For example, in 2019, when a filmmaker signed a deal with Netflix, it meant he or she was paid well and given complete creative freedom. Cinema release? Not as much. Still, the paycheck and leeway — and the potential to reach the streaming service’s huge subscriber base — helped make up for the lack of buzz that comes when a traditional studio releases a film in multiplexes around the world.
But these times are a thing of the past.
Dan Lin has been Netflix’s new film chief since April 1 and has already started making changes. He fired about 15 people in the creative film leadership group, including a vice president and two directors. (Netflix’s entire film division consists of around 150 employees.) He has reorganized his film division by genre rather than budget level, pointing out that Netflix is no longer just the home of expensive action films with big movie stars like “The Gray Man” with Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans or “Red Notice” with Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot and Dwayne Johnson.
Rather, Mr. Lin’s job is to improve the quality of films and produce a broader range of films – at different budget levels – to better appeal to the diverse interests of Netflix’s 260 million subscribers. He will also change the formulas for paying talent, meaning there will no longer be huge upfront contracts.
In other words, the age of austerity at Netflix is in full swing. The company declined to comment for this article.
Now that Netflix has become the dominant streaming platform, the company no longer has to pay premium prices to attract auteurs like Martin Scorsese, Alfonso Cuarón and Bradley Cooper. It also helps that some of the major studios are allowing their films to air on Netflix again shortly after their theatrical release, providing more content to attract subscribers. The service’s most recent list of the top ten most-watched English-language films included six films produced outside of Netflix.
Mr. Lin’s predecessor as Netflix’s film chief, Scott Stuber, took the job in 2017, when the company had no track record as a purveyor of original films. To succeed, Mr. Stuber, once an assistant production manager at Universal Pictures, spent heavily on talent and promised filmmakers almost complete creative freedom and big budgets. It worked – to a certain extent. The directors were able to pursue their passion projects and their films received Oscar nominations (albeit few wins).
In 2021, the streamer reached its production peak and announced that it would release a new film every week.
Mr. Stuber, an affable friend of talent, pushed to get Netflix to embrace the idea of wide theatrical releases. And it was a major coup when he landed the sequels to the box office hit “Knives Out” in a $465 million deal that some thought could mark a change in direction. It never came to that.
Under Mr. Lin, who once headed production at Warner Bros. and produced hits like “Aladdin” for Disney and the “It” and “Lego” film franchises, the goal is to make Netflix films better, cheaper and rarer. According to two people familiar with his thinking, Mr. Lin, who declined to comment for this article, also wants his team to become more aggressive as producers and develop their own material rather than waiting for projects from producers and agents spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal communications. This approach, the thinking goes, will help them have more influence over the quality of the films.
Netflix reconsidered its salary structure before Mr. Lin’s arrival. Since the company began sharing performance metrics last year, there have been discussions about aligning filmmakers’ and actors’ pay with a film’s performance, similar to how traditional studios reward them when films do well at the box office.
But a more frugal approach to budgets and Netflix’s continued reluctance to release films theatrically have some producers and agents in Hollywood complaining that the streaming service is no longer the first choice when it comes to getting one Find distributors for your films.
Several high-profile filmmakers who had made films for Netflix moved on to their next projects. After making “The Irishman” for Netflix, Mr. Scorsese moved to AppleTV+ for “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Maggie Gyllenhaal is directing The Bride at Warner Bros. after directing her first film, 2021’s The Lost Daughter, for the streamer. And Scott Cooper, who directed 2022’s The Pale Blue Eye for Netflix, is bringing his highly anticipated Bruce Springsteen biopic starring Jeremy Allen White to 20th Century Fox. (New films from Netflix loyalists Guillermo del Toro and Noah Baumbach are both in production for the service.)
Netflix recently declined to bid on the rights to a short story involving Millie Bobby Brown, a star of the Netflix films “Stranger Things” and “Enola Holmes,” two people familiar with the matter said. Even a film by Kathryn Bigelow based on David Koepp’s apocalyptic novel “Aurora” is no longer possible; The director left the project a few months ago.
Edward Berger – director of Netflix’s four Oscar-winning “All Quiet in the West” – has complained that the service is demanding budget cuts for a film he is trying to make with Colin Farrell, three people with knowledge of the matter say of the deal, who remained anonymous on condition due to the sensitive situation.
A spokesman for Mr. Berger declined to comment.
Shortly after Mr. Stuber left the company, Bela Bajaria, Netflix’s chief content officer, gathered film employees in a conference room and told them that the quality of their films needed to be improved, according to three people with knowledge of the meeting. who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal communications. She also pointed out that if they were uncomfortable with moving in a different direction, they might want to consider leaving the company.
One thing that doesn’t appear to be changing any time soon is Netflix’s theatrical release strategy, a bone of contention among some filmmakers and stars — not to mention theater owners.
“The data from the pandemic clearly shows that films released only for streaming do not achieve the exposure and pop of a film released theatrically first,” said John Fithian, former chairman of the National Association of Theater Owners and Founding partner of Fithian Group, advising customers on supporting the cinema experience. “Almost all of the most-watched films on streaming services are films that were first released in theaters.”
But many in the creative community support Mr. Lin. As the business consolidates, they’re desperate for Netflix to continue buying movies. The hope is that with a new focus, Netflix can greenlight films that studios would say no to, providing a home for more romantic comedies and mid-budget character studies in Hollywood’s changing landscape.
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2024-04-14 09:02:49
www.nytimes.com
