Inarguably, Netflix’s Bright was the blockbuster success they wanted it to be in almost every aspect except critically. This method of releasing larger budget films is becoming more common as the lack of risk is incredibly enticing to studio heads worried about the success of their film.
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| The Cloverfield Paradox Poster |
This can be seen in the release of the most recent Cloverfield instalment The Cloverfield Paradox. The film was dropped on Netflix after being announced during the 2018 Super Bowl and on the streaming service after the game. This was to many people’s surprise as the film was scheduled for a cinematic release in April of this year. It’s likely that Paramount Pictures predicted the critical panning of the film and didn’t believe in it’s stars or the “Cloverfield” name to be a big enough draw, a big statement when the last 2 instalments both made domestically around $80 Million. So instead they decided to release on a relatively risk free streaming service, this way they had an instant pay-off which may seem a better way to go than risk losing at the box office again. Paramount had a disappointing year at the box office in 2017 with even their flagship franchise ‘Transformers’ underperforming at the US box office, only making $130 Million domestically when all the other grossed over $200 Million. This combined with Life (2017), another original sci-fi movie, underperforming likely pushed behind the Netflix decision.
By selling to Netflix there is minimal risk and any issues that arise become the problem of Netflix rather than the studio. For Netflix this could mean big tentpole movies like the Cloverfield franchise come their way, and even with poor reviews people aren’t going to unsubscribe because of one bad movie, it may even see a rise in subscribers who want to see the latest instalment in a movie franchise. According to Nielsen Data the film took in 5 Million US viewers, which is incredibly impressive considering the film had no marketing presence till a few hours before it’s release. It goes to show the power a name can have over bad reviews, a similar experience to Bright except the marketing campaign is inbuilt with the franchise.
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| A promotional photo from Annihilation |
Another recent example of this trend is Alex Garland’s Annihilation which received a US theatrical release but has gone straight to Netflix in the UK and several other countries. The film bombed at the box office gaining only an estimated $26,094,514, which is just over half the film’s estimated budget. Annihilation was given a theatrical release in the USA, Canada and China, North america and China are currently the two largest cinematic markets, so it stands to reason that Paramount would have the largest opportunity to gain their money back releasing in these areas and giving the film to streaming giant Netflix as a safe option in smaller areas. Annihilation finds itself in a similar situation to The Cloverfield Paradox as both were produced by Paramount. However it can actually be observed in America how the film did theatrically. It underperformed, in post-production one of the film’s producers claimed the film was “too complicated” for audiences and could very well have been right, critically the film has received mixed reviews. However as stated before there doesn’t seem to be a large appetite in American audiences for original sci-fi at the moment. Annihilation boasted a director with big previous credits (Ex-Machina) unlike The Cloverfield Paradox, perhaps prompting the half theatrical release.
It’s hard to say whether this is the direction the film industry is going to take in the long run but it does offer a potential look at where bad/divisive films may be going in the next few years. Why release a box office risk when the safe option of Netflix is right there. It might become the case that only risk-free films that are guaranteed to do well at the box office reach cinemas.
In the next blog I will be looking at the cinema industries potential response to the video-on-demand service growth that has been occurring and how they might be looking to beat them at their own game.
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