Paramount+ Will Release One Original Movie Every Week Starting In 2022
Paramount+ seems like one of the younger streaming services on the scene, even though it's just a rebranded versions of CBS All Access with a beefier library of movies and TV shows. However, only now is the Viacom-owned streamer trying to run with the big dogs in their production of original content. In fact, when 2022 rolls around, Paramount+ has plans to release one original movie every single week, and they're getting a head start by debuting Antoine Fuqua's movie Infinite, starring Mark Wahlberg and Chiwetel Ejiofor, this summer.
The Hollywood Reporter has news on Paramount+ planning to expand their original programming line-up in a big way starting in 2022. ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish didn't expand upon details regarding the roster of titles that will be part of this initiative, but he did say, "It will be a range of different kinds of movies" including blockbusters and movies made specifically for Paramount+ under the Paramount Players banner. There will also be titles coming from the Nickelodeon and Awesomeness banners.
Based on that statement, I'm wondering if Paramount will count major theatrical releases that also head to Paramount+ among the titles that will help them meet their goal of releasing one original movie each week. Previously, we heard that movies like A Quiet Place Part II, Top Gun: Maverick, and Mission: Impossible 7 would be released on the streaming service just 45 days after they hit theaters. We'll just have to wait for more details on that front.
Outside of original movies, Paramount+ has also promised "a mountain of movies" coming to the streaming service this summer. Another 1,000 movies will be added to the library in early June, and even more are coming in July, bringing the total number to 2,500 this summer. Titles include Skyfall, Rocketman, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Sonic the Hedgehog, and even Marvel's Avengers, which was originally a Paramount movie before they sold distribution rights to Disney after their acquisition of Marvel Studios.
Meanwhile, Paramount+ has already gathered one new acquisition for their streaming library. Antoine Fuqua's sci-fi thriller Infinite starring Mark Wahlberg and Chiwetel Ejiofor will no longer be arriving in theaters. Instead, it will go straight to Paramount+ sometime in late June.
Originally intended to arrive in theaters in August last year, Infinite is based on the book The Reincarnationist Papers by D. Eric Maikranz. In the film, Wahlberg plays a man who is perplexed by having skills he never learned and memories of places he's never visited. On the brink of a mental breakdown, he's taken into a secret group who call themselves "Infinites," and they help him realize that what he's experiencing are remnants of past lives that he's lived.
Infinite also stars Sophie Cookson, Jason Mantzoukas, Rupert Friend, Toby Jones and Dylan O'Brien. The screenplay was written by Ian Shorr and produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Mark Vahradian, Mark Huffam, John Zaozirny, Stephen Levinson, and Wahlberg himself. Rafi Crohn, Brian Oliver, Bradley J. Fischer and Valerii An act as executive produces along with Fuqua.
It's a shame Paramount+ wasn't up and running in time to feature movies that Paramount previously sold to Amazon, such as Without Remorse with Michael B. Jordan and The Tomorrow War with Chris Pratt. Then again, maybe the sale of those movies wouldn't have been so lucrative if they kept them under the ViacomCBS banner. Either way, it's clear there are big plans ahead for Paramount+.