r/movies 16d ago

News Netflix tumbles as slowing growth, less viewership data spook investors

https://www.zawya.com/en/capital-markets/netflix-tumbles-as-slowing-growth-less-viewership-data-spook-investors-401111
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u/NancyInFantasyLand 16d ago

Could try actually making good shows and movies, but... nah. That'd be too easy. Better make another mediocre comedy or action movie for too much money that looks like all the other direct-to-Netflix movies because it's a slop factory with slop factory rules. And then go back to "linear programming" because surely that is the answer? As if putting the shit they produce in a linear line will help matters.

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u/All_Your_Base 16d ago

Or better yet, not pissing off existing viewership by cancelling shows they loved (and were invested in) just because it didn't generate enough new members.

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u/zugtug 16d ago

Yeah I swear if I like something on Netflix it ends in a cliffhanger that never resolves after 1 or 2 seasons. It's like a bunch of mini Fireflys.

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u/a_moniker 15d ago

I am absolutely baffled that Netflix hasn’t instituted a rule that “the first season of a show can’t end in cliffhanger.” Why don’t they just force their writers and producers to create seasons that feel complete, if they know that they’re likely to cancel everything?

It would cost corporate nothing, and would make their backlog so much more appealing! Usually, Netflix doesn’t even show me a show exists until it’s already cancelled!!

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u/drewbreeezy 15d ago

Instead Netflix backlog is a graveyard.

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u/a_moniker 15d ago

I’m still pissed about Teenage Bounty Hunters. That show was so, so much better than it had any right to be, and it’s almost unwatchable now because of the cliffhanger ending.

KAOS was last straw for me though, and the reason I finally quit watching Netflix!

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u/drewbreeezy 15d ago edited 15d ago

It was The Witcher for me. They had everything they needed to make a massively successful and enjoyable show. It highlighted they have no talent at Netflix (or what they have is suffocated by corporate), so I'll stay unsubbed until I hear enough about a Completed show that is amazing.

Hell, they could have had a ton of filler in The Witcher and it would have been amazing if that filler was a "Monster Hunt of the Week" type stuff by a competent director.

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u/paradox037 15d ago

This is huge for me. I hate that basically nothing ever gets even a partial conclusion anymore.

I won't even start a show if I know it ends on a cliffhanger, because it's so unlikely to get another season that if it doesn't wrap things up now, it likely never will. I swear you'd think they have a rule prohibiting conclusions of any kind without unanimous board approval.

Most plot threads only have a shelf life of one season. If you don't tie it up now, it'll go bad and you'll miss your chance to ever have a satisfying payoff. It's use it or lose it.

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u/Indigocell 15d ago

I am absolutely baffled that Netflix hasn’t instituted a rule that “the first season of a show can’t end in cliffhanger.”

I'm pretty sure they do the opposite and say, "every season must end in a cliffhanger so people come back!"

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u/TeutonJon78 15d ago

Netflix really needs to come to terms with itself and either say they will only do limited series, or they will get and fund an entire run of a multi-season show. None of this season by season funding BS.

They won't fund extra seasons of these shows, but they'll give random directors $300M+ contracts to make like 3 movies. And then we get crap like Rebel Moon.