[Fishman343]

I thought this number seemed absolutely nuts to begin with, but actually, given their ~100 million subscribers, it's pretty much inline with what the BBC might spend in the same sort of set up.

As an observer, what still seems odd to me is the low number of shows or movies they are producing with that massive budget - last year "The Get Down" apparently cost $16 million per episode while the entire, huge hit, first season of "Stranger Things" cost $13 million.

I would have thought that would inspire them to look for more of these low budget, low risk, big payoff shows, especially when you run a subscription service - surely a series that people binge over 2 weeks, with the potential for more seasons to keep people subscribing is better for you than a one time film? Nope, $100 Million on a single film this year.

[xienze]

> As an observer, what still seems odd to me is the low number of shows or movies they are producing with that massive budget - last year "The Get Down" apparently cost $16 million per episode while the entire, huge hit, first season of "Stranger Things" cost $13 million.

You think that's crazy? They paid Dave Chappelle $60 million for _3 standup specials_.

[guelo]

Damn. And it wasn't even funny.

[wmeredith]

Few things are more subjective than humour. I watched the first one and I'm half way through the second. I thought what I've seen of them was pretty good.

[behohippy]

The first one was pretty good, but that second one left no real impression. It felt like he was using more clever humour in the first, and just went full on shock value for the second.

[soneca]

I believe that is a lot to gain in branding and awareness from top notch movies. When I started to see high quality (ie expensive) productions with a-level Hollywood actors (eg House of Cards), it changed my perception.

I believe the next step is having "blockbusters" feature movies, with top notch CGI, a-level actors, maybe some Oscar contenders.

My impression is that low risk, big payoff shows would be optimizing for a local maxima. Big bets like the Will Smith movie might take them to a new maxima. And Netflix is basically a success history about reaching a new maxima one after another since its beginning.

[rhino369]

>I believe the next step is having "blockbusters" feature movies, with top notch CGI, a-level actors, maybe some Oscar contenders.

That is probably too expensive unless they release to theaters first.

What they could do is create the missing midrange movie that Hollywood just doesn't make anymore. Hollywood makes huge expensive movies and indie studios make cheap movies. Netflix could make the 40 million dollar style of movie that nobody makes anymore.

In fact, they sort of are, they just do it in a longer form.

[6stringmerc]

Not sure if you've heard but Manchester By The Sea was a production affiliated with Amazon Prime, and it got quite a few nominations and won an award in 2016. So, you're kind of already right - the outliers of Amazon and Netflix have potential to get into such conversations.

[tankenmate]

They'll have multiple tiered production teams just like finance; small cap, middle market, and large multinationals. And also probably have specialists for market product that are cross tier.

[harigov]

Well, Netflix is one of the most data driven companies we know of. Maybe they see something that we don't? Also, some stories inherently require significant amount of money to produce and there is nothing that you can do about it. Sure you can avoid spending money on such shows, but the last thing you want is to be known for your low quality shows.

[Fishman343]

Yes, I think you're right, it's probably better to be known for your 1 or 2 high quality hits and take a few losses overall, than to be known for low quality shows.

That on top of the fact they can use data to minimise the risk must mean it's a realistic option.

[vijayr]

Nope, $100 Million on a single film this year

Maybe they are planning to release the film in movie theaters later? License it to other subscription services a month or two after they release it on their platform?

[rosege]

dont forget The Grand Tour and its massive cost