I went to SXSW and saw Netflix and Amazon competing with splashy sci-fi, while Paramount+ pitched its whole line-up
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I went to Austin for the opening weekend of the annual music, film, TV, and tech festival South by Southwest.
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Netflix, Amazon, Paramount+, and Disney competed for attention with premieres and eye-catching installations.
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I got my teeth "pulled" at an Amazon installation and got a scorpion-filled lollipop in return.
I flew to Austin on Friday for the premiere of Business Insider's documentary on the rise and fall (and rise again) of MoviePass, the movie-ticket subscription service that became a cultural phenomenon in 2017 before descending into bankruptcy and securities fraud charges for some of its executives.
It will air on HBO and stream on Max later this year (check out the reviews from The Hollywood Reporter and Slash Film).
While there, I got to witness South by Southwest's opening weekend, which was dominated by the streaming heavyweights Netflix, Amazon, and Paramount+, with a cameo from Disney.
Netflix and Amazon kicked off the festival by promoting their upcoming sci-fi series. Netflix held a premiere for "3 Body Problem," and Amazon built an interactive postapocalyptic world to promote "Fallout."
Netflix competed with Amazon for who could make the biggest sci-fi splash
On my way to Netflix's Friday evening premiere of the first episode of "3 Body Problem" (streaming March 21) — created by former "Game of Thrones" showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, along with Alexander Woo — I passed a menacing 3D projection promoting it that was stopping passersby in their tracks. When I arrived at the Paramount Theatre, the site of the screening, rival Amazon's premiere of "Road House" was running long.
Despite a well-publicized beef with Amazon over the release, director Doug Liman showed up to the "Road House" premiere. The crowd was buzzing and in high spirits as they exited.
Later, as the "3 Body Problem" premiere began, I heard "Game of Thrones" alum John Bradley (of Samwell Tarly fame) mutter an anxious "Oh God." I also saw Weiss hustle to the back of the house in the opening minutes of the episode. Moments later, the show's volume cranked up.
Bradley shouldn't have been so nervous, as he showed a nice range in this new role, and his performance was a highlight of the episode for me — though, as my colleague Palmer Haasch rightly points out in her review of the series, the 1960s storyline is the most compelling part, and Zine Tseng's performance is a standout (the show has a 75% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes).