Netflix has long since established itself as the queen of awful decisions — pioneering such practices as that heinous password-sharing crackdown and being rather liberal with the big red cancellation button on beloved fantasy shows and animation. So, it was only a matter of time before it joined its contemporaries in removing streamer-exclusive content from the platform, thereby casting it into nigh-inaccessible oblivion for the foreseeable future; the art of the double-down is strong with Netflix.
Elsewhere, the Barbenheimer phenomenon is proving to be having quite the effect on a few of Netflix’s more interesting roster members, the streamer’s answer to the MCU makes its own special mark on the box office, and viewers are rediscovering a legendary filmmaker’s last gasp that he probably doesn’t want you to see.
With Barbenheimer weekend having come and gone, let’s not forget the Netflix original that captured the essence of both films
It’s been seven months since White Noise, the absurdist dramedy from Barbie co-scribe Noah Baumbach, first landed in Netflix queues everywhere. Similarly, it wasn’t long after that everyone seemed to immediately forget about it.
Starring Barbie mastermind Greta Gerwig and Adam Driver, the film follows the turbulent life of a family who is forced to evacuate their home after a toxic environmental disaster threatens their neighborhood, shortly after which they return home and plunge straight into existential dread, shady medicine-induced affairs, and general absurdity that only Baumbach could wield so deftly.
White Noise‘s evocation of the Barbenheimer trend is marked, given that it involves two of the most important players in the creation of Barbie, an enormous explosion as a key plot point, and overarching strokes of existentialism. It’s a shame it didn’t linger in audiences’ minds nearly as long as it deserved, but perhaps a resurgence is on the cards now that its spiritual successors are the talk of the town.
A family-friendly superhero franchise tees itself up as Netflix’s next champion with a promising box-office run
Its apparent aim at younger demographics may turn off some viewers, but those wise enough to have tuned in to any of Netflix’s Ladybug & Cat Noir content have since been pleasantly surprised by the heart, eccentricity, and surprisingly high-octane ethos of the streamer’s answer to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Of course, calling anything an answer to the MCU is a bold statement, and the sentiment is especially true here; after Ladybug & Cat Noir: The Movie made a nevertheless respectable box-office pull of just over $10 million prior to its release on the streaming service, those viewership numbers are going to have to shoot beyond the stars to join the shared universe conversation the way it may want to.
Still, with a fandom as passionate as Ladybug & Cat Noir‘s, this is one franchise that probably won’t be losing significant steam anytime soon.
For those of you still itching to watch the live-action Bleach movie, time is running out
Just when you thought Netflix’s business practices couldn’t get any more despicable, they take a card right out of the Disney Plus playbook and banish once-exclusive content to the great beyond, quite possibly never to be seen again.
Let’s put aside the fact that the live-action Bleach movie might not be missed by a whole lot of people; the principle of the practice spells a chilling horizon for the future of entertainment, which only seems to be growing worse by the day. Indeed, if fabricated scarcity becomes the norm for streamer-exclusive shows and movies, who’s to say how that might affect viewership manipulation and increasingly shady cost-cutting practices?
Farewell, Bleach; here’s hoping your sacrifice won’t be in vain.
It may have done wonders for the box office, but Barbenheimer proved to be quite inconvenient for They Cloned Tyrone
Among all the internet hype, ticket sales, pink-and-black cosplays, and general moviegoing of dubious sincerity, few entities outside of Barbie or Oppenheimer had much space in the public eye, and that’s a shame because Netflix just released one of its best-ever exclusive features this past weekend.
Indeed, They Cloned Tyrone proved to be every bit as delectable as its many illustrious pieces suggested; it’s unfortunate, then, that it happened to coincide with one of the most unprecedented box-office booms of our time, effectively sentencing it to a quieter debut than it may have been hoping for.
Nevertheless, finding yourself amongst the Top 10 in 28 different countries is no measly feat, either, and now that Barbenheimer weekend has wrapped up, perhaps folks will be making up for lost They Cloned Tyrone time in the coming days.
As Netflix viewers have discovered, lying to the FBI wasn’t the worst of John McTiernan’s sins
In 2003, illustrious action filmmaker John McTiernan‘s final film, Basic, released to theaters. The movie’s title is more or less all you need to know about how that went.
Of course, when you’re the mastermind of such films as Die Hard and The Hunt for Red October, going off on a sour note such as this isn’t exactly a death sentence — and especially when it’s proven capable of showing signs of life two decades on, perhaps it wasn’t even a total loss.
Indeed, for whatever reason, Basic has found itself among the Top 20 most-watched films on Netflix at the moment, so whatever value viewers are managing to scrape out of this star-studded mess, there’s apparently quite a bit to go around.