Netflix’s original movies have no cultural relevance

Netflix has, undoubtedly, disrupted and conquered the world of TV.

In a decade, the streaming behemoth has become a byword for how people watch shows but it has never quite figured out the movie side.

It may have inspired plenty of sleepless nights among the executive ranks of the traditional Hollywood studios and cinema owners who have seen a rapid shrinking in theatre-going as more and more audiences are convinced to stay home.

But Netflix’s film output has been wildly inconsistent.

There are the more prestigious or arthouse films it either commissions or buys at festivals in its continued hunt for an Oscar best picture, which still eludes it. It’ll throw money at auteurs such as Martin Scorsese, Jane Campion, Noah Baumbach, Alfonso Cuaron and David Fincher, but it won’t support those releases with a robust cinema run.

It also makes broad appeal “blockbuster” action flicks such as Extraction, Heart of Stone and Red Notice, forgettable Christmas romances, occasionally funny comedies and young adult swooners.

It has a long-running deal with Adam Sandler, who has churned almost 10 movies in as many years, all of which have clicked well but has had no where near the cultural impact or endurance of his earlier movies.

Everyone who disdains Sandler movies such as Jack & Jill and You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, can at least name them. Could those who’ve seen the likes of The Do-Over or Hubie Halloween (which are, we swear, some of his Netflix movies) do the same?

Three things happened this past week in the realm of Netflix movies that once again prompted the question, “What is it actually trying to do?”.

The first is the release of The Electric State, a sci-fi extravaganza that cost $US320 million to make. Despite the enormous budget, it is, at best, a middling movie that will be largely forgotten in the annals of pop culture except for its bewildering budget.

Why spend all that cash on something that has no more intrinsic value to the Netflix algorithm than something that cost a 10th of that? Even The Electric State’s co-director Joe Russo seemed equally perplexed.

He told The Hollywood Reporter, “(Netflix) ascribes the same algorithmic attention to something they spend a lot of money on as something they spend very little money on. By that model, you should probably just make everything for a medium number, right?”

In the same interview, his brother Anthony said The Electric State was a “big test case” but added, perhaps shadily, that there is a struggle to “eventise” a streaming movie because “they don’t create any sense of special place in terms of how they’re presenting to the audience for a movie to say it is an event – and they don’t go out into the wider marketplace to declare that an event”.

The second is the release of the first trailer for Happy Gilmore 2, a 29-years-later sequel to one of Sandler’s most beloved classics. This is a movie that people would pay to see at a cinema.

Instead, it’s going straight to Netflix where it will likely create a lot of buzz those first one or two weeks after its debut, and then fall out of the zeitgeist as quickly as it entered it.

Third, Netflix’s co-chief executive and former content head, Ted Sarandos, gave an interview to Variety in which he parsed a number a subjects, including its film slate.

He said Sandler now gets “mobbed” everywhere in the world after the release of his movie The Ridiculous 6 (another, we swear, actual Sandler film) on Netflix whereas before Sandler could move around in relative peace in Europe.

People may have seen those Netflix movies but no one ever talks about them. It may have spread the cult of Sandler further afield but it’s not the individual work that’s made an impression, it’s Sandler.

Sarandos also said Steven Spielberg, whose company Amblin was a producer of serviceable Die-Hard-esque action thriller Carry-On, told him, “Having Carry-On felt like when I have a big hit in the theatre. I heard the way everyone talked about it, and that’s exactly what a hit movie feels like!”.

Carry-On did big numbers over the Christmas break and people were definitely talking about it, but not a syllable since. A cinema release will have second and third windows when it hits digital rental and then eventually streaming. These are additional touchpoints and when they come back up in conversation, it stretches out that cultural memory.

Netflix movies are rarely ever talked about again after those first two weeks. Unless it’s in the context of, for example, mentioning Red Notice and The Gray Man as previous expensive, mediocre and forgettable streaming-only releases like The Electric State.

The most contentious point in the Netflix vs cinemas war is the upcoming Chronicles of Narnia from Greta Gerwig. For months, the industry has been following the behind-the-scenes tussles as Gerwig eventually got Sarandos to agree to an exclusive IMAX run for a month before it hits Netflix.

It’s a significant concession from Sarandos, who has been hostile to any deviation from his dogmatic streaming-only philosophy. Its former head of film, Scott Stuber, was, according to Puck’s Matt Belloni, “openly warring” with Sarandos last year about cinema releases before Stuber quit to form his own production company.

In his Variety interview, Sarandos now says “we’re happy to do it” with Narnia because “IMAX is hugely differentiated from at-home viewing” but all insider reports have suggested he had to be dragged to the table.

Sarandos said in the same sentence that “when I go to the theatre, it’s getting closer and closer to at-home (watching)”.

The cinema experience is not remotely comparable with home entertainment, even if you have a 75-inch 4K TV and surround sound. Those physical environments – one which is immersive and with a collective and the other is full of distractions including phones – couldn’t be more different unless you’re a multi-millionaire with a dedicated home theatre.

Even if you set that aside, it is still the case that streaming-only movies do not create pop cultural moments, they don’t endure. They’re dropped on the service and soon disappeared into the ether, just like the flit out of a viewer’s memory.

An Ampere Analysis report released this week found that Netflix’s original films (versus licenced) have a faster “decay rate”, meaning the viewership declines quicker over time.

Despite spending billions of dollars, it has not launched even one successful movie franchise.

So, why not release them in cinemas, make some money at the box office, create excitement, the goodwill of a marketing campaign and buzz, and then get a boost from the second window?

Maybe then, Netflix movies would actually be culturally relevant.