After setbacks, Netflix starts to focus movie strategy - report
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Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) is facing some new realities after last quarter's subscriber decline, and one of them is a change in approach to the original films it's now launching as an established player in Hollywood.
Netflix was a pioneer among streaming companies spending previously unheard-of amounts on new content, as it tried to rapidly grow by feeding tens of billions of dollars into projects - including dozens of new feature films per year, leading to a promise of a "new movie every week" in 2021.
Now the mantra is "bigger, better, fewer," The Hollywood Reporter says, as the company's studio leaders plot a way forward under hotter competition from deep-pocketed media rivals.
Netflix stock (NFLX) is down 42% since its April 19 earnings report, where the company missed some lowered expectations for subscriber growth by actually seeing subs decline (thanks in part to shutting down in Russia). That was certain to lead to changes, which ended up including dozens of layoffs starting in mid-May.
Those layoffs had a focus on the feature film unit, THR says, noting "A good portion of cuts have wiped out the family live action film division, and the original independent features division, which made movies in the under-$30 million budget range, has also seen its ranks cleaned out."
Now it's aiming to make some bigger and better films: instead of making two movies for $10 million, for example, Netflix will make one for $20 million.
That focus will bear out in upcoming films costing hundreds of millions of dollars, including July's The Gray Man (from Avengers: Endgame directors Anthony and Joe Russo, and starring Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans) and Daniel Craig in Knives Out 2 late this year.
And it will follow up on some high-profile recent films that rank among Netflix's most-viewed, including Red Notice, Don't Look Up and The Adam Project.
Netflix stock (NFLX) is up 4.1% on Thursday.
In the realm of high-profile TV series, Netflix is riding high this week off record viewership for its latest season of Stranger Things.