Why Netflix Struggles To Make Good Movies: A Data Explainer (statsignificant.com) 77
Netflix's film division faces a fundamental mismatch between its subscription model and filmmakers' artistic ambitions, according to new data analysis examining a decade of original productions. The streamer's movies cost two to three times more than A24 films but consistently score lower across review aggregators. Netflix attracts established actors like Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz but struggles to retain acclaimed directors.
The typical Netflix director has less critical acclaim and shorter filmographies than theatrical counterparts despite handling larger budgets. Directors recently turned down Netflix's $150 million for Wuthering Heights and $50 million for Weapons, accepting lower offers from Warner Bros. that guaranteed theatrical releases. The Electric State cost Netflix $320 million in February 2025 and received a 30 Metacritic score and 14% on Rotten Tomatoes. Netflix's business model requires filling hours to justify $9.99 monthly subscriptions. Directors seek theatrical releases where audiences watch films in one sitting without checking phones.
The typical Netflix director has less critical acclaim and shorter filmographies than theatrical counterparts despite handling larger budgets. Directors recently turned down Netflix's $150 million for Wuthering Heights and $50 million for Weapons, accepting lower offers from Warner Bros. that guaranteed theatrical releases. The Electric State cost Netflix $320 million in February 2025 and received a 30 Metacritic score and 14% on Rotten Tomatoes. Netflix's business model requires filling hours to justify $9.99 monthly subscriptions. Directors seek theatrical releases where audiences watch films in one sitting without checking phones.
Different Goals (Score:5, Interesting)
Filmmakers want to make movies that will win awards and get them acclaim. Netflix just wants to fill the content library and find just enough hits to get people to renew their subscriptions. For Netflix, a contract with Adam Sandler to make a bunch of mediocre movies makes more sense than trying to win an Oscar. For filmmakers, it could be a career limiting move to be associated with a direct to streaming content mill.
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What you said makes perfect sense and is clearly true.
It is ALSO true that Netflix has been putting too much political content into their original productions, and it is alienating audiences. Specifically, political content that demonizes men and boys and fans irrational flames about the dangers of socially interacting with them, and content that pushes female superiority in various forms, as well as content that loudly and prominently over-emphasizes gay or trans presence in stories that are not targeted
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Actually, I just looked over a list of their recent movies, and it doesn't look like there are more than one or two that fit the mold you describe. Most look to be Indian action movies.
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Oh for fuck's sake, found the snowflake MAGAtard.
"Go woke, go broke!" Like when Barbie, which clearly demonized the male patriarchy (which is actually a thing) made $1.5B worldwide? That kind of broke?
Movies and shows do *worse* when they are less diverse.
https://newsroom.ucla.edu/rele... [ucla.edu]
Netflix's woes have nothing to do with diversity, racial, gender or otherwise. Their shows are often not engaging, scattered, and just don't have the same kick that theater releases do, which is the whole point.
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For sure. Only an incel would propose that we stop using hateful language, stop painting an entire gender with a single brush, reach out and try to find a common understanding, and heaven forbid do a little self-examination.
That troll mod is exactly what this kind of radical thinking deserves.
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Well, our language is littered with it - ATM Machine, PIN Number, LCD Display, UPC Code, DMZ Zone, Free gift, new innovation, etc...
Personally, I don't think "the patriarchy" actually exists, at least not in the form attributed to it. While Marx was very off base in a lot of things, I think that what people mistake for patriarchy is actually class dominance. Most men don't have the advantages they would actually have if there was actually a patriarchy enforcing male rule.
What a lot of people tend to miss
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Don't worry, we'll always have Tarzan. Not even Disney would dare cast a black person to act as a monkey.
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Specifically, political content that demonizes men and boys. . .
Damn you're a pussy. How come all the dudes who pine for "masculine" content are such whiny little bitches?
There are all sorts of action movies with white people on Netflix for you to jack off to. If you're watching the type of juvenile ass movies where casting takes things like race into account to get the perfect racial bingo scorecard, you only have yourself to blame for watching stories created for idiots.
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You could say this model is part-way between a hollywood movie and
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Found the Kenny Bania fan. (What, you said you liked sitcoms! :)
I tend to find them 50/50, and certainly don't go by the critics scores either. Murder Mystery was a good time, and as with most sequels the sequel sucked. Haven't seen Happy Gilmore 2 yet but I probably will eventually just because of the original.
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I wasn't trying to rag on Adam Sandler. His early movies are classics, even if they aren't exaclty high art. His stand-up is amazing. But a lot of his Netflix stuff (including titles like Happy Gilmore 2) is just content churning.
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On that note, I don't understand why they're not doing all the DtV stuff that filled up bargain DVD bins in the 00s and made pretty decent money. Netflix should be able to turn out washed out action star films and cheap romcoms like crazy, but, instead, the action movies seem to end up on Tubi/Pluto while the romcoms end up on Hallmark, and stuff like Acorn gets all the breezy murder my
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Netflix seems like the perfect place for the next concept trash to come from. Like Sharknado, or the sci-fi channel (before it became SyFy) promoting a new giant croc, giant shark, giant octopus or crossover film every other month. People love to watch low-effort bizarro horror/sci-fi, and it's so easy to churn that out. As much as they like making money, you'd think they'd jump on that grenade.
Re: Different Goals (Score:2)
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Hmm, you're not wrong. But I think it goes a little deeper.
Netflix just wants content, but doesn't seem to care if the content is good, which is bad for Netflix's longivity. If it just wanted content, it could pay vtubers $15,000 a month, each, to just produce the equivalent of a video podcast. That's a huge savings compared to spending millions of dollars on one 90 minute film.
But who would watch them. The most popular vtubers only have around 5000-10000 CCV. It might be more lucrative than streaming on tw
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I think the key for Netflix is that it still needs to have studio production values. If they just paid youtubers, it would basically become youtube, which is a different business model.
never caring made us never quit (Score:2)
I'm guessing the same reason Hollywood does (Score:3)
Never ask a man his salary, a woman her age or a independent film director of why his parents names are blue on Wikipedia.
It's the consumers... (Score:1)
Remember, it doesn't matter what artists want to make, it matters what consumers wish to consume. Money people, money.
I have no desire to return to the theater to watch a film - I've got a cozy den with a large screen, controlled atmosphere, access to any comfort foods I wish, I can pause to attend needs without concern - why the heck would I want to risk $20+ per person going to a theater and getting a lemon of a movie, or intereference from randoms???
And yes, IMAX and The Sphere are gimmicks like 3D/VR, t
Quantity over quality (Score:2)
The film industry is dead (Score:4, Insightful)
To be fair in 99% of everything is crap (Score:1)
How many people here remember Askani's Ring or Roland's curse? And those are just mediocre games. Does anybody remember thundercade? Ka Ge Ki? Bimini Run? Mohawk and headphone jack?
I recently went through a bunch of Siskel and Ebert reviews on YouTube and it's amazing how much drek there was. And the DVD boom brought so much more
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Some of it is also just part of aging. South Park nailed it in the appropriately-titled "You're Getting Old" episode. Kids are watching garbage like Skibidi Toilet and love it.
Funny thing is, if you asked about modern music rather than Hollywood's output, generally it's no longer "too woke" and just bad in some unquantifiable way. At least with music though, you're more likely to get someone to actually admit they're just too old and out-of-touch with what's popular today - usually because it's clear tha
Modern music is better than the shit of my day (Score:2)
Funny thing is, if you asked about modern music rather than Hollywood's output, generally it's no longer "too woke" and just bad in some unquantifiable way. At least with music though, you're more likely to get someone to actually admit they're just too old and out-of-touch with what's popular today - usually because it's clear that some born-in-the-2000s kid is making the music and the generation gap is harder to ignore.
For all the music I listen to, the kids do it way better than the hits in my day. I credit this to the information age...Someone born in the 90s can listen to whatever the fuck they want to listen to whenever they want to...learn from the great. Someone born in the 70s?...they only knew what they were exposed to.
Seriously, every music genre I follow...there are new bands waaay better than the shit I listened to in high school. For example, many of the bands listened to Nine Inch Nails and said...oooh,
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You need to be more selective in what you watch. Dune, Oppenheimer were all excellent.
It feels like you tried valiantly to list a lot of good movies but couldn't.
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99% of all movies released in the last decade haven't been worth the time it takes to watch them. They have become so poor, that I have just stopped watching new movies. I still enjoy watching older movies because [...]
You got OLD. Your tastes are stuck in the past. Clothes, Music, Movies, Language, Humor. You are old.
Back office (Score:4, Insightful)
The lack of depth of bench among directors is likely only one symptom of backstage issues. It's all fine and dandy to hire major actors, but the entire production is dependent upon so many people, from the director down to the "grips" and the other production staff that handle all of the responsibilities but only see a line in a list for credit for their work.
Focusing on hiring stars doesn't account for the experience needed in pre-production, for filming the production, and in post-production. If the studio doesn't work properly off-screen then star-power is only going to carry the production so far.
same (Score:2)
"Directors seek theatrical releases where audiences watch films in one sitting without checking phones."
Me too.
"exclusive content" (Score:1)
Zig instead of Zag (Score:1)
"Epic" movies are just not their forte so they should probably stop trying. People watch Netflix to veg-out at the end of a long workday, which is not the same mindset as going to a theatre blockbuster. They can still offer epic movies, but by licensing them after their theatrical run mellows out (to get them on discount).
Maybe try more indie produced movies since they are relatively inexpensive, and if something catches on, then re-release it with big-budget effects.
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That's a good point. Netflix is ideal as a home for indie movies. Keep the budget down, so that you can experiment without blowing too much money. It's where they try to make tentpoles happen that they fail spectacularly.
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You're a retard. (I can say this because you antiWokes said it's okay). Also your mom.
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They want to trans your kids.
I know that what I'm about to say is a bit overused by a lot of people, but this is, quite possibly, the dumbest thing that I've ever read. Both in concept/idea and in execution. Everything you said is obviously stupid, but this... this is just so idiotic that I'm struggling to move past it.
Simple (Score:2)
Like McDonald's makes mediocre food, yet about 70 million people visit a McDonald's location every day.
People who appreciate good films don't watch Netflix. But they pay the same as those who do, and they are a minority. So why should Netflix bother and change anything?
political fanaticism (Score:3)
Way too much political fanaticism that makes no sense to anyone.
combined with brains fried on social media usage, you get an audience of drones that cannot enjoy any high quality dialogues.
Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz? (Score:3)
Well there's your problem.
Electric State cost WHAT? (Score:3)
Seriously, the Electric State cost $320M? What did they do, use all practical effects? Build all the robots?
Stålenhag's novel was absolutely brilliant. The movie was terrible. It could be a textbook case in how to create a dumbed-down, overly-literal, rather feeble film that absolutely misses the point of the source material.
They Cloned Tyrone is.. (Score:3)
Critics think the audience is the problem (Score:2)
Look at the Rotten Tomatoes assessments of “Electric State”, which is one of the supposedly problematic Netflix movies cited:
14% Critics
68% Audience
We have unfortunately lost helpful movie critics like Roger Ebert who was expertly able to bifurcate elite “message” oriented movies from audience appeal or common shared human values, and often did.
Thus Roger could, and did, see, say, The Blues Brothers as a winner, whereas it’s certain many of today’s critics would have pann
Don't mix politics with entertainment (Score:3, Interesting)
A solid example: Star Trek Discovery. They went completely out of their way to put two things into the series: DEI and LGBT. Every single person of authority in this series is a woman, some black. Then they put in multiple non-binary persons in, some with relationship, some not. These didn't bother at all. In fact I watched the whole thing simply because I love Star Trek. But there are a lot of the audience disagree to a point that they'll stop watching after a few episodes.
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You realize Star Trek deftly integrated multiple cultures and personalities while elevating western enlightenment values? It didn’t make value judgements, or set quotas, based on identity or sexuality. It didn’t put any particular race or gender on a pedestal. It didn’t claim blind justice, individual agency, and free speech were “racist colonialism”.
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True integration that values the sanctity of individual lives, free speech, blind justice, personal agency, personal accountability, and judgement by merit, productivity, kindness, or actual need?
That really bothers many modern progressives - especially the soft science Ivy Leaguers, who call these values “far right”. They far prefer solely judging by identity. To that end, eliminating individual rights is their openly stated path to power, including censoring advocates of free speech like Charl
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TOS had one black character, which provided some great storylines - some "woke", some not.
Had it made half the characters black as part of some diversity mandate, it too would have flopped.
(And actually, it didn't do too well during its original run anyway, which is why it was cancelled, which somewhat invalidates your point.)
Re:Don't mix politics with entertainment (Score:4, Insightful)
Man, you must've really had a difficult time getting through DS9, then.
Sure, the difference back then was that some of it was placed behind thinly veiled metaphors. Jadzia Dax's bisexuality was the result of being a joined Trill, for example. But most of the politics was very in-your-face, especially the two-parter Past Tense episodes, which were set right on Earth.
I've said it before - if editing out all the "wokeness" doesn't make a bad movie/TV show good, then the problem never was the "wokeness" in the first place. Ironically, Disney went and actually proved my point by doing exactly that to Elio before it was released. The character was originally intended to be queer-coded, and there were some other elements in the film they felt might not resonate well with conservative audiences, so the scenes ended up on the cutting room floor. It still flopped.
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I've said it before - if editing out all the "wokeness" doesn't make a bad movie/TV show good, then the problem never was the "wokeness" in the first place.
True, but I think your phrasing misses the point: Some studios / producers seem to subscribe to the opinion that adding the 'woke' content will improve a show's appeal/value--move it from a C grade to a B+... The OP's example of this is Star Trek Discovery.
If we take the mirror image of your expression, we can say that a show/movie that isn't built on a solid story/concept to begin with will never be able to handle the additional weight of diversity-focused casting or studio mandates to add controversial th
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No, the problem is what I call an "upside down" characterization, upside down script writing.
Jadzia was a character who happened to be bisexual (then), not a bisexual who happened to be a character (now). The first leads you to a wholly defined character with a backstory (Jadzia). The latter leads you to a token character who doesn't really make sense (Adira).
In DS9 the characters drove the plot, in Discovery the plot drove the characters.
Yes, both shows had these elements, but the way it's written i
So you dislike DEI/LGBTQ...link to Netflix? (Score:3)
Not just Netflix but others too have been injecting political ideologies into their contents. I have absolutely no issues with their political views, but I don't think trying to express those views in the movies/shows would be a beneficial thing because there's always people who disagree. Those who don't agree won't watch, and as they talk to their friends/families, those don't watch either. A solid example: Star Trek Discovery. They went completely out of their way to put two things into the series: DEI and LGBT. Every single person of authority in this series is a woman, some black. Then they put in multiple non-binary persons in, some with relationship, some not. These didn't bother at all. In fact I watched the whole thing simply because I love Star Trek. But there are a lot of the audience disagree to a point that they'll stop watching after a few episodes.
Netflix made their name platforming Dave Chappelle, Matt Rife, Andrew Schultz, Joe Rogan, and just about every other "anti-woke" comics. If they have a political position, I've never noticed any consistency. And frankly, the heterodoxy/anti-woke/manosphere comics are all shitty, lame, lazy hacks...instead of writing actual funny jokes at the expensive of liberal overreach, they rely on lame, lazy, low-effort straw men. I can get past Andrew Schultz politics...if his jokes weren't lazy, lame, dull, and lo
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You need to get out more (Score:2)
I remember when the last battlefield game came out from electronic arts and there was this big brouhaha because it was woke or some shit. A whole bunch of people complained but didn't bother to make their steam playlists private so you could look on launch day and find every single one of them playing it.
If you make something cool or something a lot of people like then the right wing, and it's always th
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In the eye of the beholder (Score:2)
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Sort of. But VOD is just a slice of the potential market. Not going to theaters, DVD/BluRay, broadcast TV reruns, etc. just misses other slices of it.
Netflix puts streaming content out there. It gets an audience but then disappears from their catalog in a few years. It's almost like they are hoping to drive their viewers to the new content by throttling access to old stuff that might detract from the available eyeball-hours. Fine. If they think that's a good business plan, let them go with it. But it appea
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Sort of. But VOD is just a slice of the potential market. Not going to theaters, DVD/BluRay, broadcast TV reruns, etc. just misses other slices of it.
That is an excellent point. I'm sure I'm in the minority, but I do buy DVD/BR of movies I like and would like to watch again and they're missing that. I know that Netflix is all about streaming, but for those of us who don't stream, they are missing a slice of the pie. Also, TV play seems like a great place to send their movies and make some more cash. I don't understand them leaving money on the table, as the saying goes.
Perfect match for AI (Score:2)
Churning out garbage to pad out the library is what Netflix has always done, and AI is going to really ramp up their ability to do this.
Long-term, we'll cancel our subscriptions when the service is no longer a good value.
\o/ (Score:1)
As a viewer, I'm more concerned with communicating to Netflix that I'm not interested in shows which are still in progress. I want to watch the whole show rather than watch a bit then wait years for more.
Something tells me that this approach leads to cancellations as the wrong conclusion is drawn about a show's popularity.
Netflix should mine the shelved content (Score:2)