Netflix is the most ubiquitous entertainment company on the planet. But after its CEO’s absurd comments about Barbenheimer, it’s laughably apparent that he doesn’t understand why people go to the movies.
October 6, 1952: the world premiere of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap on the stage. After audience members were left dazed and slack-jawed by the whodunnit unfurling before them, they became the first of millions to take heed of a specific order: don’t give away the ending.
The advent of the internet has provided people with the means to spoil things for others (in 2010, Wikipedia was forced to defend itself for doing what it does best: providing an exhaustive account of the play’s history and story… including the identity of the killer).
That is a rare, forgivable exception to the rule, one that still inspires extraordinary obedience in the 70-plus years since. Why? Because theatergoing, much like sitting in a cinema with tens, if not hundreds of others, is a communal commitment — and streaming services simply don’t infiltrate culture on the same level of permanence.
Netflix CEO doesn’t understand why people go to the movies
Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s boss, disagrees. In an interview with The New York Times, he wagered that Barbenheimer (last year’s double-picture sensation of Oppenheimer and Barbie) would have experienced just as much success on Netflix as they did during their respective theatrical runs.
“Both of those movies would be great for Netflix. They definitely would have enjoyed just as big an audience on Netflix. And so I don’t think there’s any reason to believe that certain kinds of movies do or don’t work,” he argued.
“There’s no reason to believe that the movie itself is better in any size of screen for all people. My son’s an editor. He is 28 years old, and he watched Lawrence of Arabia on his phone.”
For immediate context, Oppenheimer and Barbie grossed nearly $2.4 billion and won eight Oscars, including Best Picture for Christopher Nolan’s film. Netflix has won 23 Academy Awards but has yet to bag that top prize.
But Sarandos’ stance completely misses the point of why Barbenheimer (and the big screen, in general) reshaped pop culture. In the words of Jed Bartlet, he should stand there in his wrongness and get used to it, because Netflix has the perfect example to illustrate how out of touch he is: Atlas, last week’s Jennifer Lopez schlock-buster that’s rightly been written-off as an ironing movie.
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It’s Netflix’s number one movie across the world right now — but can you honestly say Atlas fever is in the air? Are the streets awash with excited murmurings? Did you host a watch party with your friends and family? Don’t even try to lie to me.
Millions of people have probably watched it (either wilfully — god help them — or in the background as they ‘chilled’), but viewership ≠ zeitgeist. You need to understand, Netflix feeds you what it wants you to watch, whether that’s its latest big-budget original title or a pricey licensed series from HBO or elsewhere; if you saw its library through Rody Piper’s sunglasses, it’d be plastered with the word “OBEY.”
There are outliers: Stranger Things is an easy candidate for the biggest TV show in the world, on account of it being Netflix’s first huge success and catching people before the flood of content; Squid Game is a one-of-a-kind monster, amassing billions of hours viewed with its grim, irresistible premise.
But let me list some of Netflix’s most-watched movies for you: The Mother (136.4m views), We Can Be Heroes (137.7m views), The Gray Man (139.9m views), and Red Notice (230.9m views) — if you did watch them, have you thought about any of them since, or did you press play out of mild intrigue (at best) or to avoid the tedium of endless scrolling?
That sort of mindless, half-hearted shrug to decide to watch something isn’t the same as booking tickets at your local multiplex; planning an outing, immersing yourself in not-so-hushed laughs, scares, and shocks with other people (or, at the opposite end of the spectrum, seeing a film in the cinema that you hate stings a lot more), and emerging back into the real world, having partaken in an actual in-person experience.
That is what made Barbenheimer a phenomenon — just like Star Wars: The Phantom Menace midnight screenings abuzz with adults and kids in cosplay, just like Avengers: Endgame becoming one of the highest-grossing movies of all time in its opening weekend, and just like James Cameron slapping down Avatar’s cultural impact with The Way of Water.
These movies aren’t necessarily similar, but the ultimate answer behind their success is the same: cinemas make events, but streaming just passes the time.
Make sure you check out our lists of new TV shows to watch this month, as well as new movies to add to your watch list.
