There’s no doubt that Netflix is doing their damndest to disrupt Hollywood. Though they began as a humble DVD-by-mail service, the companyhas grown into a massive streaming service that, at least for younger audience members, practically serves as a byword for home entertainment (see “Netflix and chill” et al).
And since they went into the original content game, the company have looked to be a real threat to the traditional studios, with shows like “Stranger Things” getting the kind of chatter that most blockbusters would die for, and big-name talents like Brad Pitt, Will Smith and even Martin Scorsese being wooed with the promise of big paychecks and creative freedom to make movies for the service. But how scared are the studios really? One recent speech by Stacey Snider, the head of 20th Century Fox’s film division, suggests the answer is “not very.”
Per the LA Times, Snider was speaking yesterday to (deep breath) the Bank Of America Merrill Lynch 2017 Media Communications and Entertainment Conference when she suggested that she wasn’t very jealous of the kind of movies that Netflix have been greenlighting or picking up so far. “I couldn’t find, and I won’t say their names, the Netflix movies that we were supposed to be upset got made at Netflix. Point me to an article or campaign that gets me excited.” Burn!
“There’s nothing about the experience of making them in a churn-like environment that appeals to filmmakers,” Snider continued. This is not conjecture on my part — I speak to them… There’s nothing better about watching a film on Netflix or Amazon. There just isn’t.” These are probably the harshest words we’ve heard about the streaming service from one of their rivals to date, perhaps in part because Fox and Netflix are currently embroiled in a lawsuit over the latter allegedly poaching executives from the former.
But you could definitely make the argument that Snider’s criticisms are merited, at least to some extent. Netflix have released good movies — “Okja” being probably their closest to both a critical home-run and a hit of sorts, plus festival pick ups like “Tramps” and “I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore,” while the Adam Sandler movies probably work to that audience. But none have been real game-changers yet, and with the company not yet really off the awards mark after “Beasts Of No Nation” fell short, and movies like “War Machine” inspiring whatever the opposite of jealousy is, we can see why Snider might not be sweating it so far.
That said, films like “Mudbound,” “Bright” and “The Irishman” could go on to make much bigger splashes, so it’s feasible to see that Snider could eat her words before too long, especially after a summer when most studio’s product was so lacking (Netflix probably aren’t that envious of the numbers for “Alien: Covenant” or “Snatched” either). But the studios might have a plan, as Disney’s own streaming service might suggest: “I don’t see that preeminence and dominance being protectable forever,” Snider said. Could we see a Fox-only streaming service before too long?…