Hunter"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "On My Block" season 1
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Spirit Riding Free" season 4
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Take Your Pills"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Wild Wild Country" season 1
March 19
"In Search of Fellini"
March 20
"100 Years: One Woman's Fight for Justice"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "The Standups" season 2
March 21
"Conor McGregor: Notorious"
March 23
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Alexa & Katie" season 1
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Dinotrux Supercharged" season 2
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Game Over, Man!"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Layla M."
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "The Mechanism" season 1
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Requiem" season 1
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Roxanne Roxanne"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Santa Clarita Diet" season 2
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "SWORDGAI The Animation: Part 1"
March 24
"Red Trees"
March 27
"Men on a Mission: 2018"
March 28
"50 First Dates"
"The Art of War"
"Little Women"
"Never Back Down 2: The Beatdown"
March 30
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "A Series of Unfortunate Events" season 2
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "First Match"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Happy Anniversary"
"Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir" season 2, part 1
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Rapture" season 1
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Reboot: The Guardian Code" season 1
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Sofia Nino de Rivera: Selección natural"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "The Titan"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Trailer Park Boys" season 12
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Trump: An American Dream" season 1
March 31
"Let Me In"
As much as it is a gigantic cliché to say that one has always had a passion for film, Matt Mueller has always had a passion for film. Whether it was bringing in the latest movie reviews for his first grade show-and-tell or writing film reviews for the St. Norbert College Times as a high school student, Matt is way too obsessed with movies for his own good.
When he's not writing about the latest blockbuster or talking much too glowingly about "Piranha 3D," Matt can probably be found watching literally any sport (minus cricket) or working at - get this - a local movie theater. Or watching a movie. Yeah, he's probably watching a movie.