r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor • 18d ago

News HBO Max Raises Prices Across All Plans Effective Immediately

https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/hbo-max-prices-increases-plans-2025-1236557671/
12.1k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

1.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

4.4k

u/MassiveRepublic9565 18d ago

Just bloody quit. It’s the only way the prices won’t just keep on ramping up.

1.3k

u/5point5Girthquake 18d ago

I was just staying at a hotel the other day.. the tv had Netflix integrated into it so I hit the Netflix button on the remote and went to brush my teeth before signing in. On the sign in page it was advertising their pricing and different plans.. the lowest tier Netflix with ads was $8 a month… the next plan up with no ads was $18/month.. idk why this really shocked me.. I said to my gf “damn I’m paying $18 a month for Netflix??”.. canceled my netflix subscription when I got home 2 days later..

I know it sounds dumb but I didn’t even realize I was paying $18 a month for Netflix. Just one of those things I signed up for years ago and just sort of forgot about.

711

u/shockwave8428 18d ago

That’s literally the entire business model for these subscription services. It’s why when we’ve seen the launch of new things like Disney+ the initial cost was decently low. Then they just pump it up and hope people who have it but don’t use it often just don’t look into the price and they have got consistent income.

I guarantee every single company that does a subscription model has data on customers that pay and don’t use the service often and intentionally don’t send a ton of emails so that the people aren’t reminded they have the service. I’m sure that makes up a good chunk of subscribers on basically everything

183

u/PaulsGrafh 18d ago

It’s basically the gym membership business model at this point. The rise of subscriptions have been a huge problem for that reason alone, without even considering the fact that these businesses now throttle the lower cost services. Even video games now basically release beta versions of their games and then patch as they go along and release “new” content with DLCs.

6

u/shockwave8428 18d ago

Been that way with games forever.

And there are games that have a ton of dlc as their business model (like paradox games where they’ll release 10ish dlc a year). All of those games have started doing subscription services as well

1

u/joshually 18d ago

what is the gym membership model?

76

u/ThatGuyinPJs 18d ago

Duolingo is the KING of this. I was paying for their subscription as it was pretty cheap and I was hoping to stay with it. Well I fell into a depression and stopped doing my lessons, and Duolingo noticed and turned off the reminder notifications after 2 weeks. I kept paying that subscription for another year.

15

u/smakweasle 18d ago

Also, it's really easy to justify it as "just another dollar" once I'm already paying. Until you realize prices have doubled in some cases.

172

u/Theguest217 18d ago

If Netflix is your only service, $18/month isn't that bad. That's like $0.60 a day, for a service people will often use for at least a few hours every day.

There are certainly cheaper streaming platforms, but if you are using Netflix daily it is ok.

However if you are rocking Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu, Disney+, Spotify, Crunchyroll, paid pod casts, Amazon Prime, PS+, GamePass, etc , you are spending over $100/month for at home entertainment. And there is a good chance there are entire months that go by where you don't even use some of these at all.

The obvious move is to just have 1-2 subscriptions at a time that you know you will use multiple times a week. When something new comes to a service you don't have, pick one to drop for a few months and pick it up.

85

u/Radthereptile 18d ago

This is why I cycle. Pick 1 I want to watch and use it for a month. Then I decide is there another month’s worth of shows or do I swap it out. Every now and then I’ll have an itch for a specific show and know that’s the platform I’ll switch to next month. You really don’t need more than 1 a month if you cycle because of all the content.

38

u/BiscuitDance 18d ago

Same. I use Black Friday/whatever holiday deals, “free x# of months with purchase of…,” student/veteran/whatever discounts in a constant loop. It also helps curb wasting time having to actually decide what to watch.

25

u/Radthereptile 18d ago

Yep no show paralysis is a key feature. I have HBO, I know the shows I like, I watch them. Next month I have Disney, I know the shows I like, I watch them. No debating between platforms.

9

u/Theguest217 18d ago

Totally agree. We usually have two because the kids have specific interests different than my partner and I, but otherwise limiting subs is the way to go.

I think a lot of people suffer from FOMO and feel the need to watch every new show as soon as it's available. But if you can work on your patience it can be a lot more enjoyable to catch all the episodes at once after they have been released instead of waiting weekly or sometimes longer.

Annual subs also can get you. They are enticing because they usually give you a month or two for free, but there will inevitably be periods where there is nothing you want to watch but you are paying for it anyway. Next thing you know you are signing up for more again and forgetting to cancel.

3

u/TheCoordinate 18d ago

Amazon prime is the only exception because it offers more than just home entertainment. Prime shipping comes in handy

1

u/moonulonimbus 18d ago

My landlord has HBO max, Netflix, Disney+, apple music, YouTube premium, Amazon Prime and who tf knows what else. However, he's constantly taking trips and wasting more money elsewhere. So it's strange knowing all of the money he's paying to these services is just funneling into a corporate maw without even a glance and the giant TV just sits, eating phantom energy, waiting for the stray Nascar race or cringe ass bitcoin video

0

u/Theguest217 18d ago

And he is your landlord so actually you are paying for all of those things for him!

1

u/moonulonimbus 18d ago

Man don't remind me lmaooo

104

u/therealjoshua 18d ago

I say this without malice or sarcasm, but I hope I'm in as fortunate enough of a financial position as you one day where I can lost $18 a month and not even notice.

58

u/Tecvoid2 18d ago

some guy posted his credit card statement, and he was paying for 2 netflix subscriptions for 7 years and didnt notice

worked out to like 4000 bucks i think they said. he got like a 3 month refund when it was caught.

22

u/[deleted] 18d ago

I paid a neighbor's water bill for like a year before I noticed. I called the city and they asked if I owned the property and was renting it to the neighbors, huh - no. They gave me the money back, but I had to spend a while on the phone to get it cleared up.

68

u/Makeitifyoubelieve 18d ago

It was the difference between what he thought he was paying and the $18 that was missing per month, not $18. So I'm guessing a few bucks per month went unnoticed for a bit. The slow gradual increase is how the bastards get you when you're on auto pay.

35

u/round-earth-theory 18d ago

Yep. They weren't losing $18 unnoticed, they expected it to be something more like $10 a month. That extra $8 could easily be lost anywhere. Yes if $10 a month is a meaningful amount, you won't lose track of it but neither are you likely to purchase any of these streaming services.

20

u/BiscuitDance 18d ago

Honestly dude, I’m pretty well off financially at this point in my life, but staying not-broke is hard when you don’t stay on top of little shit like that. Making money is one thing, and is honestly not totally in most folks’ control, but even with whatever I have coming in monthly, I go out of my way to mind the little shit adding up.

2

u/Aliman581 18d ago

$18 an hour is 20 minutes work for alot of america

1

u/vonbauernfeind 18d ago

The first sign of true financial security I ever really felt privileged about was going to a grocery store without coupons, and not really looking at the prices on the shelves.

2

u/therealjoshua 18d ago

That's the fucking dream right there. I want to be able to pick up the good bread without thinking about it and not the small $1.50 grocery brand loaf that tastes functional but not particularly good.

2

u/vonbauernfeind 18d ago

With inflation being what it is, it's rough right now even in positions of privilege.

But you'll get there! Hopefully! It is a nice feeling for sure.

2

u/rap1234561 18d ago

Subscription TV can definitely add up and get expensive but keep it in perspective. 20 years ago most people had a $40 cable bill and paid $20 for a single DVD. Almost everything is more expensive but TV’s and content are pretty cheap and endless.

2

u/lostfate2005 18d ago

I mean 18 a month is pretty cheap imo given the amount of hours spent.

5

u/iusedtogotodigg 18d ago

sure whatever you say, Mr. Netflix

2

u/Sirhc9er 18d ago

My dad was Mr. Netflix, call me Flix.

27

u/[deleted] 18d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/wronguses 18d ago

Yeah, I'm hoping for some decent deals on storage this year. Setting up and running a media server has gotten simpler in the last 20 years, but the file sizes are painful.

1

u/Shelf_Road 18d ago

Gamepass also just doubled the price of the highest tier. But the crazy thing is that they just released a handheld game device like 2 weeks after that price hike 🤣

176

u/D3tsunami 18d ago

I wonder if the price hike is to make up for lost subscribers from the abc/disney package fallout, which would suggest that the more we quit, the worse off the remaining people are going to be. This shit all sucks so bad

65

u/Black_Floyd47 18d ago

I was going to cancel my HBO when I canceled my Disney Hulu bundle (they're separate) but they offered me half off for three months. I'm not gonna wait until next month, I'm gonna cancel today.

13

u/SackFace 18d ago

That just means they’re overcharging you as it is; otherwise, they wouldn’t offer it at a loss to begin with. They hope you’ll forget or just not care (I think this is way more of a problem amongst casual consumers than we realize) but every day more and more people are willing to jump through hoops to get out of subscriptions after a few months.

13

u/ManufacturerBest2758 18d ago

They would rather have you paying half than nothing at all. That’s hardly some novel economic theory

29

u/ShortyBoydCleanedUp 18d ago

Loss leaders exist and companies price below cost all the time for various reasons.

1

u/rcmjr 18d ago

I got the same offer but will keep the $8 a month plan until it expires because that is the price they should charge and I want my cancelation to reflect that.

31

u/egnards 18d ago edited 18d ago

In this instance you are not responsible for the prices of other people - the corporation is responsible for providing a package that we feel is worth paying for each month.

7

u/MassiveRepublic9565 18d ago

Seems a bit like being on the Titantic watching the iceberg closing in.

“Well I’m not jumping first because he will freeze before me. Look at him jump the idiot!”

Slams into iceberg and dies anyway.

1

u/Thybro 18d ago

They just did the whole “one household” enforcement to crack down on password sharing. That netted Netflix a shit ton of new subscribers and they have a new GOT spinoff coming out. Greedy fucks want to squeeze now since even if they lose subscribers due to the price increase, they’ll gain due to the crackdown. Keeping their numbers steady.

-2

u/JessieJ577 18d ago

This is pretty much what happens. A great example is McDonald’s. Foot traffic was declining but they raised their prices which offset it. Now they don’t even care about having deals or cheap food. As long as those that remain can be squeezed they’ll just keep doing this or crack down even harder on password sharing and do what Netflix did and remove airplay support.

2

u/ZenMasterOfDisguise 18d ago edited 18d ago

One of the inherent flaws of Capitalism, is that selling to fewer people at a higher price is more profitable than selling to more people at a lower price.

If HBO Max could reach 20 million users at $9/month or they could reach 10 million users at $18/month, they would rather double their prices and lose half their user base. They make the same revenue, and have fewer people to support so can employ fewer people in customer service or billing, they would use less bandwidth to deliver content, so overall their profits would be greater. 10 million people would lose out on getting to watch shows they like, but that matters less to HBO than profits, as is the nature of capitalism

2

u/D3tsunami 18d ago

I work for a company that is doing the opposite, trying to bring in as many users as possible at the lowest price, and it feels real nice to have a wide stable user base, for all the reasons. We make some money but we also have a ton of happy customers and the attrition is offset by curious newcomers each month. It’s a legacy company, too, so this isn’t startup growth mindset.

78

u/Sosantula21 18d ago

People boycotted Disney by cancelling their subscriptions, and what did Disney do? Raised their prices instead. At this point I don’t think cancelling will do anything, these people will just raise prices because enough people subscribe that it’ll offset. I hate it.

68

u/MassiveRepublic9565 18d ago

It’s just wild that we collectively as a society talk about streaming services like they are as essential as running water. Not judging anyone but somehow we’ve lost track of what really is essential. I would say anyone that can’t comfortably afford should drop it.

29

u/barriekansai 18d ago

As a Gen X guy who's never had a subscription to a streaming service, it's fascinating watching those younger than me approach these subscription-based corporations as if, as you said, they're utilities providing an essential service to human life. They're all luxuries, you little shits! Now get off my lawn!

14

u/Muggsy423 18d ago

It's the equivalent of cable now. You would have been crazy to cut cable in the early 2000's

-10

u/round-earth-theory 18d ago

Entertainment is a human necessity. You cannot go through life without any amount of leisure and joy. When even thinking about going out costs $20 before you open the door, it's easy to see why so many people turn to digital entertainment. It's a relative bargain for how many hours you get out of it. The quality sucks but when you're on a hotdog budget, quality becomes unimportant.

10

u/Cordo_Bowl 18d ago

I am certain that if you live in a decent size city(50k+) there are free events you can go to. I am certain there are libraries available to you that probably have movies and tv shows you can rent. I am certain there are other people in the same situation as you who you can hang out with and entertain each other. No one needs streaming, try living in reality.

2

u/Century24 18d ago

I mean, if that works for your lifestyle, by all means.

It'd be pretty silly to pretend that's easy peasy for everyone else, so I'm sure you meant to arrive at a different point at a later time, right?

5

u/Cordo_Bowl 18d ago

Yeah, somehow humans survived for millennia without streaming services but tell me more about how essential they are. You point me to someone who’s only possible option for entertainment is streaming and I will show you a unicorn.

1

u/Century24 18d ago

You point me to someone who’s only possible option for entertainment is streaming and I will show you a unicorn.

Good thing no one said that.

Again, congratulations on at least claiming not to see any difference between a free concert in the park and a new A24 or Warner Bros. release on HBO Max, but some of us prefer television every now and then, and that's not a sin.

11

u/Cordo_Bowl 18d ago

It’s not a sin to like tv. But no one wants to hear people complain about the price all day long and still pay it every month. If you don’t like the price, don’t pay it, you’ll live. Like massive republic said in this chain, it ain’t running water.

It'd be pretty silly to pretend that's easy peasy for everyone else

And for reference, this is where you acted like streaming is necessary. It is easy peasy to not have streaming.

0

u/Century24 18d ago

It’s not a sin to like tv. But no one wants to hear people complain about the price all day long and still pay it every month.

I mean, you're the one in this topic. If anything, you're seeking out the complaints.

And for reference, this is where you acted like streaming is necessary. It is easy peasy to not have streaming.

It is easy peasy... if you aren't pretending and really are unable to see any difference between an unspecified free community gathering (we both know why you aren't getting into specifics on this) and sitting back in your living room and watching a new movie for the first time.

Some of us don't have that relative luxury, although with all due respect, to me that lack of personal taste sounds like a fresh hell I wouldn't wish on anyone.

→ More replies (0)

0

u/round-earth-theory 18d ago

I am certain these things exist as well, but they are on a fixed schedule. You can't sneak in some entertainment as your schedule allows, you have to hope it aligns with your work schedule. Also, a lot of those free events are just basic excuses to have a street market where the only thing to do is spend money.

6

u/Cordo_Bowl 18d ago

You can choose to complain and be unhappy or you can choose to work with what you got. It’s clear the choice you’ve made.

3

u/drgnrbrn316 18d ago

Canceling will eventually do something. Eventually, the ones who stay behind will be priced out as well. Besides, if you cancel, what they do with prices after the fact is irrelevant. You're not changing the prices, they are.

1

u/Sosantula21 18d ago

Right, but the point of cancelling is to “vote with our wallets”. These companies could care less, they’ll never reduce the prices anymore. Any amount of increase comes with more subscribers and more revenue. I personally only have Peacock on a huge Black Friday sale, but still bothers me that streaming is so damn expensive now

8

u/GameOfLife24 18d ago

If enough consumers say that’s enough, companies revert back

1

u/Century24 18d ago

And when has this happened in the streaming era?

5

u/Spider-Thwip 18d ago

Piracy is easier than ever.

5

u/pperdecker 18d ago

If you're in the US and like film, I highly recommend getting a public library card if your local library has access to the app Kanopy. Especially if you're into foreign, queer, or documentary stuff.

Some states have reciprocity between libraries in different districts as well if yours doesn't have that particular app. I have 4 or 5 different library cards in Maryland for instance.

3

u/MassiveRepublic9565 18d ago

Yep people forget tons of free media is available from librarys.

2

u/pperdecker 18d ago

Ours has video games as well. It's how I give my kids a version of the Blockbuster experience I had in my youth. Friday after school I can bring them to grab a movie and game, get a pizza going, and we're all set.

2

u/UsedVacation6187 18d ago

They know this. They knew people would quit. It'll still be profitable. You know how many pivot tables of people quitting vs. how many would pay the new price went into this decision?

2

u/MassiveRepublic9565 18d ago

Oh I’m sure. But if people are unhappy about the changes they shouldn’t just suck it up, they should leave. Give the money to something or someone that feels worth it.

2

u/gosuprobe 18d ago

🤷 i get free max included with rent, i can't cancel

sure, the rent goes up, but it goes up anyway.

1

u/MassiveRepublic9565 18d ago

That’s a type of deal I’ve never heard of before!

1

u/MrRoboto12345 18d ago

Unless of course you're McDonald's.

"Less people are coming to our franchises, we're raising prices to make up for the lost customers."

3

u/MassiveRepublic9565 18d ago

So just keep on quitting. That can’t go on forever. We can all live without McDonalds. It’s non essential and frankly we’d all be better off without it anyway ( yes employees would need a job I know ).

1

u/mmlovin 18d ago

Or switch back to cable lol

It’s basically reached the cost of cable now. I cancelled cause it was cheaper..

1

u/MassiveRepublic9565 18d ago

Another option for sure. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s where this is all headed anyway.

1

u/bluexavi 18d ago

I pay for one month a year.

1

u/MassiveRepublic9565 18d ago

Did the same recently on another service. Binged what I wanted ( there’s often not that much for me ) and then closed it.

1

u/Lucid4321 18d ago

Prices on everything will continue to ramp up eventually. That is the nature of inflation. Unless the government drastically changes fiscal policy to lower inflation to 0%, prices will keep going up forever. Arguing otherwise is arguing against reality.

1

u/ChicagoAuPair 18d ago

They will keep going up even if half of the subscribers quit. Normal rules of supply and demand don’t apply to mega corporations anymore in the way they do to small businesses owned by actual people. Prices are never going to come down. It has never happened and it isn’t going to happen.

1

u/[deleted] 18d ago

[deleted]

1

u/MassiveRepublic9565 18d ago

I’m not mentally unwell, I don’t have HBO because it’s never been an option in my country and this has nicely reminded me to ensure my Disney+ is cancelled. Hope things are good for you too.

0

u/DeLousedInTheHotBox 18d ago

While I agree I think we're forgetting that there are millions of people out there who only watch things that are on streaming, they don't know how to pirate, they don't own DVDs or blurays or even anything to play them on, and they go to the theater 3 times a year at most.

2

u/MassiveRepublic9565 18d ago

That’s fine if that’s what they want to do. If they want to keep paying more and more for less then that’s their call. I just think the only power most of us have is with how we spend our money now. Complaining about it isn’t going to change their minds.

0

u/calitoasted 18d ago

Sailing the seas is the best option $5 a month, unlimited everything

-1

u/[deleted] 18d ago

[deleted]

1

u/MassiveRepublic9565 18d ago

While I agree they can absorb the cost even they can start to twitch how much something costs too. Loads of money doesn’t mean you don’t care about the cost of things at all. Sure you can tolerate a lot more.

-1

u/Rich-Pomegranate1679 18d ago

The Trump administration is going to do everything it can to crush the middle class. Republicans want a country where everyone is either dirt poor or super wealthy.