Los Angeles Public Library patrons are A24 superfans. Kanopy has the receipts.
The streaming service, available for free to patrons with a library card at participating libraries, revealed the most watched movies and TV shows by Los Angeles library patrons in 2024 so far exclusively for The Times, and every feature film on the list was distributed by the independent powerhouse. , led by Celine Song’s 2023 film “Past Lives” at No. 1 overall. Among TV series, the first season of 2002's “The Forsyte Saga,” starring Damian Lewis and Gina McKee, led the way at No. 3 (see full list below).
During a recent phone interview, Kanopy general manager Jason Tyrrell said the list is a snapshot of what users want from the site.
“You're definitely seeing moviegoers and the film community tend to use Kanopy as a resource,” Tyrrell said. “Especially in Los Angeles we find filmmakers, directors of photography, screenwriters and editors; in fact, they use Kanopy as a research tool. Because we are one of those platforms where you can go deeper into a filmmaker, an artist or an actor that you love.”
While many other streaming services have placed an emphasis on original content, Kanopy, which has seen subscriptions to the service by Los Angeles library users increase by 23% over last year, remains committed to building from your catalogue.
“Our tagline is 'Movies That Matter' and we take that very seriously,” Tyrrell said. “We look for content from any period in film history within any genre that is meaningful to the audience. What I'm looking for is something that is a high-quality representation of what it's supposed to be.”
The Kanopy collection now has more than 30,000 titles. The service reaches more than 158 million U.S. library cardholders at 4,000 libraries and more than 1,800 U.S. colleges and universities serving 15 million students.
“We're also proud of the stability of that collection,” Tyrrell said. “Historically there was this promise of streaming, this idea that you could have the breadth of film history at your fingertips whenever you wanted. And I think practically for consumers it hasn't been that way, but at Kanopy we see our role in some ways as an archive and highlighting titles that simply don't have a place in other areas of distribution. They may exist on other streaming services, but they are not featured, recommended, or marketed there. So filmmakers and distributors will find a second, third, or fourth life for a title on Kanopy because our backers don't care about releases. “They are really driven by discovery.”
Joaquin Phoenix in “Beau is Afraid” by Ari Aster.
(A24)
Here are the 10 most popular titles on Kanopy among Los Angeles Public Library patrons so far in 2024.
1. “Past lives”
2. “The groom is afraid”
3. “The Forsyte Saga”: season 1
4. “The whale”
5. “You hurt my feelings”
6. “Appear”
7. “The Prisoner”
8. “Rome: rise and fall of an empire”
9. “Father Brown”: Season 1
10. “Death in Paradise”: season 1
Although the top 10 leans heavily toward films released by A24, Tyrrell is quick to point out that the site also has popular titles from distributors such as Neon, Bleecker Street, Magnolia Pictures, IFC Films and others.
And as for television titles, which include the classic 1967 series “The Prisoner” and the long-running detective comedy-drama “Death in Paradise,” Tyrrell said, “it's important that we don't focus too exclusively on art films. We really want, like the library, to be a resource for everyone. And everyone likes crime television. You put any show where a murder is solved on Kanopy and we have people watching it.”
Tyrrell added: “And then we have the History Channel series about Rome, which I feel like has to be a meme, right? Like people see how much their boyfriends know about the Roman Empire and want to brush up on its history or something.”
Michelle Williams in the movie “Showing Up.”
(Allyson Riggs/A24)
For Tyrrell, Kanopy's primary partner is what sets it apart from other streaming platforms.
“Obviously, this is all possible because of our partnership with the libraries,” Tyrrell said. “We love working closely with them and following their goals to expand access. We want library cards to reach more people. There is a wealth of free and freely available digital resources in everyone's library which is simply amazing. In this kind of time where it seems like all the streaming services are bundling together or raising prices, there's this great bundle of library services that I wish more people knew about.
“In some respects, Kanopy is actually one of the marketing arms of your library system,” Tyrrell said. “So hopefully as we move forward and organically more and more people hear about the platform, that will mean more library cards in more hands. And that is important for the sustainability of that fundamental part of our community.”
