I have watched a number of Netflix Originals movies lately and the bulk of them were mediocre at best, but more often than not were complete shit.
I am curious as to what percentage of the Netflix Originals were actually produced by NF, as in they originated the idea, put the creative teams together, and oversaw the production from start to finish.
My guess is that the bulk of their "original" movies were made by somebody else who was ultimately unable to get distribution through the major studios (or all the major studios passed because the film(s) were shit) and then NF came along and scooped them up for cheap. The original producers get their money, NF gets a film that looks good on paper, so to speak (i.e. a film which they can sell to viewers with a snappy synopsis and a cool graphic). Also, I've noticed that quite a large number of the Netflix Original movies are genre films and genre junkies are starved for new material, so they are willing to give anything a shot. I've gotta guess that NF is well aware of this.
In many ways NF is the new direct-to-video, if you are old enough to remember all those great looking (based on cool box art and snappy descriptions) cheap action/horror/sci-fi films that took up the majority of shelf space at the video store back in the '80s!
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