Aethien wrote:
What bums me out is when they have a movie, and then it disappears. I watched an old Charlton Heston flick, The War Lord, but when I went to find it again, it was unavailable. Don't quite get the licensing.
The licensing is for certain contract durations. Whether or not it gets renewed and why is likely a variable matter. Sometimes, I wouldn't be surprised if Netflix decided it wasn't getting enough views to be worth renewing (at the former asking price), others, the studio probably decides it was popular enough that it needs to be licensed for more money or they want to save it/free it up for some other venture/deal.
*shrug*
If it's interesting to you, I can try to remember to ask my brother which of the above is more frequent, or if there are other situations my two scenarios don't cover that would lead to dropping a license. He works for Netflix in a department sort of tangentially adjacent to those that deal with some of the licensing stuff, so he occasionally has some insights on this sort of thing.