Bad news for hardcore movie fans, TV bingers, and those of us planning on starting out 2014 hungover on the couch with our Netflix queue. Some 85 movie titles will vanish from the online video site’s instant streaming library at midnight tonight, including some excellent films whose absence are bound to totally bum subscribers out.

The list of titles getting the boot first surfaced on Reddit and was later confirmed by cursory searches on the Netflix website, which posts a warning a week in advance when a title’s about to expire. Fans are already bemoaning the loss of movies like Platoon, Braveheart, The Secret of NIMH, Requiem for a Dream, Top Gun, True Grit, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Capote, and Jarhead. (Full list below.)

The question is, why is Netflix, infamous for its seemingly endless depository of crappy content, let such beloved films expire? Because licensing deals with studios expire, and the entertainment industry is jacking up content prices higher every year.

Thanks to ongoing, complicated negotiations with studios and cable companies that would be more than happy to see online streaming companies go out of business, the video selection on Netflix Instant is a constant ebb and flow. Tonight’s content purge isn’t the first to deprive viewers. In what was dramatically termed “streamageddon” this May, the site lost some 1,000 titles overnight thanks to expiring license contracts with MGM, Warner Bros, and Universal. And a staggering 8 percent of its content disappeared last year when Netflix ended its partnership with Starz.

Granted, the involved parties can always decide to renew those contracts, so the vanished titles aren’t necessarily gone forever. I don’t know what happens behind closed doors in Hollywood, but ostensibly part of what determines whether or not it’s worth ponying up for certain content is popular it is with viewers—something Netflix tracks in meticulous detail. So if you’re hot pissed that Titanic is no longer available for instant streaming, it’s kind of your own fault.

Actually, deprived fans looking for somewhere to direct their wrath should finger the blame at the diversifying streaming video marketplace. When Netflix was the only game in town it had leverage to negotiate license prices, but now Google, Amazon, and Hulu are getting in the game, competition is driving up prices. That new hot series will go to the highest bidder, and Google and Amazon have awfully deep wallets to play with.

Content prices are skyrocketing—up 700 percent over the past two years. According to a company earnings report, Netflix spends about $2 billion a year on licensing deals with rights owners. Its bread and butter, unsurprisingly, is full seasons of current hit TV series for binge-viewing, and it pays up for that: Some popular shows charge as much as $750,000 per episode, Vulture reported.

As such, a good chunk of the movies available online are there just because they were, well, available. Or cheap. Earlier this year I wrote about the shadowy world of B-movie “filler” flicks. Low-budget studios grind out content pre-ordered by Netflix based on its big data analytics. If the company can’t get the rights to Transformers, it’ll serve up a rip-off “mockbuster” like Transmorphers instead. If it learns viewers are hot for sharks and tornadoes this year, boom, Sharknado gets made.

Climbing content prices also explains the recent push for original programming from Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and YouTube. After all, it’s not like Netflix doesn’t have the money to shell out for quality content over quantity; the company’s financial success just earned its CEO a 50 percent salary raise, to $6 million a year. But that’s not where it wants to spend it. Like most online media companies, it’s looking to the future, trying to lock down a more sustainable business model—even if that means pissing off some viewers along the way.

Here’s the list of titles expiring January 1, per Reddit:

The Rundown
Brick
Being John Malkovich
Back To School
Battle Of Britain
Born On the Fourth Of July
Braveheart
Body Of Evidence
Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo
Man On The Moon
Lionheart
1492 Conquest Of Paradise
Killer Klowns From Outer Space
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
FX
Do The Right Thing
Desperado
Up In Smoke
Can’t Hardly Wait
Capote
Biloxi Blues
Seed Of Chucky
Jarhead
As Good As It Gets
In The Name Of The Father
Inside Deep Throat (documentary)
I’m Gonna Get You Sucka
In Like Flint
Hard Target
Foxy Brown
Frankenstein And The Monster From Hell
Gallipoli
Half Baked
Flashdance
50 First Dates
For The Love Of The Game
The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas
The Bad News Bears
The Russia House
The Secret Of NIMH
Revenge OF The Ninja
Roman Holiday
Rob Roy
Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back
Remo Williams
Requiem For A Dream
Quigley Down Under
Pumpkinhead
Platoon
Once Upon A Time In Mexico
October Sky
Mystery Men
The Skulls
Titanic
Ronin
Romeo And Juliet (1968)
Tales From The Crypt: Bordello Of Blood
Tales From The Crypt: Demon Knight
The Woman In Red
Top Gun
Street Fighter
TNT Jackson
Serpico
Seed Of Chucky
Scary Movie
Running Scared
Troll II
True Grit (1969)
War And Peace
Talk Radio
War Games
We Were Soldiers
What Dreams May Come
Windtalkers
World Trade Center
The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes
The Odd Couple (1968)
The Mask Of Zorro
The Great Train Robbery
The Faculty
The Dream Team
Best Of Times
Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot
Species