With the streaming wars in full effect, HBO Max has managed to distinguish themselves from the multitude of streaming platforms by providing a wide array of DC superhero movies. This has to do with Warner Brothers being their primary content partner, but this hasn’t stopped one of their rivals from providing their own critically acclaimed DC Film.
Netflix, the company who is arguably the kind of the streaming wars, actually has a Batman film of their own, Batman: Mask of Phantasm. This animated feature, which is a continuation of the critically lauded series Batman: The Animated Series, was released to theaters in 1993, receiving critical praise, but finding very little success at the box office. The film garnered a strong cult following, one it still enjoys today, through DVD.
Batman fans have called it one of the best Batman films ever made as it boasts a fascinating and dark story representative of the comics, something that many feature films have failed to accomplished.
How Netflix owns the rights to Mask of Phantasm is unclear, but streaming rights for beloved figures like the Caped Crusader are wildly complicated. It will be interesting to see how it performs on Netflix and whether HBO Max regrets their decision to not include it with their DC content.