Nay! It goes on!
One month after Disney dropped what for many was described as a “deluge” of announcements at its 2020 Investor Day event including updates on movies, shows, series and all things Disney Plus, Netflix announced today on its Netflix Film Club channel on YouTube a flood of its own, but rather than a deluge, a promise of steady and heavy rain with its 2021 slate of films and series. The 2 minute 44 second video contained what was described as “sneak peak” of “superheroes, westerns, thrillers, rom-coms, action, comedy…with the world’s biggest and best stars, directors, and fresh faces” for a hyped AF year ahead in audio-visual entertainment.
And we are hype. Yes. We. Are.
Where Disney doubled down on a focus on franchise brands, familiar, loved and sought after, Netflix went with the novelty of new releases, fresh stories and celebrity introductions with some of Hollywood’s A-List, AAA-List stars and a few new faces to bring video introductions to the action in store. Cheekily included in the mix were several actors featured and headlining on other film studios and networks including actors Jonathan Majors and Oscar and Emmy winner Regina King both of HBO fame in ‘Watchmen’ and ‘Lovecraft Country’ respectively. Understandably, King has established herself as a free agent, working with HBO, Netflix and also on CBS Television Studios’ upcoming series ‘Slay’. Get your bag, Queen!
Majors was also recently announced in the Disney/Marvel 2022 release ‘Ant-Man 3’. Netflix basically went, what yuh waitin for? Allyuh come een! For perspective, consider…
“Netflix’s slate this year consists of 70 films, including 52 English language live action films, 10 non-English language films, and eight animated features. This is way beyond what most traditional feature film studios generate, and most streamers.”
Mike Flemming Jr. Deadline.com Source: https://deadline.com/video/netflix-2021-movie-slate/
Big up yuh whole self, Scott Stuber, Head of Original Films at Netflix!
Strategy-wise, some ways to disrupt the competitive market in your favour can be to modify or change one of the major competitive features governing the market. Tough to do, but for For Netflix, this disruption is happening with expected movie distribution timelines. In the culinary world this would be Fast Food vs Gourmet; In fashion; Ready-to-Wear vs Made to Measure.
The traditional expected distribution timelines in film are LONG. Like, years in development. It takes time to film, edit and complete a movie title. Netflix, which already disrupted the market once by pushing itself up the distribution chain to become both a “cinema” and a film “aggregator” in one hybrid model, is now defending its territory by disrupting again – adopting some Cable TV-ish promotional elements in doubling down on what it does best – providing fast, genre-varied content, pumped out on a schedule that cannot be matched by a large studio.
As fast as a traditional studio goes to pre-production, Netflix has a new movie ready to watch – WEEKLY. Yep In 2021, Netflix intends to retain consistent subscriptions over time, with a new major movie title, and star- powered titles released every week.
This is faster than film studios – by far, faster than TV and also faster than HBO, without the long, 13 episode production wait time. This, is big studio outcome, entering web series or weekly webisode distribution territory – but with movies. “Fire bun your simultaneous theatrical & cable release window!” screamed Netflix into the void. #RIPTheatricalReleases #RIPCinemas
So the transition is from a Big release distribution model (by year), which is often more expensive to mobilize per title, to a steady schedule release per week, which Netflix is already good at. Other benefits are that fast turn around content also means faster Netflix deal money and faster “flash” fame. Look at the success of Netflix’s Bridgerton plucking Actor Rege-Jean Page out of obscurity, and now Captain Rhythm Method is in conversations about playing the first Black James Bond? Flash fame, baby.
It also means much less expensive promotional push required per title with Netflix, depending on the brand names involved and a bored Entertainment media circuit. If we compare WW84’s expansive and expensive-looking virtual movie launch to a Netflix trailer promotional drop going viral – you can see the appeal. Quality of the film titles of course is where the concern arises. But with examples like Will Smith‘s “Bright” and other love-to-hate movie releases under its belt, Netflix knows you like to hate-watch too, which is still win-win for their subscription numbers.
With this approach, you train the average Netflix user to be in a constant state of attention on the Netflix brand. Consistency can create necessity, which means you tell yourself that the subscription expense is worth it in your month budget because your attention span now craves the excitement of not missing out on the next viral movie pop-culture references.
Nothing can beat the appeal of a Disney/MCU or DCU release. However, Netflix, with its 195 million paid memberships in over 190 countries is determined not to lose its market share, but I think it knows it has to share it. #Protect #Pivot #Adapt!
Lewe lime in the comments!
~Janine.
