How Netflix plans to find the inside of Star Wars
Netflix is changing the way we watch television — but at a critical moment in the midst of a decline in subscribers, the streaming giant is hoping to capitalize on the popularity of its most successful show.
Key points:
- The franchise strategy aims to build brands from television shows and movies
- Netflix executive says the move was inspired by Walt Disney and Star Wars
- After years of accumulating subscribers, Netflix lost 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter of this year
When it first launched, Netflix broke Hollywood rules to create an $82 billion global stream that the rest of the entertainment industry quickly imitated.
But as growth slowed, he looked back to find a way forward by borrowing a page from Walt Disney’s playbook: building a brand that crossed film, television, games, and consumer products.
The tech company has revealed that it is planning ways to make more out of its bigger shows and films, with universes and characters that can be returned to again and again, like Mickey Mouse or Star Wars.
“We wanted to have our version of Star Wars or Harry Potter, and we worked really hard to build it,” said Matthew Thunell, Netflix vice president of Stranger Things.
“But it wasn’t built overnight.”
The franchise strategy comes at a critical time, after two rounds of layoffs amid lost customers.
The news also comes as streaming companies race to build cheaper, ad-supported subscription plans, which they once promised they would never do.
Plans to give more ‘Stranger Things Treatment’ shows
Netflix executives appointed Stranger Things as the model, the streaming giant’s sci-fi hitter.
The show’s fourth season has officially been watched over a billion hours — a feat the Netflix show has achieved only once before with the South Korean drama Squid Game.
Steven Ekstract, CEO of Global Licensing Advisors, said Stranger Things is so popular that it has the potential to generate $1 billion in annual retail sales by 2025 from products, events, and possibly amusement park rides or digital avatars.
Netflix will reap royalties of around $50 million to $75 million from those sales, plus free advertising from merchandise.
A spin-off series and stage play are also in the works.
After that, Netflix executives said they plan to deliver at least a dozen ‘Treatment of Strangers’ series and films, including Spanish series La Casa de Papel, Bridgerton County-era period drama and fantasy series The Witcher.
They’ve even turned on a Squid Game-inspired reality competition where no one dies, but the $US4.56 million ($6.68 million) cash prize remains.
Netflix vice president Mr Thunell said the company recognizes that not every story works as a franchise.
“It has to start with the story itself. Does it support that kind of expansion?”
The film was made with expansion in mind — but is it the right move?
Netflix’s film studio, which was only created five years ago, is looking at several budding franchises, they said.
These include Enola Holmes (also starring Millie Bobby Brown from Stranger Things), Knives Out, Old Guard, and the spy thriller The Gray Man, directed by Anthony and Joe Russo.
Known for their work in films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Russo brothers are often hailed as ‘franchise builders’, creating rich worlds with expansion in mind.
“We specifically designed and thought about this narrative in a way to bring it to the fore in another form,” co-director Anthony Russo said in an interview.
But is this what the audience wants to see?
The streaming service has far less experience setting up franchises than its century-old Hollywood rival, said Julia Alexander, director of strategy at entertainment research firm Parrot Analytics.
“Do we have the same faith in the Netflix engine as we do in the Disney engine? No, but partly because Disney spent years defining what the engine looks like,” Alexander said.
“For all of Netflix’s dominance in the streaming space, they are still relatively new to building this type of world.”
In the case of Stranger Things, it’s clear that his tactics worked.
But when it comes to movies, it seems the streaming giant hasn’t found their Star Wars yet.
ABC/Reuters
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