This year is the first Netflix speaks Thai and Thailand led the binge racing trend in APAC, especially with Stranger Things new season 2. A member in Thailand watched Sex and the City: The Movie 162 times in 2017.

This year streaming on TV devices has grown with 41 per cent of Netflix viewing hours through connected TVs in Thailand. Within six months of subscription, 50 per cent of accounts’ primary viewing device has become connected TVs. Apart from this, with the HDR quality available on mobiles, more and more Thais then watch Netflix in public and ranked among the top downloaders in the world, the company said.

Netflix compiled two top lists of its Thai watchers based on the length of viewing per day, The Shows Thais Devoured in 2017 and The Shows Thais Savoured in 2017 as following:

The Shows Thais Devoured in 2017

Members in Thailand devoured (watching more than two hours per day) action crime series like El Chapo, Marvel’s Iron Fist, Marvel’s The Defenders and Ingobernable

1. My Only Love Song

2. Marvel’s Iron Fist

3. The Mist

4. El Chapo

5. Riverdale

6. Shooter

7. Ingobernable

8. Greenleaf

9. American Vandal

10. Marvel’s The Defender

Globally, the show members devoured the most in 2017 is American Vandal.

The Shows Thais Savored in 2017

Thais found solace in savoring comedy shows (watching less than two hours per day). Members in Thailand savored comedies like GLOW, Neo Yokio, Big Mouth, Friends from College and Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later.

1. Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories

2. Samurai Gourmet

3. Big Mouth

4. Neo Yokio

5. Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later

6. The Crown

7. One Day at a Time

8. A Series of Unfortunate Events

9. GLOW

10. Friends from College

Netflix said that members around the world love historical shows with realistic moods like The Crown. “The global data also reveals that the show that got cheated the most in the world and we all love to watch ahead of our streaming partner is Narcos and the show that was so good it brought us all together is Stranger Things,” Netflix said.

Disney agreed Thursday to buy key film and television assets from Fox in a $52.4 billion deal set to step up its challenge to Netflix and emerging rivals in the streaming wars.

“It’s certainly a historic merger but this is not the first time two studios have come together — 20th Century Fox is itself the result of a merger,” filmmaker Jean-Luc de Fanti, who co-produced “Good Time” and “American Made” this year, told AFP.

Disney will take over billionaire Rupert Murdoch’s prestigious movie distribution businesses, which racked up 27 Golden Globes nominations on Monday, comfortably more than its big six rivals combined.

One important question for film buffs is whether Disney, which offloaded indie subsidiary Miramax in 2010, has the stomach to keep much-admired arthouse label Fox Searchlight going after the acquisition.

The distributor has turned heads this awards season with a production line of critical darlings like “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” “The Shape of Water” and “Battle of the Sexes.”

But it doesn’t have the box office clout of its blockbuster stable mate 20th Century Fox, which made $826 million in 2017 from three movies alone — “Logan,” “The Boss Baby” and “War for the Planet of the Apes.”

On the small screen, the deal would offer Disney the chance to double its stake in streaming service Hulu to a controlling 60 percent, allowing it to fold the up-and-coming platform into its own streaming services being launched in 2019.

‘Avengers vs X-Men’?

It could also add content from Fox’s FX — which produced hit series “The Americans” — and National Geographic cable channels, and movies such as “The Revenant” and the “Avatar” franchise, to give it a running start in its bid to challenge Netflix.

In the only aspect of the deal the fanboys will really care about, the marriage provides the opportunity for a meeting of minds between the costumed superheroes of Disney-owned Marvel and the mutants of Fox’s comic book division.

That could pave the way for a new “Avengers vs X-Men”-style franchise featuring Thor battling Deadpool for galactic supremacy, or perhaps Captain America bickering with the Fantastic Four.

Meanwhile “Star Wars” fans should be able to buy a box set of all nine movies for the first time, since the rights for the original films and prequel trilogy — made before Disney’s $4 billion acquisition of Lucasfilm in 2012 — have always belonged to Fox.

The deal adds the 50 acres (20 hectares) of production and pre-production facilities at the Fox studios in west Los Angeles to Disney’s own expansive lot in Burbank, although the company is planning to lease the studio back to Fox for the coming years, according to Variety magazine.

Redundancies are expected, although Variety reported that 21st Century Fox president Peter Rice reassured employees at a meeting Thursday that staff laid off would get “big severance packages.”

‘Meaningful negative’

Regulatory approval may not come until as late as 2019 — a relief to some analysts who see the proposals as an alarm bell over the health of the film industry.

“Even Fox, with all its resources… is looking at the increasingly expensive future of moviemaking and considering taking itself out of the picture,” said David Sims of The Atlantic in a commentary before the deal was signed.

If Fox can’t hack it anymore, Sims argues, it is difficult to see how Universal, Sony and Paramount are going to manage, given that they already rely heavily on other revenue streams such as television.

The Writers Guild of America West Writers Union said the antitrust concerns raised by the deal were “obvious and significant” while Jeremy Slater, creator of Fox’s “The Exorcist” on Fox, tweeted that the deal was “awful for several reasons.”

Richard Greenfield, a media and tech analyst for San Francisco-based financial services firm BTIG, told AFP the move may not be music to the ears of movie theater operators either.

Disney is already able to leverage its influence to drive tough revenue-sharing deals with theaters, as demonstrated most recently in its demand for a bigger-than-normal 65 percent of ticket sales for “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.”

Disney reported profits of $2.5 billion in 2016, when it distributed the top three movies — and five of the top ten — and adding Fox’s contribution will only give it more clout.

“We would expect Disney’s increased scale to be a meaningful negative to exhibition chains around the world,” said Greenfield.

Commemorating 120 years of Thai-Russian diplomatic relations, Russian Film Week from Tuesday (December 19) to December 24 promises such a variety of movies that everyone will find something to appeal.

Both countries’ culture ministries are sponsoring the event at SF World Cinema at Central World, along with production firm FestFilm, the Russian Embassy and Jamaican Eatz.

The last Russian Film Week held in Bangkok, in 2012, acquainted the Thai audience with Russian cinema. This year’s programme is much broader, designed in a way that everyone can find a movie that will appeal to his or her taste.

The grand opening on Tuesday includes a screening of “The Spacewalker”. Free tickets for all movies will be available up to 30 minutes before screen time.

There will be six screenings of new and popular Russian movies in genres ranging from science fiction and comedy to sport and historical. All movies will have English and Thai subtitles.

On the bill is “Attraction”, made just this year, in which an alien spaceship is forced into Earth’s atmosphere, is attacked by Russian fighter jets and crashlands in Moscow, killing several hundred people. A schoolgirl saves the life of one of the aliens and, together, they must deal with humans intent on harming them.

“The Spacewalker”, also shot this year, is set in the 1960s during the Cold War, when the USSR and US duelled in a space race. The Russians plan to send a man into space, but face many obstacles and dangers.

“Friday”, from 2016, explores the many surprises that a Friday night can bring. A millionaire becomes a waiter for one night, an office loser becomes the star of the party, and two friends have to look for an escaped kangaroo in a forest near Moscow.

“Sparta” (2016) places two teams of fighters in opposition in a rectangular arena for “a spectacular new kind of martial art”. For former MMA champion Nikolay, this is his chance for a comeback. He can fight for his friend’s honour and avenge his coach’s refusal to take him back on the team.

“The Dragon” (2015) sees Princess Miroslava kidnapped in the middle of her wedding by a dragon and carried off into its castle on the remote island. She has left everything behind – family, friends and groom – and now has only a stone cage and a mysterious young man named Arman. Who is he and what is he doing there? She’ll learn the bitter truth when she learns to love the dragon.

Nominated for a Golden Eagle Award, “The Icebreaker” (2016) is based on actual events in 1985, when the icebreaker vessel Mikhail Gromov was moving a huge iceberg. A collision leaves the ship drifting near the Antarctic coast with fuel running low. The crew has no margin for error – a wrong decision and the ship will be crushed in ice.

Discover more through the SF Call Centre at (02) 268 8888 or from http://www.SFCinemaCity.com or http://www.Facebook.com/Welovesf.

This is the third time Apichatpong has been honoured as a commander of France’s Order of the Arts and Letters.

The medal presentation kicks off Apichatpong Weekend, during which his movies will be screened along with his own favourite French film.

There will also be two compilations of short films rarely shown in Thailand, as selected by the director, and a discussion about “ghosts, cinema and society”.

The Alliance will stage an outdoor screening of Apichatpong’s “Sud Saneha” (“Tropical Malady”), which won him an award at the Cannes International Film Festival. He also won the top prize at Cannes in 2010 for “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives”.

Tickets for the Apichatpong Weekend are available at http://AFThailande.org/en/cinema-agenda.

The full schedule:

FRIDAY, 8pm (tomorrow, December 15) – Apichatpong will be present to show short films he selected, in Thai with English subtitles. They are “The Anthem” (2006), a trailer for “Cindi” (2011), “Empire” (2010), “Luminous People” (2007), “Monsoon” (2011), “Cactus River” (2012), “Footprints” (2014) and “Worldly Desires” (2005)

SATURDAY, 3pm – Discussion with Apichatpong on “The Figuration and Modality of the Ghostly Figures” in his movies, moderated by Srinakharinwirot University visiting lecturer Vimolnat Thongsaard.

SATURDAY, 6pm – More of Apichatpong’s selected short films: “The Anthem”, “La Punta” (2013), “Mobile Men” (2008), “Ablaze” (2016), “Vampire” (2008) and “Haunted Houses” (2001).

SUNDAY – “Echoes of French Cinema” features a screening at 4pm of “Bad Blood”, the director’s favourite French movie, and at 7pm his own “Tropical Malady”.

The second season of “Divorce” looks at the aftermath of Frances (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Robert’s (Thomas Haden Church) explosive separation, as they learn to rebuild their lives independently while staying entangled through their kids and mutual friends.

Focusing on careers, new relationships and finding ways to be happy again, they learn that pursuing the next chapter will be more complicated than they imagined.

In “Crashing”, created by Pete Holmes, the new season follows Pete (Holmes) as he starts to question his faith and find his voice after an enlightening conversation with an atheist that sends him into a night of debauchery.

The series draws on Holmes’ own experiences as a comedian, offering a behind-the-scenes look at the world of stand-up comedy.

Both series will also stream on HBO and HBO Go on AIS Play and AIS Playbox