Paramount+ hits 36 million subscribers, will stream sci-fi movie Infinite - Ars Technica

On the heels of revealing that it has reached just shy of 36 million subscribers, streaming service Paramount+ has announced that it will stream at least one original movie each week, including the long-delayed Mark Wahlberg and Chiwetel Ejiofor sci-fi film Infinite.

Given that CBS All Access was one of traditional Hollywood's first forays into a streaming service to compete with previous platforms from tech companies like Netflix and Amazon, the service represented a big shift.

Since then, we've been wondering whether the rebranding has propped up the streaming service, which before the merger was best known for its various Star Trek reboot series.

Streaming services like Paramount+ are now fiercely competing for viewers' attention and subscription dollars; a TV-over-IP landscape that was previously owned primarily by Netflix and premium cable TV channels like HBO, Showtime, and Starz has now expanded to include a service from nearly every company that owns a significant amount of film or television intellectual property.

One of Paramount+'s biggest successes so far was the premiere of The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run, which was a launch title for Paramount+ in March.

(The movie had previously been shown on Netflix and video-on-demand services but not in theaters.) In an effort to build on that win and leverage Paramount Pictures' catalog of movies to drive more subscribers, Paramount+ executives have committed to debuting at least one original movie on the streaming service every week in 2022.

Other upcoming Paramount films that are likely to appear on the streaming service include Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Paranormal Activity 7, James Bond film No Time To Die, and a spinoff from the runaway horror success A Quiet Place.