2,000 Netflix Movies to Disappear Today; Warner Brothers Classics Yanked From The Popular Online Movie Site

Over 2,000 Netflix movies have disappeared today from the popular online music site, reports PC Gamer and Slate. The more popular new releases will still be there, but for hardcore movie fans, the site's seemingly endless supply will be losing a lot of classic film material.

Today marks the day when hundreds of titles drawn from the vast Warner Bros. library, which also includes pre-1986 selections from MGM and United Artists, will become exclusive to Warner Archive Instant, Warner's own pay archive, which launched earlier this month.

All told, there are 1,794 streaming movies by MGM, United Arists and Warner Bros., many of which will no longer be available to stream for users of the site. But the lost movies will not be exclusive to the Warner Classic Archive, so Netflix could forseeably buy their rights back if the demand becomes loud enough. 

Joris Evers, a Netflix spokesman, notes that the site often licenses movies on an exclusive basis and oftentimes chooses not to renew less watched films. Also, he says that many of the movies that expired at midnight were part of an agreement with Epix.

On top of loss, Slate's Sam Adams is also reporting the movie site is undergoing Beta testing on a new streaming queue, including an "Iconic" section it's rolling out to preferred users.

Evers says it's "what's called A/B testing to see which version of a particular feature/experience results in increased Netflix viewing and better retention of our members."

Evers goes on to say "members who see their queue changed into a list as part of the test and don't like it can contact customer support and request to leave the test and get their old experience back."

You can find the full list of expiring movies at Instawatcher, but here are a few of the notables that will be missing, including two Robert Altman films, and a couple early Sean Connery turns as James Bond:

-The Delinquents (1957), Thieves Like Us (1974), and Vincent & Theo (1990) Important part of Robert Altman's oeuvre.

-Dr. No (1962) and Goldfinger (1964) The entirety of the Bond franchise will be gone, so hopefully you got time to watch Sean Connery in these early Bond classics. 

-Kiss Me, Stupid (1964) and One, Two, Three (1961) Billy Wilder films, with James Cagney starring in 1961's One, Two, Three

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