The latest round of quarterly earnings disclosures marked the most significant progress for the streaming industry to date, as all five Hollywood studios’ direct-to-consumer businesses reported profits and gains in revenue. 

Streaming’s shift from burgeoning growth initiative to key profitability engine is a meaningful inflection point as visibility into subscriber growth becomes increasingly limited, the linear TV business continues to be ravaged by cord-cutting and competition for consumers’ attention remains fierce as the major media companies contend with YouTube, social media, gaming, podcasts and more.

Netflix continues to lead the pack by a wide margin, but its executives have had to fend off Wall Street’s questions about its engagement growth in the wake of the collapse of its $83 billion bid for Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming and studio assets. In its latest quarter, the streamer revealed it will shift from a biannual to annual publication of its engagement reports. 

Trailing in second place is Disney, which under new CEO Josh D’Amaro is going all-in on streaming with plans to transform Disney+ into the company’s “digital centerpiece.” Elements of that vision will start to be introduced in the spring. Disney+ and Hulu remain on track to launch as a unified standalone app by year end and the company is considering launching a free tier to help boost Disney+’s subscriber growth and engagement. It is the first of the legacy players to see streaming overtake linear in terms of revenue contribution.

But WBD and Paramount, the third and fourth largest players, respectively, could pull ahead of Disney if they successfully close their pending $110 billion merger. The deal, which is in limbo as a lawsuit with 12 state attorneys general heads to trial in March 2027, has received the necessary approvals from shareholders as well as regulators and governments representing 66 jurisdictions, including the U.S. Department of Justice, the European Commission and the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority. 

During their respective earnings calls, Paramount CEO David Ellison and Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav expressed confidence that the deal would close as planned, though the former will be on the hook for over $1 billion in ticking fees during the delay. Paramount expects the deal will close five days after the outcome of a trial, or June 1, 2027, whichever is earliest. Under the terms of the merger, the March 4 outside date is subject to one automatic extension to June 4, 2027. If it doesn’t close at all due to regulatory matters, Paramount will pay WBD a $7 billion termination fee. 

While Peacock still trails behind its competitors, the service finally turned its first-ever quarterly profit six years after launching. But it still has plenty of work to do to become consistently profitable as NBCUniversal prepares to split from Comcast over the next 12 months. 

This analysis does not include Apple TV and Amazon’s Prime Video, which do not break out streaming subscriber, revenue or profitability metrics on a quarterly basis since they remain a small part of each respective tech giant’s business. 

Amazon Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky previously said Prime Video has grown into a “large and profitable business in its own right,” but did not disclose specific figures. An NFL presentation to the FCC pegged the streaming service’s total subscriber base at roughly 180 million. While Amazon has not publicly confirmed that figure, it has disclosed that Prime Video’s ad-supported tier reaches more than 315 million monthly viewers globally.  

As for Apple TV, the tech giant’s Services Vice President Eddy Cue has confirmed that the streamer has “significantly more” than the 45 million subscribers previously estimated by analysts, but declined to disclose a specific figure. 

Check out the full breakdown of the numbers below.

Subscribers

Netflix, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery have all opted to stop disclosing subscribers on a quarterly basis, making an up-to-date comparison by service difficult. 

As of their last available subscriber disclosures, Netflix reported a total of 325 million globally and Disney reported a total of 219.8 million across Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+. Meanwhile, WBD previously said it surpassed 140 million subscribers and forecasts it will surpass 150 million by year end. 

Meanwhile, Paramount+ added 2 million subscribers for a total of 81.6 million globally and experienced its lowest quarter of churn in the service’s history, driven by its original and sports programming, including “Dutton Ranch,” the FIFA World Cup and UFC. When combined with WBD, Paramount’s total count would sit at 226.6 million subscribers based on the latest disclosures. 

Looking ahead, Paramount+ subscriber growth in the third quarter is expected to be flat quarter-over-quarter. However, total paid subscribers will be modestly higher for the full year compared to 2025, including approximately 4 million strategic international hard bundle exits.

Peacock added 2 million paid subscribers for a total of 48 million, driven by the NBA playoffs, FIFA World Cup and “Love Island USA.” It did not provide guidance for the streaming service’s subscriber growth going forward. 

Revenue

Netflix’s total revenue grew 13% to $12.6 billion in its latest quarter. In the U.S., the company saw revenue growth of 10%, which reflected only a partial impact from its price increase across all of its plans in March. It also surpassed $4 billion in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region and $1.5 billion in Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region. 

It expects total revenue to grow 11.7% to $12.9 billion in the third quarter. As for the full year, the company narrowed its forecasted revenue range to $51 billion to $51.4 billion, but remains on track to double ad revenue to $3 billion.

Giving you a sense of Netflix’s lead, Disney+ and Hulu’s combined revenue grew 11% to $5.5 billion, or less than half of the streaming giant. Disney’s results were driven by a 15% increase in subscription revenues and 3% bump in ad revenue, subscriber growth, price hikes and reduced subscriber turnover driven by product and technology improvements. 

While streaming has overtaken Disney’s linear business in terms of revenue contribution, the company warned that domestic entertainment streaming revenue in the fourth quarter would be impacted by a softer than expected advertising environment.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s direct-to-consumer revenue climbed 10% to $3.08 billion, driven by HBO Max’s international expansion and growth in existing markets, an increase in ad-lite subscribers and content including “Euphoria,” “House of the Dragon,” “The Pitt” and “Hacks. “ Subscriber-related revenue grew 11% to $3 billion, while content revenue fell 18% to $84 million. 

Moving forward, year-over year growth in WBD’s subscriber-related revenue is expected to accelerate in the second half of the year and remain healthy into 2027, driven by its content lineup, continued engagement growth, robust global advertiser demand and ongoing product improvements. It also expects revenues to continue to grow at a “significantly faster” annual rate than operating expenses over the long-term. 

Paramount’s total streaming revenue rose 9% to $2.47 billion, with Paramount+ revenue growing 16% to $2.1 billion. For the full year, it continues to expect accelerating DTC revenue growth across subscriptions and advertising.

Peacock revenue grew 54% to $1.9 billion, driven by its subscriber growth, the FIFA World Cup, the NBA playoffs and “Love Island.” Distribution revenue grew over 50%, while ad revenue increased nearly 70%. Comcast did not provide a revenue outlook for Peacock.   

Profits

The starkest picture that highlights the gap between Netflix and everyone else comes with the profit chart.

The streaming giant’s profit climbed 9% to $3.4 billion in the latest quarter. For the third quarter, the company is forecasting a profit of $3.45 billion, up from $2.55 billion in the prior-year period. 

Disney+ and Hulu’s combined profit more than doubled to $712 million, fueled in part by subscriber growth, price hikes and reduced turnover from product and technology improvements. Its entertainment streaming operating margin was 13% for the quarter and executives continue to expect a double-digit operating margin in the long-term. The company does not break out profits and losses for its ESPN streaming service and no longer discloses the financials of ESPN+. 

WBD’s streaming profits soared 75% to $512 million. It continues to target a streaming adjusted operating profit margin of more than 20% over the long-term. 

Paramount’s streaming profits jumped 44% to $366 million, primarily fueled by growth at Paramount+. Total streaming profits are expected to grow year over year in 2026, but will be weighted more meaningfully to the first half of the year due to the timing of programming investments in the third and fourth quarters.

Peacock swung to profit of $189 million, compared to a loss of $101 million in the prior-year period. However, Comcast Co-CEO Mike Cavanagh warned its profitability would still vary from quarter to quarter, citing the timing of sports schedules and other content.

“Think of it on an annual basis rather than the lumpiness quarter by quarter,” Cavanagh told analysts. “It’s been improving steadily and we see that continuing to be the case.”

Although debut short “Coal” (2013) and the later “Unconsoled” (2019) break the streak, Vietnamese filmmaker Lê Bảo can already be defined as predominantly working within the realm of the senses. Award-winning short “Scent” (2014) led to “Taste” (2016), the latter expanded five years on as the director’s feature-length debut of the same name.

The 2021 version of “Taste” — which won the Special Jury Prize in the Encounters strand at Berlin — was very loosely about a Nigerian footballer recovering from a leg injury who made both a living and an erotic life for himself in Vietnam, as he took shelter in a barebones abode with four middle-aged women. Almost everyone onscreen was naked and regularly fucking for much of the running time (and rarely ever speaking); the physical intimacy shot in a series of still tableaux against the earthy-colored interiors of a curious limbo backdrop.

Few images in Lê’s follow-up feature, “Hearing,” ever quite sear the brain like that of a snail on a man’s penis in “Taste.” But his longest film to date — at over two hours — definitely benefits from a more palpable emotional hook at its center, reportedly inspired by the director’s own parents, to whom the film is dedicated. Unsurprisingly, hearing is the sense given prominence in the new movie’s aesthetic and (still) loose narrative, though intimate touch — from a late-in-the-film hook-up to an elderly woman gently rubbing rainwater from a roadside cliff onto her face — remains a crucial factor to some of the film’s most arresting pairings of sight and sound.

Opening in darkness with a cacophony of conversations, before a busy restaurant bar at night is visually revealed as the source, “Hearing” begins with lead Ninh (Nguyen Quoc Tuan) on assignment for his job. He works as a mechanic who installs decibel meters in public spaces and private homes. When excess noise hits the level determined by his customers, a purple glow is emitted from a lamp.

The degree to which violet light is featured in “Hearing” makes it potentially the most purple-hued film since the 1970s movie run of director Shuji Terayama (“Pastoral: To Die in the Country,” “Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets!”). Or at least since “Purple Rain,” with one striking instance of a public transport vehicle being bathed in that light seemingly designed to prompt viewers to sing “Purple Train” within their own head to the tune of the Prince song — or maybe that’s just this reviewer being loopy from the very strange directions “Hearing” heads in during its final stretches, directly preceding that memorable shot.

Back to the opening sequence, anyway, in which Lê tunes his film’s rhythms while Ninh fiddles with his own sound equipment. Even as the busy restaurant bar reaches blatantly excessive noise levels even before Ninh’s fully done with his equipment, neighboring businesses are already having their patience tested. We intercut between the restaurant and a flower shop next door.

While the film’s numerous exterior scenes in nature largely avoid the tableau signature of Lê’s prior feature, “Taste,” the framing and production design of the many interior scenes tend to continue that visual motif. In this particular scene, the positioning and slightly muted colors of the flowers on display lend the tableau a feel reminiscent of Roy Andersson, though the darker lighting of the room in general echoes some of the latter-day work of Pedro Costa.

This cutaway to the flower shop ends with one of the staff, in a passive aggressive display, purposefully dropping a large potted plant from his second floor onto the street below. The hubbub from the restaurant immediately stops for a moment (with Ninh observing the loud pot smash from an open doorway), before the patrons soon enough resume their conversations at basically the exact same noise level.

This early tangent away from the ostensible lead reflects a few sidebar points of interest that Lê intermittently visits throughout the movie, wherein briefly-glimpsed supporting characters struggle to vocalize their feelings in an actually productive fashion, allowing resentments to build up until they explode in an impotent or at least ineffective manner; sometimes explicitly real, some of it suggested as potentially imagined.

That idea of sustained silence haunting relationships and basic interpersonal etiquette is also present in the key relationships of the main storyline. Ninh’s own parents live apart and have not spoken to each other in years. Meanwhile, he is separated from his wife, who now lives with their two children at her father’s place. Ninh hints at having seen his own father raise his hand to his mother when growing up, never wanting to be like that, only to have fallen into the same trap with his own marriage.

Ninh lives with his elderly mother (Ngoc Tan), who’s getting increasingly sick. When he drives to visit his father out in the countryside, there is a ritual of him dropping off his mother to wander around roadside businesses and local nature, continuing on to see his dad and picking up his mom on the way back. Their prolonged lack of communication manifests in strange ways. Potentially connected to her ailing condition, Ninh’s mother has developed a habit for inappropriate remarks when clearly thinking fondly of her former partner, saying things to Ninh like how the way he squats when laying bricks in the garden resembles his dad’s body, or bringing up the story of the night she and Ninh’s father first had sex — out of the blue while they’re eating dinner.

Evidence of silence quietly (sorry) breaking apart one’s bearings bleeds through both the main plot thread and satellite storylines, which include recurring visits to a client of Ninh’s and that man’s own conflicts with his distant wife. The puzzling final stretch of “Hearing” hints that this really may be a more literal kind of contagion spreading across society; one potentially triggered by an otherworldly force.

It’s a mystifying but absolutely hypnotizing resolution, vaguely recalling that major 2020s text of strange-sound cinema, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s “Memoria.” The finale makes the prospect of Lê’s next potential dip into sensory overload — titled “Seeing?” “Touch?” — all the more promising.

Grade: B

“Hearing” premiered at the 2026 Locarno International Film Festival. It is currently seeking U.S. distribution.

EXCLUSIVE: Best Friend Forever has boarded international sales rights to Malayalam-language vampire revenge action-thriller Half ahead of its world premiere in Toronto’s Midnight Madness section.

The acquisition marks a rare crossover play for an Indian genre cinema to land a European sales agent and a Midnight Madness slot months ahead of its home-market release, rather than after building a domestic track record first.

Produced by Kerala-based Fragrant Nature Film Creations, Half is directed and co-written by Samjad with Praveen Viswanath, who previously made waves together with 2024 Malayalam psychological mystery-thriller Golam (Amazon Prime). It stars Ranjith Sajeev, Aiswarya Raj, Abbas and Amala Paul, alongside Srikanth Muruli.

Half follows twin half-blooded vampires (Ranjith Sajeev and Aiswarya Raj) as they wage war with desert highway hijackers in a gory martial arts Indian western from

Choreographer Very Tri Yulisman (The Raid 2, The Night Comes for Us) spent months training the cast to perform their own stunts and built custom camera rigs to shoot the fight sequences in-camera. Members of Yulisman’s team were also involved in the recent hit The Furious.

“Half is a fresh take on two genre classics, seamlessly blending the revenge thriller and vampire film with expertly choreographed fight sequences and top-tier production value. The Midnight Madness crowd is in for a brutally fun ride. We can’t wait to unleash it!,” said Best Friend Forever co-founders Martin Gondre and Charles Bin.

The film is produced by Anne Sajeev and Sajeev P.K. for Fragrant Nature Film Creations, the Kerala-based banner behind the hit Mohanlal-starrer, Pranayam (2011), and the Sufi-themed romantic drama Qalb (2024).

Excel Entertainment, in association with AA Films, will present and distribute Half across North India, marking Excel’s first collaboration with the Malayalam film industry.

Best Friend Forever’s TIFF slate also features Cannes Un Certain Regard prize winner Elephants in the Fog, which plays in the Centrepiece sidebar, with other current sales titles including Annecy Grand Prix Contrechamp and Fantasia winner Blaise; Berlinale Silver Bear for Best Screenplay winner Nina Roza; and the animated titles Chimney Town: Frozen in Time and Papaya.