On the whole, Netflix’s movies are not very good. Sure, it has released a number of films by prestige filmmakers over the years (flicks by Martin Scorsese, David Fincher, the Coen brothers and Richard Linklater all spring to mind) but, when it comes to the platform’s median viewing experience, those movies tend to be outliers. More often than not, the movies that the streaming juggernaut produces are low-budget, poorly written, barely entertaining pieces of crap that function better as ambient background noise for household chores than engrossing cinematic experiences you actually want to watch.
However, according to a new report from Bloomberg, the streaming platform has a new plan to turn all that around. The new strategy is this: make fewer movies so that the ones that do get made aren’t shitty. Dan Lin, Netflix’s film chairman, is trying to ditch the platform’s content mill model, and plans to cut the streamer’s annual output down to 25 to 30 movies per year (the company’s current output is around 50 flicks a year). The streaming service still plans to release what it calls a “tentpole” (read: big budget) feature once every quarter, though, overall, the goal is to bring “costs under control” at the company.
Bloomberg writes that, to execute this vision, Lin has “restructured Netflix’s film division,” cutting some staff positions while refocusing others. Under this new system, individual executives are now in charge of certain genres, allowing for tighter focus on particular types of content:
“Ori Marmur oversees action and sci-fi, while Niija Kuykendall handles faith-based projects, as well as holiday and young-adult fare. Kira Goldberg handles dramas and thrillers. Lin also hired a couple of veteran studio executives in Doug Belgrad and Hannah Minghella, both formerly of Sony, to help run the show.”
This is certainly a change. Previous to Lin, Netflix’s film division was run by an executive named Scott Stuber who, as Variety puts it, had one clear mandate: “quantity, not quality.” In the six years that Stuber ran Netflix’s film strategy, the streamer pumped out a veritable tsunami of movies, some of which were good but many of which were deeply, deeply terrible. Stuber left Netflix in March to pursue a career in film producing, clearing the way for Lin to take the reins and begin pivoting the company’s overall content strategy.
Does this mean that Netflix will stop greenlighting stuff like Tall Girl 2 and Hubie Halloween and begin producing fare that better resembles the Hollywood hits of yesteryear? It’s unclear. I’d personally prefer it if Netflix didn’t exist at all, as that would allow all the attention, investment, and talent currently being hoarded by the streamer to be channeled back into the traditional film industry. That said, as long as Netflix does exist and continues to dominate the entertainment industry, it sure would be great if the majority of the movies that it produced were watchable instead of unwatchable.
