title: Definitely, Maybe

text: Dennis Harvey of "Variety magazine" called it "A pleasingly non-formulaic romantic seriocomedy, "Definitely, Maybe" has charm and some depth, even if it’s ultimately more a third-base hit than a home run."


title: Definitely, Maybe

text: Claudia Puig of USA Today gave it a positive review and wrote: "It's generally enjoyable, amusing and more sophisticated than most films in this genre."


title: Definitely, Maybe

text: Stephen Farber The Hollywood Reporter gave a more mixed review, but praised the cast: "The film is far from a complete washout, and this is chiefly a tribute to its immensely attractive and appealing cast. Ryan Reynolds proves to have the stuff of a true leading man."


title: Definitely, Maybe

text: Caroline Siede of The A.V. Club reviewed the film in 2021 and called it "underrated" and noted it as a development in career of Ryan Reynolds as he "traded snark for sincerity". Siede said the plot was "essentially How I Met Your Mother with a dash of High Fidelity" but praised the film for "breath[ing] new life into old formulas without throwing the rest of the genre under the bus."


title: Cinemax

text: Cinemax is an American pay television, cable, and satellite television network owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. Developed as a companion "maxi-pay" service complementing the offerings shown on parent network Home Box Office (HBO) and initially focusing on recent and classic films upon its launch on August 1, 1980, programming featured on Cinemax currently consists primarily of recent and older theatrically released motion pictures, and original action series, as well as documentaries and special behind-the-scenes featurettes.


title: Cinemax

text: Cinemax—which, in conjunction with HBO, was among the first two American pay television services to offer complementary multiplexed channels in August 1991—operates eight 24-hour, linear multiplex channels; a traditional subscription video on demand platform (Cinemax On Demand); and formerly a TV Everywhere streaming platform for Cinemax's linear television subscribers (Cinemax Go). On digital platforms, the Cinemax linear channels were not accessible on Cinemax Go. in its final years, but are available to subscribers of over-the-top multichannel video programming distributors, and as live streams included in a la carte subscription channels sold through Apple TV Channels, Amazon Video Channels and Roku, which primarily feature VOD library content. (The live feeds on the OTT subscription channels consist of the primary channel's East and West Coast feeds and, for Amazon Video customers, the East Coast feeds of its seven multiplex channels.)


title: Cinemax

text: Cinemax's operations are based alongside HBO inside WarnerMedia's corporate headquarters at 30 Hudson Yards in Manhattan's West Side district. , Cinemax's programming was available to approximately 21.736 million U.S. households that had a subscription to a multichannel television provider (21.284 million of which receive Cinemax's primary channel at minimum).


title: Cinemax

text: In an effort to capitalize on the swift national growth that Home Box Office (HBO) had experienced since it began transmitting via satellite in September 1975, Home Box Office, Inc.—then owned by the Time-Life Broadcasting unit of Time Inc.—experimented with a companion pay service to sell to prospective subscribers—including existing HBO customers—with Take 2, a movie-centered premium channel marketed at a family audience that launched on April 1, 1979. The "mini-pay" service (a smaller-scale pay television channel sold at a discounted rate) tried to cater to cable subscribers reluctant to subscribe to HBO because of its cost and potentially objectionable content in some programs. Take 2, however, was hampered by a slow subscriber and carriage growth throughout its just-under-two-year history. By the Spring of 1980, HBO executives began developing plans for a tertiary, lower-cost "maxi-pay" service (a full-service pay channel sold at a premium or slightly lower rate) to better complement HBO. On May 18 of that year, during the 1980 National Cable Television Association Convention, Home Box Office announced that it would launch a companion movie channel, to be named Cinemax. Billed as the cable industry's "first true tier," Cinemax was designed to complement HBO (designated as a higher-tier "foundation [premium] service"), and avoid difficulties associated with bundling multiple "foundation" pay services; it was also intended to act as a direct competitor to The Movie Channel (then owned by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, operated as a joint venture between Warner Bros. Discovery predecessor Warner Communications and American Express), and Home Theater Network (a now-defunct service owned by Group W Satellite Communications, which focused on G- and PG-rated films and was accordingly marketed toward families), maintaining a movie selection format chosen for their appeal to select audience demographics.


title: Cinemax

text: Cinemax launched on August 1, 1980, over 56 cable systems in the Eastern and Central Time Zones; a West Coast feed for the Pacific and Mountain Time Zones launched on September 1. Initially airing nightly on an open-ended schedule dependent on the length of the evening's programs (usually from 1:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. ET/PT), Cinemax's programming centered on theatrical feature films, emphasized by on-air spokesman Robert Culp, who told viewers that Cinemax would be about movies and nothing but movies. Movie classics were a mainstay of Cinemax at its birth, presented "all uncut and commercial-free" (as Culp said on-air), focusing mainly on movies released between the 1930s and the 1960s, mixed with films from the 1970s and up to eight recent titles per month that were chosen to limit programming duplication with HBO. (At the time, HBO featured a wider range of programming, including some entertainment news interstitials, documentaries, children's programming, sporting events and television specials consisting of Broadway plays, stand-up comedy acts and concerts.)


title: Cinemax

text: Cinemax would go on to experience far greater success in its early years than Take 2 (which Time-Life shut down in February 1981). Cable television subscribers typically had access to only about three dozen channels because of limited channel capacity offered at the time by cable headend systems. Partly because of HBO, its national competitors (Showtime and The Movie Channel), and regional pay services in certain markets, customer demand for uncut broadcasts of theatrical movies was also high among cable subscribers at the time; this made Cinemax a palatable offering for cable systems with the necessary space to offer four premium channels and an attractive add-on for HBO subscribers, as it would show classic films without commercial interruptions and editing for time and content. HBO traditionally marketed Cinemax to cable operators for sale to subscribers as part of a singular premium bundle with the former, available at a discount for subscribers that elected to subscribe to both channels. (The typical pricing for a monthly subscription to HBO in the early 1980s was US$12.95 per month, while Cinemax typically could be added for between US$7 and $10 extra per month.) In many areas, cable providers declined to offer Cinemax to customers who did not already have an HBO subscription.


title: Cinemax

text: On August 28, 1980, Time-Life announced that Cinemax would transition to a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week programming schedule at the start of 1981. (The Movie Channel was the only national premium service at the time to offer a 24-hour-a-day schedule, doing so on December 1, 1979, following its transition from a timeshare service on Nickelodeon's transponder to operating on a standalone transponder as an independent service.) On January 1, 1981, Cinemax began offering a full 168-hour weekly schedule (except for occasional interruptions for scheduled early-morning technical maintenance), adding programming full-time from 6:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. ET/PT. (HBO ran only twelve hours of programming a day from 1:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. ET/PT until September 1981, when it adopted a weekend-only, 24-hour schedule that ran from Friday afternoon until late Sunday night/early Monday morning; Cinemax and rival Showtime [on July 4]'s transitions to such a schedule and The Movie Channel's existing 24-hour offerings resulted in HBO going forward with implementing a 24-hour schedule week-round as well on December 28, 1981.)


title: Cinemax

text: On October 18, 1983, Tulsa 23 Limited Partnership—then the locally based owners of Tulsa, Oklahoma independent station KOKI-TV (now a Fox affiliate)—filed a federal trademark infringement lawsuit against Home Box Office, Inc. and Time-Life Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma; the lawsuit sought $4 million in damages (totaling more than $1 million in personal, and $3 million in exemplary damages) and a permanent injunction against Cinemax's use of "We Are Your Movie Star" as its promotional slogan, which, in similar fashion, had been used by KOKI at the time (billing itself as "The Movie Star" or "Oklahoma's Movie Star" to highlight the nightly movie presentations that the station had been offering since it signed on in October 1980). Attorneys with Tulsa 23, L.P. stated that they had issued a cease and desist request to Home Box Office, Inc., asking it to stop using the Cinemax promotional campaign—which launched nationally on June 9—on August 16. On November 22, 1980, U.S. District Court Judge James O. Ellison ruled in favor of Tulsa 23, issuing a preliminary injunction ordering Cinemax to discontinue the campaign slogan on grounds that it infringed on the KOKI campaign. HBO/Time-Life appealed the lawsuit to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, which on December 5, upheld Ellison's order enjoining Cinemax from continuing to use the slogan.


title: Cinemax

text: As additional movie-oriented channels launched on cable television, Cinemax began to change its programming philosophy in order to maintain its subscriber base. First, the channel opted to schedule R-rated movies during daytime slots (HBO would only show R-rated movies during the nighttime hours, after 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, a policy that network largely continues to adhere to ); Cinemax then decided it could compete by airing more adult-oriented movies that contained nudity and depictions of sexual intercourse, launching the weekly "Friday After Dark" late-night block in 1984 (which also featured the short-lived adult drama "Scandals", and a series of anthology specials under the "Eros America" and "Eros International" banners). During the network's first decade on the air, Cinemax had also aired some original music programming: during the mid-to-late 1980s, upon the meteoric rise in popularity of MTV, Cinemax began airing music videos in the form of an interstitial that ran during extended breaks between films called "MaxTrax"; it also ran music specials under the banner "Cinemax Sessions" as well as the music interview and performance series "Album Flash" during that same time period.


title: Cinemax

text: The mid- and late-1980s also saw the addition of a limited amount of series programming onto Cinemax's schedule including the sketch comedy series "Second City Television" (whose U.S. broadcast rights were acquired by the channel from NBC in 1983) and the science fiction series "The Max Headroom Show" (another series, "Max Headroom" aired on ABC from 1987 to 1988). Comedy specials were also occasionally broadcast on the channel during the late 1980s, under the "Cinemax Comedy Experiment" banner, featuring free-form sketch and improvisational styles from various rising and established stand-up comics (such as Howie Mandel, Chris Elliott and Eric Bogosian). Although its programming had diversified, Cinemax had foremost remained a movie channel. In February 1988, the network premiere broadcast of the 1987 action-comedy "Lethal Weapon" became the highest rated telecast in Cinemax's history at that time, averaging a 16.9 rating and 26 share.


title: Cinemax

text: On March 4, 1989, Warner Communications announced its intent to merge with HBO parent Time Inc. for $14.9 billion in cash and stock. Following two failed attempts by Paramount Communications to legally block the merger, as Paramount was seeking to acquire Time in a hostile takeover bid, the merger was completed on January 10, 1990, resulting in the consolidated entity creating Time Warner (now known as WarnerMedia), which , remains the parent company of Cinemax and HBO.


title: Cinemax

text: By 1990, Cinemax limited its programming lineup mainly to movies. However starting in 1992, Cinemax re-entered into television series development with the addition of adult-oriented scripted series similar in content to the softcore pornographic films featured on the channel in late night (such as the network's first original adult series "Erotic Confessions", and later series entries such as "Hot Line", "Passion Cove", "Lingerie" and "Co-Ed Confidential"), marking a return to adult series for the channel.


title: Cinemax

text: From 1992 to 1997, Cinemax aired daily movie showcases in set timeslots, centering on a certain genre which differed each day of the week; with the introduction of a new on-air presentation package in 1993, the genre of a given showcase was represented by various pictograms that usually appeared within a specialized feature presentation bumper before the start of the movie; the symbols included: "Comedy" (represented by an abstract face made up of various movie props, with an open mouth made to appear like it is laughing), "Suspense" (represented by a running man silhouette within a jagged film strip), "Premiere" (represented by an exclamation mark immersed in spotlights), "Horror" (represented by a skull augmented with a devil horn and a gear-shaped eye, overlaid in front on a casket), "Drama" (represented by abstract comedy and tragedy masks), "Vanguard" (represented by a globe overlaid on a film strip), "Action" (represented by a machine gun and an explosion) and "Classic" (represented by a classic movie-era couple embracing and kissing). The particular film genre that played on the specific day (and time) varied by country.


title: Cinemax

text: These genre-based movie presentations ended in September 1997, as part of an extensive rebranding of the network; Cinemax's only themed movie presentations at that point became a nightly featured movie at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time (under the branding "Max Hits at 8") and a nightly primetime movie at 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time (branded as "Max Prime at 10").


title: Cinemax

text: On March 1, 1994, Cinemax, HBO and rivals Showtime and The Movie Channel implemented a cooperative content advisory system to provide to parents specific information about pay-cable programming content that may be unsuitable for their children; the development of the system—inspired by the advisory ratings featured in program guides distributed by the major premium cable services—was in response to concerns from parents and advocacy groups about violent content on television, allowing HBO and other services to assign individual ratings corresponding to the objectionable content depicted in specific programs (and categorized based on violence, profanity, sexuality or miscellaneous mature material) at their discretion. A revised system—centered around ten content codes of two to three letters in length—was implemented across Cinemax and the other participating pay services on June 10, 1994.


title: Cinemax

text: Upon the launch of the two multiplex channels in 1998, Cinemax offered "sneak preview" blocks of programs that could be seen on ActionMax and ThrillerMax in primetime, respectively on Saturdays and Sundays. By the mid-2000s, classic films released from the 1940s to the 1970s – which had been a mainstay of the Cinemax schedule from its launch (and continued to air on the main channel in the morning hours during the 1990s and early 2000s) – were relegated to some of its multiplex channels, and became prominent on its multiplex service, 5StarMax. Today, a large majority of mainstream films featured on the main channel are releases from the 1990s to the present, with some films from the 1970s and 1980s included on the schedule.


title: Cinemax

text: In 2001, Cinemax began to shift its focus from solely airing second-run feature films that were previously broadcast on sister channel HBO before their Cinemax debut, to premiering select blockbuster and lesser-known theatrical films before their initial broadcast on HBO. In February 2011, Cinemax announced that it would begin offering mainstream original programming to compete with other premium and streaming services, in the form of action-themed series aimed at men in the key demo. These programs were also added in an effort to change the longstanding image of Cinemax as a channel mostly known for carrying softcore pornographic series and movies.


title: Cinemax

text: On October 22, 2016, AT&T announced an offer to acquire Time Warner for $108.7 billion, including debt it would assume from the latter; the merger would bring Time Warner's various media properties, including HBO and Cinemax, under the same corporate umbrella as AT&T's telecommunications holdings, including satellite provider DirecTV and IPTV/broadband provider AT&T U-verse. Time Warner shareholders approved the merger on February 15, 2017.


title: Cinemax

text: On November 20, 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against AT&T and Time Warner in an attempt to block the merger, citing antitrust concerns surrounding the transaction. U.S. clearance of the proposed merger—which had already received approval from European, Mexican, Chilean and Brazilian regulatory authorities—was affirmed by court ruling on June 12, 2018, after District of Columbia U.S. District Court Judge Richard J. Leon ruled in favor of AT&T, and dismissed antitrust claims asserted in the DOJ's lawsuit. The merger closed two days later on June 14, 2018, with Time Warner becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T, which renamed the unit WarnerMedia; the Home Box Office, Inc. unit and its assets (including Cinemax) were assigned to the newly formed WarnerMedia Entertainment division, although it continues to operate as an autonomous subsidiary. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington unanimously upheld the lower court's ruling in favor of AT&T on February 26, 2019. By the time AT&T purchased Time Warner in the spring of 2018, adult programming on both the HBO and Cinemax multiplexes and on-demand services had all but disappeared, a tacit acknowledgement of that content being easily available on the Internet and other companies taking away the advantage of those films airing on premium services.


title: Cinemax

text: In January 2020, WarnerMedia executives acknowledged that in light of the company's pending launch of the HBO Max streaming service with its own original programming lineup, Cinemax would no longer be commissioning original programming. However, executives with the company stated that Cinemax would remain available for the foreseeable future as a movie-focused service through its existing distributors, and that Cinemax's original programming (despite being carried by international HBO networks and streaming services outside the United States) would not be included initially in HBO Max. Len Amato, the direct executive in charge of the network and HBO's film/miniseries division, left WarnerMedia on August 14, 2020, effectively ending Cinemax's original programming efforts in full, along with any further attempt to market the network alone.


title: Cinemax

text: On May 17, 2021, AT&T and Discovery, Inc. reached a definitive Reverse Morris Trust agreement, in which WarnerMedia would spin out from AT&T as an independent company that in turn will acquire Discovery's assets. The $43-billion cash/securities/stock transaction, which will include the retention of certain existing WarnerMedia debt, is expected to be finalized by the second quarter of 2022. Upon completion, Home Box Office Inc. and all other assets of WarnerMedia would be combined with the Discovery assets (such as Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, Discovery+, Eurosport, Asian Food Network, All3Media, GolfTV, Golf Digest, Golf World, Really, Motor Trend Group, Travel Channel, Discovery Family, TLC, TVN Group, Frisbee, K2, Discovery New Zealand, Tele 5, HGTV, Food Network and many more). AT&T shareholders will own 71% of the company's stock and Discovery shareholders will own the remaining 29% share; Discovery President/CEO David Zaslav will be appointed to head the new company, replacing WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar.


title: Cinemax

text: In Latin America, Cinemax was launched on September 5, 1993. It broadcasts classic and recent movies, television series and miniseries. From June 1, 2010, it became an ad-supported basic cable movie channel for the region only. Cinemax's original series aired on the HBO premium suit in the region.


title: Cinemax

text: In Asia, Cinemax was launched in 1996. It broadcasts action, comedy, science-fiction, and western movies. It was named "Max" from 2009 until 2012.


title: Cinemax

text: In Central Europe, Cinemax was launched in February 2005 broadcasting mainly festival, indie, European and classics movies. Cinemax and Cinemax 2 are available in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. From 2009, these channels are also available in certain Balkan countries. The channels are focused on streaming independent independent movies. Initially Cinemax 2 was a timeshift channel with a time delay of 24 hours, but since 2016 the channel have different schedule.


title: Cinemax

text: In an effort to reduce subscriber churn by offering extra programming choices to subscribers, on May 8, 1991, Home Box Office Inc. announced plans to launch two additional channels of HBO and Cinemax, becoming the first subscription television services to launch "multiplexed" companion channels (a term coined by Michael Fuchs, then-CEO of Home Box Office, Inc., to equate the channel tier to a multi-screen movie theater), each available at no extra charge to subscribers of one or both networks. On August 1, 1991, through a test launch of the three channels over those systems, TeleCable customers in Overland Park, Kansas, Racine, Wisconsin and suburban Dallas (Richardson and Plano, Texas) that subscribed to either service began receiving a secondary channel of Cinemax and/or two additional HBO channels. Cinemax 2, HBO2 and HBO3 (now HBO Signature) each offered distinct schedules of programs culled from HBO and Cinemax's movie and original programming libraries separate from offerings shown concurrently on their respective parent primary channels.


title: Cinemax

text: At the time the multiplex test was announced, HBO's then-executive vice president of marketing, John K. Billock, cited internal research that indicated HBO and Cinemax subscribers were prone to cancelling their subscriptions because they either believed that neither tended to have "anything on worth watching" or, when presented with a full monthly schedule, felt that programs they wanted to watch did not air at preferable times. A November 1991 ACNielsen survey of 550 TeleCable subscribers in the three launch markets determined that HBO and Cinemax's multiplex offerings created positive impacts on subscriber usage and attitudes that factored into whether a subscriber elected to cancel their HBO and/or Cinemax service, with declines in negative opinions on pricing (from 30% to 22%) and the perception of too many repeat program showings each month (from 52% to 35%), and increases in overall usage (rising by 11%) and favorability ratings among home media (from 30% to 50%).


title: Cinemax

text: In February 1996, in anticipation of the adoption of MPEG-2 digital compression codecs that would allow cable providers to offer digital cable service, Home Box Office, Inc. announced plans to expand its multiplex services across Cinemax and HBO to twelve channels, encompassing a two additional Cinemax channels and fourth HBO channel, originally projected for a Spring 1997 launch. The Cinemax multiplex expanded on December 1, 1996, with the launch of a third channel, Cinemax 3, featuring additional programming from Cinemax's content distributors. (Cinemax 3's launch coincided with the launch of Mountain Time Zone feeds of HBO, HBO2, Cinemax and Cinemax 2, which were the first subfeeds ever offered by a subscription television service to specifically serve that time zone.)


title: Cinemax

text: Home Box Office, Inc. began marketing the Cinemax channel suite and related coastal feeds under the umbrella brand "MultiChannel Cinemax" in September 1994; the package was rebranded as "MultiMax," now exclusively classified to the expanded four-channel Cinemax multiplex package (and later applied to the three thematic channels that were launched afterward), in April 1998. (The HBO tier was accordingly marketed as "MultiChannel HBO" and then "HBO The Works" at the respective times.) Concurrent with the adoption of the "MultiMax" package brand, the first major expansion to the multiplex took place with two of the channels changing their names and formats and a fourth genre-based channel being added: Cinemax 2 was rebranded as MoreMax, and Cinemax 3 was relaunched as ActionMax—maintaining a focus on action and adventure films. A fourth channel, ThrillerMax, also launched, focusing on mystery, suspense and horror films.


title: Cinemax

text: Four additional themed channels were launched on May 17, 2001: OuterMax (which carried films dealing with the science fiction, horror and fantasy genres), WMax (films with women), @Max (films for a younger adult audience) and 5StarMax (focusing on critically acclaimed and classic feature films). On June 1, 2013, WMax and @Max were respectively relaunched as MovieMax and Max Latino. Max Latino – which dropped its distinct branding and was renamed Cinemáx on April 1, 2015 – mirrors the schedule of the flagship Cinemax channel (similar to the format of HBO Latino, which simulcasts most of the HBO schedule except for certain differing programs), featuring Spanish-language dubs of feature films and original series broadcast by the main channel. MovieMax started out as a family-oriented channel which did not broadcast R-rated films, and focuses on recent and classic hit movies.


title: Cinemax

text: Depending on the service provider, Cinemax provides up to eight 24-hour multiplex channels—all of which are simulcast in both standard definition and high definition, and available as time zone-based regional feeds—as well as a subscription video-on-demand service (Cinemax on Demand). Off-the-air maintenance periods of anywhere from a half-hour up to two hours occur at varied overnight/early morning time slots (usually preceding the 6:00 a.m. ET/PT start of the defined broadcast day) once per month on each channel.


title: Cinemax

text: Cinemax transmits feeds of its primary and multiplex channels on both Eastern and Pacific Time Zone schedules. The respective coastal feeds of each channel are usually packaged together, resulting in the difference in local airtimes for a particular movie or program between two geographic locations being three hours at most; the opposite-region feed (i.e., the Pacific Time feeds in the Eastern and Central Time Zones, and the Eastern Time feeds in the Pacific, Mountain and Alaska Time Zones) serves as a timeshift channel, allowing viewers who may have missed a particular program at its original local airtime to watch it three hours after its initial airing or allowing them to watch a program up to four hours, depending on the applicable time zone, in advance of their local airtime on their corresponding primary coastal feed. (Most cable, satellite and IPTV providers as well as its Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video and Roku OTT channels only offer the East and West Coast feeds of the main Cinemax channel; some conventional television providers may include coastal feeds of MoreMax in certain areas, while wider availability of coastal feeds for the other five multiplex channels is limited to subscribers of DirecTV, YouTube TV and the Hulu live TV service.)


title: Cinemax

text: Cinemax HD is a high definition simulcast feed of Cinemax that broadcasts in 1080i resolution and Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. Cinemax maintains high definition simulcast feeds of its main channel and all seven multiplex channels. From the 2008 rollout of HD simulcasts for the Cinemax multiplex feeds until the mid-2010s, the majority of pay television providers that carried Cinemax HD generally offered only the main channel in high definition, with HD carriage of the multiplex channels varying by market. , most providers transmit all eight Cinemax multiplex channels in HD, either on a dedicated HD channel tier separate from their SD assignments or as hybrid SD/HD feeds.The flagship network began transmitting its programming exclusively in high definition on September 1, 2008.


title: Cinemax

text: Cinemax On Demand is Cinemax's companion subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service that is available at no additional cost to subscribers of the linear television service. VOD content from the network is also available on select virtual MVPD services, including DirecTV Stream, and Hulu, and through Cinemax's dedicated OTT video channels on Apple TV Channels, Amazon Video Channels, and The Roku Channel. The service launched in 2002.


title: Cinemax

text: Cinemax Go (formerly MAX Go) was a former TV Everywhere streaming service for subscribers of the linear Cinemax television service. It was accessible as a desktop website through and through apps for Apple and Google Play devices, along with most digital media players and game consoles; mobile device apps were discontinued in the years before the Go service was shut down. Content available on Max Go was outside a few contractual exceptions, mirrored the selection of Cinemax On Demand. Like HBO, live simulcasts of the seven linear Cinemax channels were not a part of the service, though it offered new episodes of the network's original programming at the exact time of its wireline release.


title: Cinemax

text: The service launched on September 13, 2010. It is available to Cinemax subscribers of AT&T U-verse, Cox Communications, DirecTV, Dish Network, Suddenlink Communications, and Charter Communications. The Max GO iPhone, iPad, and Android app was released on August 11, 2011. The MAX Go app was discontinued on April 30, 2020, on all mobile and TV platforms to drive viewership for HBO Max. The service's desktop website (since renamed Cinemax Go to avoid confusion with HBO Max) continued to operate until it was discontinued on July 31, 2022, as part of new network owner Warner Bros. Discovery's efforts to build a united streaming presence around HBO Max.


title: Cinemax

text: On average, movies occupy between 20 and 24 hours of the daily schedule on Cinemax and MoreMax, and 24 hours per day on its six thematic multiplex channels. Since June 2000, Cinemax has offered weekly pay television premieres of recent theatrical and original made-for-cable movies every Sunday at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT. Until May 2008, the premiere presentations were marketed as "See It Saturday," later renamed "See It Sunday" after the network moved its premiere night to Sundays in January 2002. Before settling on Sundays as its anchor premiere night, Cinemax's prime time film premieres varied in scheduling between Friday, Saturday and Wednesday, depending on network preference. First-run theatrical films debut on average from ten months to one year after the conclusion of their initial theatrical run, and no more than six months after their DVD or digital VOD download release.


title: Cinemax

text: Cinemax also maintains sub-run agreements—covering television and streaming licensing of films that have previously received broadcast or syndicated television airings—for theatrical films distributed by Paramount Pictures (including content from subsidiaries and/or acquired library partners The Cannon Group, Carolco Pictures, Republic Pictures and Miramax, all for films released prior to 2011; although the studio is covered in the HBO contract, Nickelodeon Movies films typically do not air on Cinemax), Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures (including content from Walt Disney Pictures, and former subsidiaries Touchstone Pictures and Hollywood Pictures; films released through or by their other divisions like Pixar, Marvel Studios, and Lucasfilm were not covered by the HBO/Cinemax joint contract, restricted to the channels that Disney owns, as well as Flix and streaming/digital platforms instead), Sony Pictures Entertainment (including content from subsidiaries/library partners Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures Classics, ELP Communications, Morgan Creek Entertainment, Screen Gems, Revolution Studios, and former HBO sister company TriStar Pictures, all for films released prior to 2005; films from Sony Pictures Animation and Stage 6 Films are not covered under Cinemax's programming rights with Sony due to an existing agreement with Sony Movie Channel), and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (including content from subsidiaries United Artists, Orion Pictures and The Samuel Goldwyn Company).


title: Cinemax

text: Films to which HBO maintains traditional telecast and streaming rights will usually also be shown on the Cinemax television and streaming platforms during their licensing agreement period (either after a film title completes its HBO window or transfers between services over certain months during the contractual period). Feature films from the aforementioned studios that maintain joint licensing contracts encompassing both services will typically make their premium television debut on HBO approximately two to three months before their premiere on Cinemax and vice versa. Cinemax rarely airs G-rated films during the morning hours, instead opting to air films with R, PG-13 or PG ratings during these time slots. The channel also produces documentary films under the banner "Cinemax Reel Life".


title: Cinemax

text: HBO/Cinemax's relationship with Warner Bros. began with a five-year distribution agreement signed in June 1986, encompassing films released between January 1987 and December 1992; the estimated cost of the initial pay-cable rights were between $300 million and $600 million, depending on the overall performance of Warner's films and HBO/Cinemax's respective subscriber counts. Although the Warner deal was initially non-exclusive, a preemptive strategy in the event that its co-owned rivals Showtime and The Movie Channel (which elected not to pick up any spare Warner titles) sought full exclusivity over movie rights, the terms gave Warner an option to require HBO to acquire exclusive rights to titles covered under the remainder of the deal for $60 million per year (in addition to a guaranteed $65-million fee for each year of the contract). As a result of the 1989 Time-Warner merger, HBO and Cinemax hold pay-cable exclusivity over all newer Warner Bros. films for the duration of their joint ownership.


title: Cinemax

text: 20th Century Fox first signed a non-exclusive deal with HBO and Cinemax in January 1986, covering Fox films released between 1985 and 1988, along with a production co-financing agreement involving HBO original programs; the pact transitioned to an exclusivity arrangement with the 1988 renewal. The first-run film output agreement with Fox was renewed by HBO for ten years on August 15, 2012 (with a provision allowing the studio to release its films through digital platforms such as iTunes and Amazon Video during the channel's term of license of an acquired film for the first time). While The Walt Disney Company completed its acquisition of 20th Century Fox in March 2019, Disney maintains an output deal with its in-house streaming services Disney+ and Hulu for films produced and/or distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures and its subsidiaries (which have not distributed their films over a traditional pay-cable service since the studio's agreement with HBO rival Starz ended in 2015). Disney continued to honor the output deal with HBO until November 2021, when WarnerMedia and Disney announced that the deal would be expanded to the end of 2022, with an amendment that will allow half of 20th Century Studios' 2022 slate to be shared between HBO/HBO Max and Disney+ or Hulu during the pay-one window, beginning with Ron's Gone Wrong.


title: Cinemax

text: HBO/Cinemax's relationship with Universal first began in March 1984, when it signed a six-year non-exclusivity deal with the studio; in April 1990, Universal elected to sign a deal with CBS for the licensing rights to a package of the studio's ten 1989 releases, bypassing the traditional pay-cable window. The current Universal output deal—which began as an eight-year agreement that originally lasted through December 2010, assuming the studio's pay-cable rights from Starz—was renewed for ten years on January 6, 2013; the current deal gives HBO right of first refusal over select Universal titles, allowing the studio to exercise an option to license co-distributed live-action films to Showtime and animated films to Netflix if HBO elects not to obtain pay television rights to a particular film. (Universal put a 50% cap on title acquisitions for the first year of the initial 2003–10 contract, intending to split the rights between HBO and Starz as consolation for the latter outbidding HBO for Sony Pictures output deal.) On July 6, 2021, Universal Filmed Entertainment Group announced it would begin releasing its theatrical films on Peacock after its exclusivity agreement with HBO concludes at the end of 2021, under a fragmented window (starting within 120 days of a film's theatrical release) through which Peacock will hold exclusive rights to Universal titles in bookending four-month windows at the beginning and end of the 18-month pay-one distribution period. Subsequently, Amazon (on July 8) and Starz (on July 16) signed separate multi-year sub-licensing agreements, in which Universal films would stream on Prime Video and IMDb TV in a 10-month non-exclusivity window during the middle of the period and air on Starz's linear and streaming platforms following the Peacock/Amazon windows; HBO will continue to release Universal's 2021 film slate under their existing contracts through 2022, while Netflix will continue to offer the studio's animated films thereafter.


title: Cinemax

text: The first-run output deal with Summit Entertainment—which initially ran through December 2017, and replaced Showtime (which had exclusive rights to its films from January 2008 until December 2012) as the studio's pay-cable output partner when it initially went into effect in 2013—was renewed by HBO for an additional four years on March 1, 2016. (Summit is currently the only "mini-major" movie studio and the only studio not among the five core majors that maintains an exclusive output deal with HBO.) On March 2, 2021, Summit owner Lionsgate announced that the Summit output deal would move to Starz at the end of 2022.


title: Cinemax

text: Upon the network's launch, Cinemax offered theatrical films from Columbia Pictures, under a four-year exclusive deal with HBO signed in June 1976 for a package of 20 films released between January 1977 and January 1981, in exchange for then-parent company Time, Inc. committing a $5-million production financing investment with Columbia over a period of between 12 and 18 months. Although HBO executives were reluctant at first to strike such arrangements, by the mid-1980s, the channel had transitioned to exclusive film output deals (now the standard among North American premium channels), in which a film studio licenses all or a proportion of their upcoming productions to a partner service over a multi-year contract. In 1983, HBO entered into three exclusive licensing agreements tied to production financing arrangements involving Tri-Star Pictures (formed as a co-production venture between Time, Inc./HBO, Columbia and CBS Inc.), Columbia Pictures (an exclusivity-based contract extension initially covering 50% of the studio's pre-June 1986 releases with a non-compete option to purchase additional Columbia titles) and Orion Pictures (encompassing a package of 30 films, in return for financial participation and a $10-million securities investment; the deal was indirectly associated with Orion's buyout of Filmways the year prior, in which HBO bought pay television rights to the studio's films). All three deals were approved under a U.S. Department of Justice review greenlighting the Tri-Star venture in June of that year. (The Tri-Star deal became non-exclusive in January 1988, although Showtime elected not to acquire titles from HBO's film rights lessees.) After the exclusive contract transferred to Showtime in January 1994, in July 1995, HBO/Cinemax preemptively signed a five-year deal with the studio that took effect in January 2000, in conjunction with a five-year extension of its existing deal with Columbia Pictures. (Columbia and TriStar's respective output deals with HBO ended on December 31, 2004, when Sony Pictures transferred exclusive pay-cable rights for their films to Starz—which , holds rights to televise all newer films from either studio through December 2021, pending renewal—after HBO declined a request by Columbia during contract negotiations to allow the studio to experimentally distribute its theatrical films via streaming video during its contract window.)


title: Cinemax

text: In early 1984, HBO/Cinemax abandoned the practice of acquiring the exclusive pay-cable rights to theatrical feature films, citing internal research that concluded that subscribers showed indifference to efforts by premium channels to secure rights to studios' full slate of recently released films from to distinguish their programming due to VHS availability preceding pay-cable distribution in the release window. This change came after Frank Biondi was fired as HBO Chairman, reportedly for having "overextended the network in pre-buy and exclusive movie deals" as subscribership of pay-cable services declined. Biondi's replacement, Michael J. Fuchs, structured some of the subsequent deals as non-exclusive to allow HBO to divert more funding toward co-producing made-for-cable movies, other original programming and theatrical joint ventures (via Tri-Star and Silver Screen Partners).


title: Cinemax

text: In September 1986, HBO/Cinemax signed a five-year agreement with MGM/UA Communications Co. for a package of up to 72 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and United Artists films. In July 1987, HBO/Cinemax signed a five-year, $500-million deal for exclusive rights to 85 Paramount Pictures films to have been tentatively released between May 1988 and May 1993. (This solidified an existing alliance with Paramount dating to 1979, for the non-exclusive rights to the studio's films.) Though this contract would herald the end of its embargo on new film exclusivity deals, HBO's then-CEO Michael Fuchs cited Showtime–The Movie Channel parent Viacom (which, at the time, had debt in excess of $2.4 billion) for it having to obtain exclusivity for the Paramount package, which the studio approached HBO directly to bid. The Paramount package remained with HBO/Cinemax until December 1997; Showtime assumed the pay-cable rights to the studio's films in January 1998, under a seven-year deal reached as a byproduct of Viacom's 1994 purchase of Paramount from Paramount Communications, and held them until December 2008. (Shared rival Epix—created as a consortium between Paramount/Viacom, Lionsgate and now-sole owner MGM—took over pay television rights upon that network's October 2009 launch.)


title: Cinemax

text: In March 1995, HBO/Cinemax signed a ten-year deal with the then-upstart DreamWorks SKG valued at between $600 million and $1 billion, depending on the total output of films and generated revenue during the contract, covering the studio's tentative releases between January 1996 and December 2006. By result of the 2004 spin-off of its animation arm DreamWorks Animation into a standalone company, DreamWorks' pay-cable distribution rights were split up into separate contracts: in March 2010, Showtime acquired the rights to live-action films from the original DreamWorks studio (coinciding with the transfer of co-production agreement from Paramount Pictures to Touchstone Pictures, then a Showtime distribution partner) for five years, effective January 2011. Then in September 2011, after HBO/Cinemax agreed to waive the last two years of its contract, Netflix acquired the DreamWorks Animation contract effective upon the December 2012 expiration of the HBO deal. (Prior to the 2015 launch of HBO Now, HBO required its studio output partners to suspend digital sales of their movies during their exclusive contractual window with the network; the Netflix deal was not subject to any distribution restrictions, allowing DreamWorks Animation to continue the re-sale of its films through digital download via third-party providers.)


title: Cinemax

text: Other film studios which formerly maintained first-run pay-cable contracts with Cinemax have included Walt Disney Productions (non-exclusive, 1978–1982), The Samuel Goldwyn Company (non-exclusive, 1979–1986), ITC Entertainment (non-exclusive, 1982–1990), New World Pictures (non-exclusive, 1982–1986), PolyGram Filmed Entertainment (non-exclusive, 1984–1989), Hemdale Film Corporation (non-exclusive, 1982–1986; exclusive, 1987–1991) De Laurentiis Entertainment Group (non-exclusive, 1988–1991) Lorimar Motion Pictures (non-exclusive, 1987–1990), Hemdale Film Corporation (non-exclusive, 1982–1986), Troma Entertainment (exclusive, 1991–1999), Savoy Pictures (exclusive, 1992–1997). and New City Releasing (non-exclusive, 1994–2000).


title: Cinemax

text: On August 12, 2011, Cinemax began airing original series other than the licensed Max After Dark programming, with the addition of prime time action-oriented series targeted at men between 18 and 49 years of age. On that date, Cinemax debuted its first mainstream original program, the U.S. premiere of the British action series "Strike Back" (first-run episodes of the series aired by Cinemax during its 2011 season were from the show's ). The series originally debuted in 2010 on Sky One in the United Kingdom, which HBO and Cinemax partnered with to produce the series after the conclusion of its first season. On October 19, 2012, Cinemax launched its second primetime original series, "Hunted", in cooperation with BBC One. Alan Ball's "Banshee" followed in 2013. Two new shows premiered in 2014: the Steve Kronish-produced "Sandbox" and Steven Soderbergh-produced "The Knick".


title: Cinemax

text: In 2020, it was announced that Cinemax would no longer commission original programming, in order to focus on HBO Max. The martial arts drama "Warrior" was the last remaining original program on Cinemax, and it was announced in April 2021 that its upcoming third season would move to HBO Max.


title: Cinemax

text: A signature feature of Cinemax was a late-night block known as Max After Dark, which featured softcore pornographic films and original series. Cinemax did not have set start or end times for the block, as they varied depending on the mainstream feature films – and original series on certain nights – that aired prior to and following it, and also depended on the number of programs and programs in particular that were scheduled to air within the block. Programs that aired under the Max After Dark banner carried either a TV-MA or R rating (usually the former), primarily for strong sexual content and nudity. The block had often been the subject of both scrutiny in the media and a source of humor in popular culture, with references to Cinemax's late night programming being featured in various films and television shows. Because of the block's presence, Cinemax was most commonly given the jocular nickname "Skinemax". The network itself had acknowledged this by using a play on this term for its 2011 documentary series, "Skin to the Max".


title: Cinemax

text: The late night adult series that aired first-run episodes were "Lingerie", "Life on Top", "Femme Fatales", "Zane's The Jump Off", "Working Girls in Bed," and "Topless Prophet" (which debuted on May 30, 2014, as the network's first reality series and followed the world of exotic dancing in Detroit, Michigan). Adult films often aired alongside these series, though this depended on the Cinemax multiplex channel and sometimes depending on that night's Max After Dark schedule on each channel. The block originally debuted on May 4, 1984, as a weekly block called "Cinemax Friday After Dark"; these adult programs eventually expanded to seven-night-a-week airings by the late 1990s. Cinemax maintained an on-air policy – that had been in effect since 1993 – not to air any adult programming on its main channel before 11:30 p.m. ET.


title: Cinemax

text: The adult programming featured on Max After Dark was not limited solely to the main Cinemax channel: MoreMax also aired softcore pornographic films and series, sometimes airing earlier (10:30 p.m. Eastern Time at the earliest) than the main Cinemax channel would allow; ActionMax, ThrillerMax and OuterMax also featured adult films on their late night schedules, even though the softcore adult films and series did not necessarily fit the respective formats of these multiplex services. Conversely, MovieMax (which is aimed at families) and 5StarMax (which carries a format of largely critically acclaimed, mainstream feature films) generally do not run any adult programs because of their respective programming formats. Some of the adult films featured on the Max After Dark block also aired late nights on sister channel HBO Zone, which was the only HBO multiplex channel to feature pornographic film content. Cinemax was able to carry softcore pornographic programs as well as other forms of adult content within the channel's mainstream programming in part since the FCC's content regulations applied only to channels that broadcast on the "publicly owned" spectrum and not those only available on restricted-access cable networks, which had consequently taken considerably more leeway in their programming.


title: Cinemax

text: By 2013, Cinemax had begun to scale back on the Max After Dark content, with network executives wanting the service to focus more on its original programming as a point of differentiation. "Variety" noted the ubiquity of internet porn, and that by modern standards, the softcore content was now relatively tame in comparison to the content seen in original series on HBO and other premium television services.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: The story is set in the fantasy world of Vana'diel, where player-created avatars can both compete and cooperate in a variety of objectives to develop an assortment of jobs, skills, and earn in-game item rewards. Players can undertake an array of quests and progress through the in-game hierarchy and through the major plot of the game. Since its debut in 2002, five expansion packs have been released along with six add-on scenarios. Each expansion pack and add-on brings a new major storyline to the "Final Fantasy XI" world, along with numerous areas, quests, events and item rewards.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: In 2015, Square Enix released the final main scenario for "Final Fantasy XI" titled "Rhapsodies of Vana'diel". "Final Fantasy XI" became the final active server on the PlayStation 2 online service. Support for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 versions was ultimately ended on March 31, 2016, leaving only the PC platform playable. A mobile client for the game was under development by Square Enix in collaboration with Korean developer Nexon, using Unreal Engine 4, but was cancelled in late 2020. A spinoff mobile game, "Final Fantasy Grandmasters" was released on September 30, 2015. As of September 10, 2020, a new, episodic story series titled "The Voracious Resurgence" has since been added to the game.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: "Final Fantasy XI" is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), and differs from previous titles in the series in several ways. Unlike the predefined main characters of previous "Final Fantasy" titles, players are able to customize their characters in limited ways, including selecting from one of five races and choosing their gender, facial style, hair color, body size, job, and nation allegiance. Also diverging from previous games in the series, the game takes place in a fully three-dimensional landscape with enemies freely roaming in it, allowing battles to occur in real time as opposed to the random encounters used in previous games - a trend continued in every numbered "Final Fantasy" title since.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: There are currently 16 public game worlds available for play, down from 32 at the game's height, with approximately 15,000 to 20,000 players in each. A private Test Server was opened to eligible players to aid in feedback of updates in development for the game in mid-2011. The servers are named after summoned monsters from previous "Final Fantasy" titles, such as Ifrit and Diabolos. Players have the ability to move between servers, though Square Enix charges a "world transfer" fee to do so. There are no region-specific or system-specific servers, and unlike most online games, players of different languages play in the same world and can interact through automatic language translation from a library of translated phrases. The game servers are run by Square Enix as part of their PlayOnline network.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: Players have the option of using any combination of a keyboard, mouse, and controller to play "Final Fantasy XI". While by default, a player using a PlayStation 2 or an Xbox 360 uses a virtual/in-game keyboard option, the player is able to use an external keyboard that is USB compatible for communication within the game. The head-up display in "Final Fantasy XI" consists of a log window, menus, and several game information elements. The log window at the bottom of the screen displays system messages, battle messages, and text input by other players. Players may choose to filter what appears in the log window. "Menus" allow the player to access different commands, status windows, and configuration options. The "action command menu" appears just above the log window and gives the player several options to interact with the game world. Several menu options are available through the use of keyboard shortcuts, as well.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: Story related gameplay in "Final Fantasy XI" consists of two major components: missions, through which the main storyline of the game is told, and quests, which do not advance the main storyline, but fill out the game's fantasy world. Completing missions allows a player to advance in rank, which grants access to new areas, several privileges, and various other storylines. At first, a player may only complete missions for their home nation, though they are able to change allegiances later on, allowing access to other nations' storylines. Quests may be undertaken for their various rewards, or to acquire "fame," which allows a character to become well-known and respected by NPCs; a higher fame rating will open up new interactions and quests with NPCs. At release, over one hundred quests were available to play and each expansion pack has added its own set of missions and quests. Players obtain in-game money known as gil by completing missions, quests and defeating Beastmen, though unlike previous "Final Fantasy" games, these monsters drop only small amounts. Gil can then be exchanged amongst players for goods through the Auction House, or be used to purchase items and rewards from NPCs.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: Unlike some MMORPGs, there is very little focus on player versus player (PvP) combat, instead the game revolves around player versus environment (PvE). There are numerous PvE activities and events for players to partake in, including instanced activities and shared spaces activities. Some instanced events include Dynamis, Salvage, Assault and Nyzul Isle, which involve anywhere between 6 and 64 players. These battle grounds give players a series of objectives to overcome or complete and enemies to defeat, generally within a certain time frame. Popular shared spaces activities include hunting Notorious Monsters, fiends that rarely appear and drop precious loot.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: The only way to attack other players in PvP is to enter one on one competition activities known as "Conflict". The first form of competition, called Ballista, involves players competing to score points by throwing petras into a castle-like structure known as a Rook. The second form is known as "Brenner", and features a capture the flag type system.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: From time to time special seasonal festivals and events are held. They last only for a set period of time and offer a variety of fun or useful rewards. Many events have changed over time, adding new features and eliminating old ones. These events are geared towards any level, often restricting players to level 1, so that veterans and novice players alike can join in together. Events celebrated are often thematically based on real life equivalents, for example: Valentione's Day in place of Valentine's Day, the Egg Hunt Egg-stravaganza in place of Easter, and the Starlight Celebration in place of Christmas.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: Battles in "Final Fantasy XI" take place in the world in which players move around, a first in the series, where battle had previously taken place in a separate screen via random encounters. The surprise of the random encounter system is achieved via aggressive monsters, who will attack players based on different factors such as sight and sound. This format would continue in future "Final Fantasy" games. Monsters within the game operate under a system of "claim" and "enmity". A monster is claimed the moment a player performs any offensive action upon it, whether physical, magical or ability related. With some exceptions, once a monster is claimed it can only be attacked by players in the party or alliance of the player that claimed it. A monster will focus its attention on whoever has built up the most enmity. Players have several means at their disposal, including spells, abilities and items, to build up enmity or shed it to their advantage in battle - a factor that features heavily in group, or "party" play.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: To defeat more powerful monsters and gain experience points efficiently, players can join a party. A regular party has room for six members. Like in many other games, a well-balanced party will consist of several archetypes- namely a healer, a tank (the party member with high defense that will be the main target of the monster), and the damage dealer. The enmity system comes into play heavily in parties, as players try to keep the monsters attention off fragile jobs and on the tanks. One of the key aspects of the battle system lies in the extreme flexibility of the party composition: unlike many other games, there are no constraints on the role (or "job" class) of the party members. This feature allows to tackle every fight with a wide array of different strategies, while encouraging the community to share new, creative ways of handling a certain type of enemy.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: A party can expand into an alliance, with up to three parties combined, with a total of 18 players. Alliances are necessary to complete more difficult challenges: including missions, quests, nation or territory driven events, and defeating notorious monsters. Much of end-game play consists of alliance forces overcoming these higher level challenges and can even allow several alliances to enter into specific instances owned by a group of players (e.g. Dynamis instances entry is controlled by an hourglass item).


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: "Final Fantasy XI"s incarnation of Limit Breaks are "Weapon Skills". Physical damage given and received fills a Tactical Points (TP) bar, to a maximum of 3000. Any amount above 1000 is able to be used up by being channelled into a weapon skill. These skills vary in effect depending on job class, what weapon is equipped, how full the TP bar is, and how proficient the player is with the weapon. If partying with other players, one may use these weapon skills in succession in order to create a "Skillchain". A skillchain creates additional damage after a series of weapon skills are used. Building on this even further, magic used on a skillchain at the right time will receive a boost to its damage; this is called a "Magic Burst". In order to create the best possible skillchains and magic bursts, players must work together, focusing on each other's actions and timing.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: "Final Fantasy XI" uses the concept of changing Jobs in a similar fashion to "Final Fantasy III", and currently has twenty-two Jobs as of the latest expansion pack in 2013. There are six "standard Jobs" available to choose from at the start of the game. After one standard Job has reached Level 30, the "extra Jobs" are accessible upon completing certain quests. Players are able to change their jobs any time from inside their house or by speaking with a Nomad Moogle. In June 2010, the long-standing level limit of 75 was incrementally increased to the higher level cap of 99, finishing in the December 2011 version update.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: Jobs have a combination of unique "job traits", "job abilities", and magic spells, giving them a specific role within group play due to their area of expertise. Job traits are passive abilities that are always in effect, while job abilities must be activated by the player in order to come into effect. They last a limited time and have a "cooldown" period before they can be used again. Magic spells are available to certain jobs, and in addition to a cooldown period, they often consume MP or some form of item in order to be cast, while at the same time requiring the user to stand still. Additionally, each job has a special one-hour ability that performs an extraordinary function.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: The unique system of "Final Fantasy XI"s job system is the "Support Job". This system allows a player to augment their character with abilities, traits, and spells from another chosen job, at half the level of their current job. For instance, a Level 20 Warrior setting Ninja as their support job would allow them to use all Ninja abilities, traits, and spells up to that of a level 10 Ninja, while still primarily being a Level 20 Warrior. The support job system allows for job-merges never before seen in the "Final Fantasy" series. However, there are some exceptions to the system. One-hour abilities and other abilities deemed signature to a particular job (such as Call Wyvern for Dragoons) are restricted to being used only on the main job.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: In addition to completing quests and missions, players can participate in several side-minigames and other activities. One such minigame is fishing, where players can measure their strength against the fish they attempt to catch. Another is clamming, where players collect as many fish or sea creatures as possible without going over their bucket's size limit. Gardening allows players to raise plants in their residence, or "Mog House" as it is known in the game. The raising and breeding of Chocobos was a long-requested activity enabled in the summer 2006 update. Chocobo racing began in March 2007, which allowed for the racing of player-raised Chocobos against non-player characters (NPCs). Winning racers can earn "Chocobucks", which can be used to buy, for example, items that assist Chocobo breeding.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: An important part of the game is the accumulation of items, especially rare ones, which allow players to create powerful weapons, armour and food. There are many ways to obtain items, such as harvesting, excavating, logging, mining, defeating monsters, and digging by using Chocobos. Square Enix attempted to increase the opportunity for players to find rare items in order to equalize the game and stop the practice of "gil selling", or exchanging real money for in-game items. The item auction system was shut down temporarily once due to some players exploiting the system. Items can be created by consuming elemental crystals (obtained by fighting monsters) with other ingredients in a process called "synthesis". Recipe results can vary widely based on the player's skill, the quality of the player's equipment worn, and the ingredients used. There is large speculation (though nothing evidently documented yet) about the moon phase, direction the player is facing, in-game day (every day of the week is assigned an element), and even time of day the synthesis is performed to either increase or reduce the results of the recipe.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: "Final Fantasy XI" has a largely player-based economy, with a heavy reliance on auction houses in each of the major cities of Vana'diel. There are certain economic controls in place mainly in the form of fees for putting items up for auction. Transportation, auction house, item storage, and fees do not go to players; these gil sinks effectively remove money from the economy to prevent inflation. The city of Jeuno used to levy a tax on bazaar purchases inside the city, but it was removed in a patch in the December 2008 version update.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: Square Enix has stated that the trade of items for real currency is officially a violation of the Terms of Service for "Final Fantasy XI". In early 2006, Square Enix discovered that a group of players had found a way to generate game currency and exchange it for real currency, which, in turn, drove up prices for all items across the game. In response, 700 accounts were permanently banned and 300 billion gil was removed from circulation. In July 2006, Square Enix banned or suspended over 8,000 other accounts for similar manipulation and commerce. Since 2006, Square Enix has regularly banned accounts found to be in violation of the terms, some of them using third-party tools, effectively removing billions of gil from the in-game economy.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: The setting of "Final Fantasy XI" is the world of Vana'diel, a rich world with diverse climates, ranging from northern glaciers and southern deserts, to ethereal realms and sky landmasses. Vana'diel is divided into a number of regions, which are subdivided into areas known as "zones". These zones are available for exploration and consist of outdoor areas, dungeons, cities, and towns. Players are able to explore a portion of Vana'diel, including the Middle Lands, Near East, and with the release of "Seekers of Adoulin", the near west. Six city states exist in the available lands, The Republic of Bastok, The Kingdom of San d'Oria, The Federation of Windurst, The Grand Duchy of Jeuno, The Empire of Aht Urhgan and the Sacred City of Adoulin. While most areas are accessible by walking, various modes of transportation, ranging from the classic "Final Fantasy" Chocobo and airships to special spells, facilitate movement across the game world.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: Ancient lore states that Vana'diel was created as a playground for the Gods and their children, who themselves were spawned from an enormous and sentient Crystal. Eventually wishing to be one with the Gods, the children constructed a pathway to paradise. They were smote down for their insolence and their cities cast to the bottom of the sea. After seeing the destruction of her children and filled with sadness, the Goddess Altana wept five tears that gave life to the five Enlightened Races of Vana'diel. The God of Twilight, Promathia, condemned her weakness and the life that arose from it. Promathia cursed the five races with eternal conflict amongst themselves by bringing forth their darkest attributes: the apathy of the Humes, the arrogance of the Elvaan, the rage of the Galka, the cowardice of the Tarutaru, and the envy of the Mithra. He created the Beastmen, commanding them to forever fight the people of Vana'diel and occupy their minds, so these children would never have time to group together and construct a pathway like the ones before them. The creation lore's sentient Crystal, Gods, Children, and the truths behind them feature as major plot points in several "Final Fantasy XI" expansion packs, while the Beastmen are some of the game's main antagonists.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: The events of the game are set 20 years after the Crystal War, a devastating war where the Middle Land nations of Bastok, San d'Oria and Windurst fought and defeated the Shadow Lord and his army of Beastmen. Players deal with the aftermath of this conflict in the original story, and may travel back in time to aid in the war effort with the expansion pack "Wings of the Goddess". Several parallel worlds are available, such as Dynamis and Abyssea, in which the beastmen won the Crystal War and conquered the land.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: In addition to the playable races, there are two other non-playable Enlightened Races, known as the Zilart and the Kuluu. These ancient races were thought to be extinct, and are the focus of the first two-game expansions. There is also a large supporting cast of NPCs involved in quests, missions and the game's storylines. The game features several typical "Final Fantasy" fiends, including Goblins, Sahagins and Tonberries. Several of these races are known as Beastmen, a distinction made between fiends who possess higher than average intelligence, exhibiting self-awareness, emotions, culture, and religion. The complex relationship, bigoted views, and reasons of conflict between the Enlightened Races and Beastmen is a plot point throughout the game.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: "Final Fantasy XI" is represented in the "Dissidia" game series by Shantotto, a female Tarutaru Black Mage from the Windurst storyline, voiced by famed voice actress Megumi Hayashibara in the Japanese version and Candi Milo in the English version. The game's prequel adds Prishe, a female Elvaan from Tavnazia, who is the main character in the "Chains of Promathia" expansion pack.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: The storyline is primarily followed with missions through the governing nations that exist in the base game as well as each expansion that the player is affiliated with. Nation or governing body affiliation is relatively simple, sometimes requiring prerequisite quests being completed and have several stages of progression to achieve higher recognition and reward throughout each story. Some missions are even required to be completed to further progress into the start of the additional storylines of each expansion or specific areas.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: Players begin the game as residents of one of the three main countries: San d'Oria, Bastok, and Windurst, and must help band the nations together against the resurrected Shadow Lord.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: The expansion "Rise of the Zilart" reveals that the Crystal War and the resurrection of the Shadow Lord had been masterminded by the Zilart princes Eald'Narche and Kam'lanaut, who survived the extinction of their race. The two Zilarts plan to become Gods by opening the path to paradise, and the player is charged with thwarting their plans.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: "Chains of Promathia" revolves around an Elvaan girl named Prishe and the dead Twilight God Promathia, who had originally cursed the Zilart race, and the attempts of various factions to either complete or stop his resurrection. The wyrmking Bahamut is involved in these events, and intends to destroy Vana'diel to prevent Promathia from absorbing the life of the world.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: "Treasures of Aht Urhgan" concerns the Empire of Aht Urhgan which opens up to the nations of midlands after years of self-imposed isolation. As a new and powerful nation, it is of concern to the nation of the player, who is sent as a representative. The player then becomes embroiled in the intrigues of the Empress's court and the growing fears of war and darkness coming to Aht Urhgan.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: "Wings of the Goddess" primarily occurs in the era of the Crystal War, 20 years in the past from the main "Final Fantasy XI" setting. The player discovers and crosses mysterious time portals alongside the Hume/Elvaan mix Lilisette, and are led to help the Regal Feline Cait Sith reduce the suffering of the era. However, Lilisette and her partner encounter Lilith, an alternate timeline version of herself who wishes to keep the war going to maintain her time while negating Lilisette's.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: "Seekers of Adoulin" concerns the western continent archipelago of Adoulin, and the Sacred City of Adoulin. The city was a focal point for colonization 200 years before the present game, but when colonization efforts failed in the main continent of Ulbuka, the nation fell in population and shifted to trade as a focus. Now colonization has begun once again, and players are free to explore the region.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: "Rhapsodies of Vana'diel" concerns the conclusion of the previous "Final Fantasy XI" storylines with the threat posed by the Cloud of Darkness and an alternate timeline version of the player.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: "The Voracious Resurgence", the followup story to "Rhapsodies of Vana'diel", concerns the mysterious "world eater eggs" appearing all throughout the land of Vana'diel.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: The idea to develop "Final Fantasy XI" as an online game was conceived by Hironobu Sakaguchi when establishing Square Pictures headquarters in Hawaii. Impressed by western MMORPGs that he discovered there, such as "EverQuest", Sakaguchi convinced Square to begin the development of their own MMORPG and suggested that it be based on the "Final Fantasy" series. Since MMORPG creation was seen as a "greater cause", "Final Fantasy XI" was made by a merger of four crews: the "Parasite Eve II" and "Brave Fencer Musashi" teams from Osaka, and the "Mana" and "Chrono Cross" teams from Tokyo. Development began in November 1999. The game was the first developed under Square's new philosophy to develop for "all platforms and media". Hiromichi Tanaka, the producer of the game, has stated "Final Fantasy XI" is heavily influenced by "Final Fantasy III", especially in its battle and magic systems. According to Tanaka, Square put in "Final Fantasy XI" what they could not put in the first "Final Fantasy" titles due to technical limitations, thus making "Final Fantasy XI" the "most [representative] "Final Fantasy" of all the episodes". The game was developed and ran on the Nvidia GeForce 4 Ti GPU, which the President of Square Yoichi Wada described as the most powerful graphics processor available at the time. The game cost two to three billion yen (~$17–25 million) to create along with the PlayOnline Network Service and was assumed to become profitable over a five-year timespan. By creating a unified game world instead of different ones balkanized by language, development costs were cut 66%. Since recurring monsters of the series are known by different names in the Japanese and English versions of the other installments, it was decided for "Final Fantasy XI" to use both Japanese and English names for different varieties of the same monsters.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: It was originally announced that there would be a simultaneous release on the PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Windows as well as concurrent Japanese and American release, but this was later changed. There was also discussion of an Xbox release, but it was abandoned mainly because of its small 8 GB hard drive. Originally announced in January 2000 at the Yokohama Millennium Conference, there was a great deal of negative press. There were questions raised about naming the game the eleventh in the series, since it was not clear whether the game would have a structured story, which it ended up having, and the title of "Final Fantasy Online" was suggested. Following an August 2001 beta test in Japan, a public Japanese beta test was done in December 2001.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: Following its PC release, "Final Fantasy XI" was listed as one of IGN's most anticipated PlayStation 2 games of 2004.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: Sony launched a multimillion-dollar ad campaign to promote "Final Fantasy XI" along with the PlayStation 2 hard drive add-on which the game required. Having been released on the PlayStation 2 as well as the personal computer, it became the first cross-platform MMORPG ever created. On June 14, 2002, the game server was down for four hours for maintenance to the database servers, bug fixes on the text interface, and a new patch for the game client. This is thought to be the first patch ever released for a console game. Other early issues included complaints by American players that experienced Japanese players had already completed all the quests. Square Enix responded by adding new servers in order to have game worlds with fewer expert players.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: "Final Fantasy XI" is one of the first cross-console video games, and has continued to update its software to allow the game to run on new consoles. On March 8, 2007, a patch was released to enable gameplay in French and German. Square Enix noted that Nintendo's use of "Friend Codes" was the primary reason "Final Fantasy XI" was not brought to the Wii. In December 2006, the PlayStation 2 versions of PlayOnline and "Final Fantasy XI" were able to install and run on the PlayStation 3. The "Vana'diel Collection 2008" discs for the PlayStation 2 had installation issues on the PlayStation 3, causing them to be unusable at first since they weren't on Sony's list of HDD compatible titles in the firmware the PlayStation 3 had at the time. This problem was fixed on December 18, 2007 when Sony released firmware update 2.10 for the PlayStation 3. This allowed all backwards compatible models—20GB model #CECHB01, 60GB model #CECHA01 and 80GB model #CECHE01—to play FFXI. After working with Microsoft to resolve "Final Fantasy XI"s incompatibility issues with Windows Vista, Square Enix released a downloadable version of the PlayOnline client which is compatible with the operating system, although small bugs have appeared.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: On September 1, 2010, Akihiko Matsui became the director of "Final Fantasy XI". Only three months later, on December 10, 2010, Matsui left the "Final Fantasy XI" team to work as "Lead Combat System Designer" on Square Enix's new MMO, "Final Fantasy XIV". His replacement as director of "Final Fantasy XI" is Mizuki Ito. On July 13, 2011, information from a Famitsu interview with former "Final Fantasy XI" producer Hiromichi Tanaka revealed that Square Enix is looking into the possibility of porting "Final Fantasy XI" to Sony PlayStation Vita. On June 24, 2012, at the end of VanaFest 2012, a festival in Yokohama, Japan to celebrate 2012's tenth anniversary of the Japanese launch of "Final Fantasy XI", Hiromichi Tanaka announced that, due to health reasons, he was stepping down as producer of the game and leaving Square-Enix. Akihiko Matsui has been selected to replace him.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: In 2006, between 200,000 and 300,000 active players logged in per day, with 500,000 total active players and around 150,000 online at any one time. In April 2009, Square Enix announced that the total number of active characters exceeded 2 million for the first time. In June 2012, Square Enix president Yoichi Wada announced that "Final Fantasy XI" had become the most profitable title in the "Final Fantasy" series.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: The music of "Final Fantasy XI" was scored by Naoshi Mizuta, Kumi Tanioka, and Nobuo Uematsu. Composer Yasunori Mitsuda was also asked to contribute, but at the time he was unable to do so, as he was scoring the music for "Xenosaga". The game's five expansion packs since were scored by Mizuta alone, after Tanioka left to pursue other projects and Uematsu left Square Enix. The opening of the game features choral music with lyrics in Esperanto. According to Uematsu, the choice of language was meant to symbolize the developers' hope that their online game could contribute to cross-cultural communication and cooperation. He also noted the increased difficulty of scoring a game for which there was no linear plotline, a major change from the previous "Final Fantasy" games. It was the first game in the series for which he composed while he was no longer a Square Enix employee. New music has been employed for special events, such as a holiday score titled "Jeuno -Starlight Celebration-" which can be heard in the city of Jeuno each mid-to-late December since 2004.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: The game's music has been released in CD form several times and has been featured in "Final Fantasy" concerts. Some of the game's music has been released on iTunes, such as the vocal "Distant Worlds", which was released on the Japanese iTunes store on September 13, 2005, having been put in the game in a July 2005 patch. A compilation CD box was released on March 28, 2007, titled "Final Fantasy XI Original Soundtrack Premium Box", which included the four original soundtracks from "Final Fantasy XI" and its three expansion sets, as well as the previously unreleased tracks from the game and the unreleased "Final Fantasy XI Piano Collections". Dear Friends -Music from Final Fantasy-, a 2004–2005 concert series, featured "Ronfaure" from "Final Fantasy XI". A ten-track album of music inspired by "Final Fantasy XI" entitled "Music from the Other Side of Vana'diel" was released by The Star Onions on August 24, 2005.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: "Final Fantasy XI" has additions released every few years. Expansion packs add new story, jobs, zones, quests, and content to the game, while add-ons are smaller in scale, adding a smaller selection of the aforementioned items. All of the expansions and add-ons have been released on PlayStation 2, Microsoft Windows, and Xbox 360, with the exception of "Seekers of Adoulin", which did not see a PlayStation 2 release outside Japan.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: "Final Fantasy XI" received positive reviews from critics. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PlayStation 2 version 85% based on 57 reviews and 85/100 based on 49 reviews, the PC version 82% based on 44 reviews and 85/100 based on 25 reviews the Xbox 360 version 69% based on 32 reviews and 66/100 based on 25 reviews. "Famitsu" rated the game 38 out of 40. "Computer and Video Games Magazine" noted that it was one of the most welcoming MMORPGs despite the cumbersome initial registration and setup. "IGN" called it a well done but unoriginal game and also noted that North American players were forced to play with already much more experienced Japanese players who had already completed the game's various quests. "GameSpot" criticized it at release for having an unconventional control system, a lengthy installation, and having no player versus player (PvP) aspects. Other elements receiving criticism include the EXP grind, which involves constant battles to access different parts of the game, and overcrowded camp sites. The expansions have been mostly positively received, with praise for the amount of content added, but increasing signs that the graphics of the game are becoming outdated. The "IGN" review of the Xbox 360 release was similar, noting that it was a large amount of game content, but had a protracted setup process and elements of the game design that require a large time investment. It has also been noted that this game is the first to move in a wildly different direction while remaining in the main numbering line, as opposed to the Tactics and Crystal Chronicles games which became their own side series.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: The user base for the PlayStation 2 version was truncated initially because of limited sales of the PlayStation 2's hard drive and network adapters that were needed for the game. The Japanese release of "Rise of the Zilart" was the number one selling game when it debuted in 2003 with 90,000 copies sold in the first week. The "Treasures of Aht Urhgan", released three years later, sold over 103,000 copies for the PlayStation 2 in Japan during 2006. In the United States, "Final Fantasy XI"s computer version sold 340,000 copies ($15.5 million) by August 2006, after its release in October 2003. It was the country's 51st best-selling computer game between January 2000 and August 2006. The "Final Fantasy XI All-in-One Pack" was number 36 and "Wings of the Goddess" was number 40 on the top 50 best-selling Xbox 360 games in Japan as of December 2007. For the April–September 2004 financial period, Square Enix saw online gaming, particularly "Final Fantasy XI", sales increase by 101 percent and operating profit increase by 230.9 percent. Revenues held steady from subscription services in the summer of 2006; in the fall, however, Square acknowledged that online subscription revenues were "unsatisfactory", despite the steady performance of Final Fantasy XI. In December 2003, Square Enix president Yoichi Wada announced that there were over 200,000 subscribers to "Final Fantasy XI", allowing the company to break even and start making a profit. There were between 200,000 and 300,000 active players daily in 2006. As of August 14, 2006 the Xbox 360 version was the sixth most played game on Xbox Live. As of 2008, the game had 500,000 subscribers. In June 2012, Square Enix president Yoichi Wada announced that "Final Fantasy XI" had become the most profitable title in the "Final Fantasy" series. While many MMOs have switched to some form of free-to-play model, the base monthly subscription price point for "Final Fantasy XI" has remained the same at $11.95 since its debut in 2002.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: "Final Fantasy XI" was awarded the grand prize from the Japan's Consumer Entertainment Software Association (CESA) for 2002–2003 along with "Taiko no Tatsujin". It has also received GameSpy's 2003 PC MMORPG Game of the Year Award and IGN's Game of the Month for March 2004, citing the game's huge customization and its successful cross-platform and cross-language game world. It received a runner-up position in "GameSpot"s 2004 "Best Massively Multiplayer Online Game" award category, losing to "World of Warcraft". "Final Fantasy XI" was referenced in the online game "Minna no Golf Online" in the form of a "Final Fantasy XI"-themed lobby. At 2009's Electronic Entertainment Expo, Square Enix revealed "Final Fantasy XIV Online", which was Square Enix's next MMORPG.


title: Final Fantasy XI

text: The game has spawned several written adaptations and related merchandise. Starting in 2003, a series of "Final Fantasy XI" novels was written by Miyabi Hasegawa and released in Japanese, German, and French. Additionally, in 2004, "Adventure Log", a webcomic by Scott Ramsoomair, was commissioned by Square Enix starting in 2007. "Final Fantasy XI" PlayOnline Visa and MasterCard credit cards were available in Japan, with features including no annual fees as long as cardholders remain PlayOnline subscribers and various other rewards. There have also been posters with limited edition phone cards and keychains released, also exclusively in Japan. Several T-shirts have been made available for order in North America, and various stuffed animals and gashapon figurines have also been made available to order of different races from the series. A Vana'diel clock which displayed the in-game time was also marketed, as well as CDs of the game's music.


title: The Current War

text: The Current War is a 2017 American historical drama film inspired by the 19th-century competition between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse over which electric power delivery system would be used in the United States (often referred to as the "war of the currents"). Directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, written by Michael Mitnick, and executive produced by Martin Scorsese and Steven Zaillian, the film stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Edison, Michael Shannon as Westinghouse, Nicholas Hoult as Nikola Tesla, and Tom Holland as Samuel Insull, alongside Katherine Waterston, Tuppence Middleton, Matthew Macfadyen and Damien Molony.


title: The Current War

text: Announced in May 2012, Gomez-Rejon was confirmed in September 2015. Cumberbatch, Shannon, and Hoult joined the cast by October 2016, and filming began in England that December. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2017.


title: The Current War

text: Originally to be distributed by The Weinstein Company, the film was shelved and sold in November 2017 following the sexual abuse allegations made against Harvey Weinstein. It was eventually bought by Weinstein Company successor Lantern Entertainment, which then sold domestic distribution rights to 101 Studios. After discovering a final cut privilege clause in Scorsese's contract, Gomez-Rejon convinced him to allow for reshoots and to trim ten minutes off the original version's runtime, resulting in the film that was eventually released into theaters. The film was released in the United States on October 25, 2019. The film received generally mixed reviews, with praise towards the cast's performances and the intriguing story, but with criticism towards the overall execution.


title: The Current War

text: In 1880, Thomas Edison has unveiled his electric lightbulb. He plans to distribute power to American neighborhoods using Direct Current (DC), which is cheaper and cleaner than gaslight, but is limited in range and needs an expensive wiring infrastructure. George Westinghouse, a successful business man and inventor himself, wishes to learn more, and invites Edison to dinner. After being snubbed by Edison, Westinghouse sets out to prove alternating current (AC) is the better technology, as it can work over greater distances and at significantly lower cost. Edison and Westinghouse compete to get cities across the United States to use their system. Westinghouse does an AC demonstration at Great Barrington in March 1886.


title: The Current War

text: Inventor Nikola Tesla arrives in the United States and begins working with Edison, but is disappointed by Edison's unwillingness to reconsider his ideas and to fulfill what Tesla thought was a financial promise which Edison passes off as just a joke. Tesla then leaves Edison's team. Edison fiercely guards his patents and sues Westinghouse.


title: The Current War

text: Edison suggests that AC is dangerous and engages in a publicity war, while Westinghouse stands behind its technical merits. As Edison struggles to find ways to make DC more affordable, Westinghouse attempts to get the high-voltage AC system to work with motors. Edison's wife dies, and Westinghouse is also struck by personal tragedy when his friend Franklin Pope dies in an electrical accident. Both face significant financial risk. To generate funds Edison commercially sells his speaking machine "The Phonograph". To damage the reputation of AC, Edison shows that it easily electrocutes animals, and secretly works to help the creators of the electric chair, despite his previous objections to manufacturing weapons or other machines of death. The first person to die by electrocution is William Kemmler, and newspapers label the event as "Far Worse Than Hanging". Westinghouse discovers Edison's involvement and reveals it to the press.


title: The Current War

text: After an unsuccessful attempt to strike out on his own, Tesla is approached by Westinghouse to work together, and build a practical AC motor. Edison is increasingly marginalized and J. P. Morgan merges Edison Electric into General Electric. The competing systems come to a head as they both put forward proposals to illuminate the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Samuel Insull presents the bid on behalf of Edison, and Westinghouse presents his competing bid. The fair is abundantly lit, and Westinghouse is successful. At the fair Westinghouse and Edison meet briefly. Edison discusses what it was like to achieve a great invention, and suggests that his next invention (motion pictures) could be so incredible that people might forget his name was ever associated with electricity.


title: The Current War

text: Michael Mitnick began writing the script for "The Current War" in 2008, basing it on the real life "war of the currents" AC/DC conflict between Edison and Westinghouse. The screenplay is the conclusive result of sixty drafts, a ten-year writing process, first as a musical and finally as a film. In 2011 Mitnick's screenplay made the Black List, an industry survey of "most liked" screenplays not yet produced. On May 3, 2012, it was reported that Timur Bekmambetov's company, Bazelevs, had acquired the rights to Mitnick's screenplay. Bekmambetov was set to direct. On March 31, 2014, it was reported that Ben Stiller was in negotiations to direct the film. As of September 24, 2015, Benedict Cumberbatch and Jake Gyllenhaal were in talks to play Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse, respectively, with Alfonso Gomez-Rejon ("Me and Earl and the Dying Girl") eyed to direct the film. Sacha Baron Cohen was also briefly linked to the role of Edison. On September 29, 2016, Michael Shannon was cast as Westinghouse, and on October 4, Nicholas Hoult was cast as Nikola Tesla. In November 2016, Katherine Waterston and Tom Holland joined the cast. The following month, Tuppence Middleton and Matthew Macfadyen were cast.


title: The Current War

text: Principal photography began on December 18, 2016, and took place in London and the surrounding areas, as well as Rothbury, Northumberland, where Cragside House was used as a location. Filming also took place at Brighton Pavilion. Home Farm in Swale, Kent, England was used as the exterior of Edison's residence.


title: The Current War

text: The film was submitted to the Toronto International Film Festival before post-production was completed, and was subsequently rushed in order to make the late-September 2017 premiere date. Following the generally unfavorable reception towards the film, director Gomez-Rejon, who had voiced the film was not ready to be seen, began working on trimming the runtime for the planned November 2017 theatrical release. After the sexual abuse allegations against Weinstein came to light, work on the film ceased as The Weinstein Company would eventually sell off the rights. Thanks to a clause in executive producer Martin Scorsese's contract, he had to approve all final cuts of the film, which resulted in Gomez-Rejon's being able to raise $1 million to complete post-production, as well as do one day of reshoots in England with Cumberbatch, Middleton and Hoult, rounding out their characters.


title: The Current War

text: The film's score was originally written by the composer duo of Dustin O’Halloran & Volker Bertelmann (Hauschka) for the cut that was shown at TIFF in 2017. However this score was replaced entirely in 2019 for Gomez-Rejon's director's cut by a new score written by composer duo Danny Bensi & Saunder Jurriaans with additional music by Chase Deso. Neither score has yet received a soundtrack album release.


title: The Current War

text: The film was originally scheduled to be released by The Weinstein Company on December 22, 2017, and then rescheduled for November 24, 2017. It had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2017. It was pulled from release following the sexual abuse allegations that arose against Harvey Weinstein, then co-head of the company. Weinstein said that he was involved in the re-editing of the film when it was made known that the allegations would be revealed.


title: The Current War

text: In October 2018, Lantern Entertainment, which acquired The Weinstein Company's assets through its bankruptcy, and 13 Films, an international distribution and finance company, struck a deal to co-distribute the film internationally.


title: The Current War

text: In April 2019, it was announced 101 Studios had acquired distribution rights to the film for $3 million, and committed to a wide release. Director Gomez-Rejon said since the Toronto premiere he had added five additional scenes and trimmed ten minutes from the runtime. It was released on July 26, 2019, in the UK and October 25, 2019, in the US, after being previously scheduled for October 4. The theatrical release included the subtitle "The Director's Cut" in all countries but the UK.


title: The Current War

text: The film was first released on DVD, Blu-ray and digital download in the UK by Entertainment in Video on November 18, 2019. In the United States, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment released the film for digital download on March 17, 2020 and later on DVD and Blu-ray on March 31, 2020.


title: The Current War

text: "The Current War" grossed $6 million in the United States and Canada, and $6.3 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $12.3 million, against a production budget of $30 million.


title: The Current War

text: In the United States and Canada, "The Current War" was released alongside "Black and Blue" and "Countdown", and was projected to gross around $3 million from 1,020 theaters in its opening weekend. It made $947,000 on its first day and went on to debut to $2.7 million, finishing ninth at the box office, although it was noted that it was "a miracle that this Alfonso Gomez-Rejon-directed movie made its way to the big screen and wasn't jettisoned to streaming, or unseen forever".


title: The Current War

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the version of the film screened at Toronto International Film Festival has an approval rating of 32% based on 56 reviews, with an average rating of 4.80/10. The website's critical consensus reads, ""The Current War" is powered by an outstanding cast and an intriguing, history-inspired story, which makes this drama's low wattage all the more shocking." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 42 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews"