A DREAM OF SCREENS
Enjoy streaming from Netflix while it lasts — the site can’t keep going like this forever
As Richard Rushfield has noted in his newsletter on Hollywood business, The Ankler, Netflix is in a tricky position.
The vast majority of Netflix’s viewers (upward of 80 per cent, according to him) watch licensed content (Friends and the like) and in order to create a library of programming audiences will pay for, the company has gone massively in debt: “Netflix is currently in the hole for about $20 billion in debt and obligations and still operating at a loss.” (All figures in U.S. dollars.)
It’s all well and good for a Silicon Valley unicorn, one of those rare tech beasts whose valuations do not match profit-loss statements because there’s no real competition yet and everyone believes first-mover status is an insurmountable advantage. But with the rapid rise of vicious streaming competition — the ascendancy of Hulu and niche programmers such as Criterion; the creation of streaming services by Disney, Warner Bros. and Apple, to name a (very) few — Netflix’s advantage seems to be fading.
One can already sense a sort of nostalgia for the golden age of bingeing while reading The Hollywood Reporter’s roundtable with seven studio heads. “Doesn’t it bum you out that you can’t make The Irishman?” asked THR’s Matthew Belloni.
And while one might expect studio heads to go the diplomatic route and say no, you believe the execs when they do say no.
“You know, it actually doesn’t. It would bum me out if no one made the movie,” Universal’s Donna Langley said.
“It’s never been a better time for filmmakers and storytelling and for things to find their way into the world that were getting squeezed over the last five or six years or even longer.”
Who can blame Langley for being glad Netflix is taking one for the collective team here? After all, the idea of spending $160 million producing, and then another $50 million to $100 million marketing, an R-rated Martin Scorsese movie is daunting. Even if it’s a huge awards season hit — and early notices suggest it might be Netflix’s breakthrough best picture winner — you’re looking at a movie that would need to gross half-a-billion dollars worldwide to break even. And as great as Scorsese is, the closest he’s come to that is The Wolf of Wall Street, which didn’t crack $400 million.
As a movie lover, I’m glad someone is willing to shell out an enormous amount of money in a largely unaccountable way to give one of our greatest living filmmakers the opportunity to realize a very specific and personal vision.
But there’s no way this sort of thing is sustainable.
Enjoy it while it lasts.
The Washington Post
It’s never been a better time for filmmakers and storytelling and for things to find their way into the world ...