IMDB top streaming movies of 2022

Yesterday, we talked about the top streaming TV of 2022, according to IMDB. But the report by IMDB contained two lists. Not only did they cover the top streamed TV shows, they also covered streaming movies.

During the year, the largest streaming year yet, there were several films that were watched. IMDB reported the top ten streaming movies. Spoilers: I've seen none of them.

IMDb Top 10 Movies of 2022*

1. The Batman
2. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
3. Thor: Love and Thunder
4. Top Gun: Maverick
5. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
6. The Northman
7. The Gray Man
8. Everything Everywhere All at Once
9. Death on the Nile
10. X

*Among the movies released in the U.S. in 2022, these 10 were consistently most popular with IMDb users, as determined by the actual page views of the more than 200 million monthly visitors to IMDb worldwide. This exclusive and definitive data is derived from IMDbPro movie rankings, which are updated weekly throughout the year. IMDb users can add these and other titles to their IMDb Watchlist at https://www.imdb.com/watchlist. IMDb users can also rate movies they’ve seen from each film’s IMDb title page to help other users discover and decide what to watch.

Some of these are Marvel movies, but I've never been a comic book fan. And, yeah, I know they don't like the term "comic book" but that's exactly what it is. Those Marvel films are huge. But I'm not in the audience on those. I've seen some, and don't care when another one is released. They just don't appeal to me. None of them. Marvel, DC, none of them.

I'll look into a couple of these and perhaps I'll find a gem that I've missed. And if you've not seen them, even the Marvel ones, you may want to check them out. Just because it's not my cup of tea doesn't mean it shouldn't be on your menu. Only you can make that choice. After all, I have my Streaming Life, and you have yours.

IMDB top streaming TV of 2022

This time of year, there are all kinds of "top this of the year" and "top that of the year." Well, with streaming, and the popularity it has gained, there are now lists about streaming.

I saw an article on The Streaming Advisor about an IMDB list of the top streaming TV shows of the year. I found it interesting.

The actual list included several shows I've never seen, but a couple I did watch.

IMDb Top 10 TV and Streaming Series of 2022*

1. Stranger Things
2. House of the Dragon
3. Better Call Saul
4. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
5. Euphoria
6. The Boys
7. Moon Knight
8. The Sandman
9. Ozark
10. Inventing Anna

*The 10 TV and streaming series that released new episodes in 2022 and consistently ranked highest on the proprietary weekly TV rankings on IMDbPro throughout the year. IMDbPro rankings are based on the actual page views of the more than 200 million monthly visitors to IMDb worldwide. IMDb users can add these and other titles to their IMDb Watchlist at https://www.imdb.com/watchlist. IMDb users can also rate series they’ve seen from each show’s IMDb title page to help other users discover and decide what to watch.

I've seen two of these. Better Call Saul was a favorite of mine, and I've like Stranger Things overall. But I've watched none of the other TV shows. A friend has recommended Ozark, so I may give it a shot soon. I may check out some of the other shows, since many seem to think they're worthwhile.

If you haven't seen these shows, they may be worth checking out. As I said, I was a huge fan of Better Call Saul, and recommend it. They may be worth considering adding to your Streaming Life.

Paramount+ Essential Plan

Back in September, Walmart added a benefit to their Walmart+ subscribers. Included with that subscription is the Paramount+ Essential plan. That's the cheaper one that does not include local CBS, downloading content to mobile devices, and has ads. The Premium plan is ad-free (mostly), allows downloads, and includes local CBS stream.

I didn't try the service, mostly because I never got around to it. Okay, entirely because I never got around to it. But recently, I did. And I like it.

I don't normally use the local CBS feed, because I rarely watch live TV. Plus, an antenna means if I do watch local TV live, I don't need a streaming subscription that includes that.

Additionally, I don't download content to mobile devices, and I don't care if there are ads. All that adds up to me not needing the Premium service, and using the Essential service instead.

If you've followed this blog, you know that I only subscribe to one service at a time. Paramount+ was one of the services that I would include in that. Now, I don't need to. I have it year-round now. Well, as long as I decide to remain with Walmart+.

The service is fine. Paramount+ is a good service, and the commercials are not intrusive.

If I wasn't a Walmart+ subscriber, I would continue to have Paramount+ in my rotation of services. But, as I am a Walmart+ subscriber, I get the Essential plan, and enjoy it. I'm glad to have it in my Streaming Life.

Why streaming?

In 2011, I dropped cable. The reason, or so I told myself, was that it was cheaper to stream TV.

My son had first shown the about streaming TV a couple of years before. I had already heard about streaming TV, which was practically unheard of, back then. While I had heard and read about it, I never saw it in practice until I visited my son one day. He showed me some content that he accessed via his Xbox.

I think from that day forward, I was hooked. In retrospect, I think I decided right then and there that I would start doing TV that way.

I did not immediately jump right in to streaming. But I did begin my research. First of all, I didn't have an Xbox and didn't want an Xbox. I was never really a gamer, and didn't want to put a bunch of money into an Xbox just to stream TV.

That's when I found out about Roku devices. They were new, with the first devices coming onto the market in 2008, and the next batch of devices launching in late 2009.

I had a TiVo device, but at the time, it wasn't really a proper streaming device. I had to download movies then watch them, which isn't the same thing. But TiVo did have one thing: a list of TV shows I recorded and watched later. That meant I knew what I watched, and wondered how I would watch the same content without cable.

Using my TiVo list, I researched how to purchase the same TV shows over the course of a year. At the end of that year (2009) I found out that it didn't cost a whole lot more to have streamed TV than to have paid for cable. But, it did cost more. So, I decided to wait. I wanted to see how this went.

I spent the next year updating my spreadsheet of TV shows -- old ones canceled were removed, new series we liked were added -- and looked up all the different ways to watch TV. That, at the time, included purchasing from Amazon or iTunes, from Hulu Plus (there were two versions back then; Hulu Plus replaced regular Hulu and is now called just plain Hulu), and from an antenna.

At the end of 2010, I had discovered it was cheaper. I bought my wife an Apple TV device -- but not for streaming; she wanted to play back her iTunes music through the big sound system attached to the TV -- and I later bought a Roku device for streaming.

At the time, Apple TV was a very limited streaming device, but it did have a kind of "best of streaming" list of applications. Roku was like it is today in that it had a huge store of apps (they called, and still call, them "channels").

After the bowl games in 2011, I canceled cable. The wife wasn't happy with that at first. She quickly adapted, and still likes it. We're not together any longer, but she still streams and doesn't have cable, so at least I did that right.

In all the years, I've always said I dropped cable and went streaming because it was cheaper. And it was cheaper, and has remained so. But is that the only reason I stream TV today? No. The reason I stream today is that I simply like it.

I like it because, well yes, it's cheaper. I like it because of the cool tech. I like it because it lets me set the schedule -- I don't have to choose between staying out on a date and getting home to watch a particular show.

My Streaming Life began as a way to save money -- or so I said. I think it really began because it was cool and would give me more control over when I did things. The saving money only controlled when I made the switch to streaming.

Trying Disney+ with ads

This week, Disney launched Disney+ with ads. I knew I wanted to try that, because a few things were interesting.

First, I've always used the basic Hulu service, which has ads. To be clear, I'm not talking about Hulu+Live TV. Yes, I've tried that from time to time, but I normally just use standard Hulu, which has always had ads. There is a "no ads" version, and I tried it, but it's not worth it to me. I can deal with ads.

Next, I've tried Netflix with ads. I don't subscribe to Netflix often, but I did recently give it a month with the ad-supported service. It was fine, and saved $3/month over a regular subscription. Yes there were ads -- most of the time; some content still didn't have ads -- but they did a good job with it. It was kind of like watching Hulu, but with even fewer ads.

Finally, I've tried HBO Max ads. It's $10/month rather than the $15/month price of the traditional plan. As with Netflix ad-supported and standard Hulu, it was fine. Not a lot of ads, but some, and they were placed properly and not intrusive.

So, with this week's launch of Disney+ with ads, I decided to try it. So, I subscribed.

I was actually going to wait, but didn't. The reason for waiting was that I'm still in my month of HBO Max. If you've followed here for some time, you're aware that I'll subscribe to a single service for a month, watch all I can, then cancel it, and subscribe to a different service the next month. I continue that over the year. I do get to watch everything on-demand that I want, and I pay a lot less over the year.

I don't normally double up on services, and I'm in the midst of HBO Max, so that means I would wait, right? Well, normally, yes. But there are several shows on Hulu that have been collecting, awaiting on my to subscribe again. And I took advantage of the HBO Max special of 3 months for $6. So, I can afford to double up and no go too far outside budget.

With Hulu and Disney+ together for only $10/month -- ad-supported pricing -- I decided to do this.

So, how is it? Well, I don't know. I just did this. I mean, literally, I subscribed then opened the laptop to type this. I haven't watched anything yet. But I'm about to. Well, after breakfast.

I'm very curious to see how this works into my Streaming Life. I think it will go well. But let's find out.

Illegal IPTV streaming

I started to write about something I haven't in a while, but something that needs to be kept in mind for cord cutters and streamers: illegal IPTV streaming services.

I've written about it before, and I didn't want to just repost what I had posted before. I wanted it to be something a little different, but still give the same information, as it all still applies.

Well, Tyler the Antenna Man came to the rescue. He doesn't know, of course. He just so happened to have posted a video recently about this very topic. So, I'm going to simply let you watch his video, as he does a proper job on explaining things.

[Direct YouTube link]

Of course, Tyler runs an antenna service, and his video channel is for promoting that as much as sharing information. But he's not high pressure, and offers good information that you can use without purchasing one of his antennae or using his recommendation service. I will add that his recommendation service is very good, and something I would recommend if you aren't certain about your antenna purchase plan.

And, of course, his information about illegal IPTV services is spot on. Stay away from those services. Sellers have gone to jail. Subscribers have been hit with fines. Plus, it's just plain wrong to use them. Don't incorporate something like that into your Streaming Life.

More cord cutters

So you're a cord cutter. Guess what? So are more and more people. That means you were in or cord cutting before others.

Well, unless of course you aren't a cord cutter, in which case ... why not?

But let's say you are. New data indicates more and more people are joining your ranks -- our ranks -- and dropping traditional pay TV.

Data released recently from Moffett Nathasson indicates that pay TV subscribers dropped by large numbers in the third quarter of this year by over 6%:

The drop in pay TV subs was slightly worse than the 6.2% slide seen in Q2 and the 5.2% decline seen a year ago in Q3 2022. 

MoffettNathan's definition of pay TV includes both traditional cable and satellite operators as well as newer vMVPDs like Fubo TV and YouTube TV. 

To put this in perspective, MoffettNathanson reported that the "Q3 loss of 655K subscribers is the largest third quarter loss ever; last year’s loss was…617K and the year before just 91K" in Q3 2020.

So, is this good news? Not for TV subscribers. That means higher fees for carrying local stations.

According to the report, that means smaller income from broadcast retransmission fees, which could translate into even higher fees for the remaining subscribers.

Recently, Comcast announced increases, and the vast majority was due to the broadcast fees. And this report indicates more could be coming to other pay TV services.

While broadcasters may view this as a trend reaffirming the value of their over-the-air broadcasts, it also promises to create some serious financial problems for stations, which in recent years have relied heavily on retransmission consent payments from pay TV providers.

BIA has predicted that subscriber fees from retransmission consent agreements will increase from $14.55 billion in 2022 to $17.37 billion in 2030, growth that will be difficult to maintain if the pay TV ecosystem continues to collapse.

But you're a cord cutter, right? These things don't impact you.

You are a cord cutter, right? Right?

If not, you may want to look into it. I cut the cord in early 2011, and have never once regretted it. My Streaming Life is good. You should try it.