- Netflix, Inc NFLX is splurging on a forthcoming science-fiction movie from the filmmaking team behind "Avengers: Endgame," reflecting its interest in potential franchise projects, making it Netflix's most expensive original-film projects ever.
- Netflix looks to dole out in the high $200 million range for "The Electric State"—featuring A-list talent including Chris Pratt of the "Guardians of the Galaxy" franchise and "Stranger Things" star Millie Bobby Brown, the Wall Street Journal reports.
- Netflix expects the new film to be famous for meriting franchise opportunities like a TV show spinoff, merchandise, or video games.
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- A Netflix spokeswoman disputed the budget number, WSJ writes.
- The investment comes as Netflix tries to maximize its $17 billion content budget each year.
- Reportedly, Netflix film Chair Scott Stuber is trying to balance higher-budget blockbusters that have a chance of franchise opportunities with a steady diet of less-pricey movies.
- Netflix is also placing on new franchises, including Zach Snyder's space fantasy "Rebel Moon," due this year, action film "The Old Guard," which has a sequel underway, and "Extraction," another Russo Brothers film with a sequel due this June.
- Netflix evaluates many other metrics to gauge whether its investments were worthwhile. It includes the percentage of its subscribers that watched a film for at least two minutes in its first 28 days on Netflix and the share of subscribers who watched at least 75 minutes of a movie, WSJ report said.
- For big-budget films, Netflix evaluates whether at least 30% of subscribers watch at least two minutes of it.
- After back-to-back quarters of subscriber losses in 2022, Netflix moved swiftly to cut costs. Netflix also upgraded its top-end Premium tier and issued new guidelines for account sharing to draw higher subscription-based revenue.
- Price Action: NFLX shares traded higher by 0.23% at $306.50 on the last check Tuesday.
- Photo by Stock Catalog via Flickr
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