The festival circuit has always been a hotbed of content awaiting acquisition with the chance of making a splash during awards season, and the seemingly bottomless pockets of Netflix have seen the streaming service shell out north of $40 million to secure three new features out of the Toronto Film Festival that are all dripping in critical acclaim.
The platform has stumped up $7 million for the rights to His Three Daughters, the hard-hitting drama written and directed by Azazel Jacobs that boasts Elizabeth Olsen, Natasha Lyonne, and Carrie Coon in the titular roles, which currently holds a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score of 100 percent following its recent premiere.
That’s in addition to the reported $20 million it cost to seize Richard Linklater’s Hit Man with Glen Powell in the lead, which currently boasts an impressive 98 percent approval rating on the aggregation site. And that’s without even mentioning Anna Kendrick’s feature-length directorial debut and true-life serial killer story Woman of the Hour, either, which required a sum of at least $10 million to secure.
Having spent $40 million on just three films that didn’t even originate from Netflix headquarters, the company will be hoping for a sizeable return on its investment. Whether that’s through viewership figures or awards season recognition remains to be seen, but one thing that can’t be denied is that all three rank among the best-reviewed titles of 2023, and they’re all heading to the same streamer to set up shop.
Its blockbusters may be highly hit-or-miss, but this trio has already been given the seal of approval from critics.