Tubi Introduces New Category Filled With Classic Films From the Criterion Collection
Max may add “HBO” to its name again , but don’t let that fool you into thinking that streaming will be more convenient for classic movie fans in 2025 — great movies older than a few decades are still hard to find on popular subscription services like Hulu and Netflix .
Sure, you can subscribe to the Criterion Channel, the boutique media label’s streaming service dedicated to covering the best classic and contemporary films (if you know anything about film history, it’s practically a moral imperative). But you don’t actually have to pay anything at all to enjoy the impressive library of Criterion-approved gems: As spotted on Reddit (and perhaps inspired by a Reddit and Letterboxd user who goes by the handle “Geekstache”), Tubi now has a category page that collects all the films in the Criterion collection , which you can stream for free on the ad-supported service.
“For cinephiles”
Of course, Tubi can’t outright claim to curate its own Criterion corner (Criterion would probably disagree; besides, it’s not like Criterion’s blessing makes a film great). Instead, it categorizes these 150-plus films—from old Hollywood screwball farces like Bringing Up Baby to imported epics like Akira Kurasova’s Ran to recent indie darlings like Greta Gerwig’s Frances Ha —as “For Cinephiles.” (I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that they’ve all been released on Blu-ray and DVD in fancy Criterion editions.) That category includes a lot of movies I’ve been wanting to see for a long time—and you probably have, too. I even have a few on Criterion DVD that I haven’t gotten around to watching yet ( It Happened One Night , All That Jazz ). Sure, streaming on Tubi isn’t quite the equivalent of watching in high definition on a full-featured disc, or even on The Criterion Channel itself — you’ll have to sit through commercial breaks, for one thing, and Tubi isn’t likely to offer the same pristine restored copies. But you also won’t be paying for the privilege, and you can save time you’d otherwise spend endlessly scrolling to find something good to watch.