Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Friday, October 18th, 2024

Netflix and theatrical releases - the argument that never ends

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Friday, October 18th, 2024:

PRODUCTION NOTES
A deep thank you to those of you who upgraded to a paid subscription yesterday. I truly appreciate the support.

I continue to look for ways to provide more value to paid subscribers while keeping this core newsletter 100% free, and following some feedback from readers, I wanted to announce a new feature.

Many of you have told me that you find the listings at the bottom of each newsletter useful. But you are also looking for more info on the shows I highlight. In the past, I tried to send out a weekly listings update to paid subscribers with expanded info. But the feedback I received was that it was less useful to receive it weekly and the open rate was pretty dismal.

So beginning on Monday, those of you with a paid subscription will receive a newsletter with a beefed up listings section. There will be links to more info on the shows, photos, videos and more to help guide your viewing choices. And the free version will continue with the version you receive now. Which I think is a reasonable compromise. Let me know what you think next week.

NETFLIX AND THEATRICAL RELEASES
After yesterday's musings on Netflix earnings, I hadn't planned on mentioning the streamer again today. But every Hollywood creative I follow on social media is passing around a Matthew Belloni piece from Puck that among other things, rehashes a heated 2022 conversation between Daniel Craig and Netflix's Ted Sarandos:

It’s been two years since Sarandos had a testy exchange with Daniel Craig at the Knives Out 2 premiere in Toronto. According to two sources, Craig pointed to the ovation for the film as evidence that it was made for a large group audience and should thus get a longer window in theaters. Ted repeated the usual “not our model” mantra, which prompted Craig to reply with an expletive unfit for a family newsletter. (It was a variation on “Your model is fucked.”) And while Craig wasn’t so angry that he refused to collect his tens of millions of dollars from the Netflix deal for those Knives Out sequels, his sentiment is widely held throughout the industry. Which Ted also knows, of course.  

Now I could mention that Belloni is the same reporter who was writing last month that Netflix was moving towards a "contingency compensation" model, which turns out not to be the case. But regardless...

I'm not eager to rehash this again (and again), so I'll just make a couple of quick points. Craig would not have received that huge salary with a theatrical release. The upfront money would have been much smaller, with the hope of making as much money or more on the backend. Which, given the current unpredictable theatrical business is not at all a sure thing. 

This situation isn't any different than the grumblings from George Clooney and Brad Pitt over Apple TV+'s decision to release Wolfs directly to streaming. Yes, it was a change from the original plan. But as I wrote at the time, it also resulted in the two actors receiving a much larger payday than they would have it had received a theatrical release.

The problem is these actors still want to receive the outsized payday while also receiving a theatrical release. And that is not what the streamers are paying for. And to be honest, at this point, it's difficult to imagine that any top-level actor, director or writer with an experienced team would be "surprised" at the terms of their contract. They're just using the press as a pressure point with the streamer and they know complaints about the lack of a theatrical release are cat nip for Hollywood creatives.

A lot of people are also passing around this piece from World Of Reel, which really just aggregates a number of these complaints. But it ends with this screed, which I wanted to highlight:

Of course, Netflix has another opportunity to pivot next year with the third Knives Out installment — ‘Wake Up Dead Man’ — but sources believe Netflix will not budge for that one either. The streamer is again throwing easy money away, refusing to support chains and exhibitors, just because they have a “business model.”

What filmmakers like Gerwig, Fennell and Johnson are starting to realize is that their films can easily get lost in the Netflix algorithm. What a theatrical release does is give a film some much-needed cultural significance. Quentin Tarantino recently stated that Netflix movies “don’t exist in the zeitgeist […] It’s almost like they don’t even exist.” He’s not wrong.

It's true. Netflix has a business model. And you might not like, you might wish they'd release more films in theaters to help boost the theatrical business. But it's not their job. Ted Sarandos and the other executives at Netflix are there to make money for its investors and continue to grow their business. Believe me, when it comes to revenue, Netflix executives are sharks. If they thought releasing some of these movies to theatrical first would deliver more value to the company, they would do so.

Zeitgeist doesn't pay the bills. Which now that I think about it, would make a great slogan for a coffee cup or t-shirt.

THE MEANING OF 'SEASON' MAY NOT BE WHAT YOU THINK IT IS
I've mentioned in the past that Netflix (and increasingly other streamers) have gotten in the habit of ordering a full twenty-something episode season order of an animated series, then splitting that order into two smaller "seasons" or "chapters." It saves them money, due to some the way union-mandated payments are often structured. Plus, it makes it seem as if they are producing more seasons of a show than is actually the case.

I bring this up because Nickelodeon has renewed animated series The Patrick Star Show for Seasons 4 and Season 5, each consisting of 13 episodes. But that's not exactly accurate, because in reality Nickelodeon ordered another 26 episode season of the show, which it is splitting into two 13 episode seasons for broadcast. The show received a 26-episode order for season one, then Nickelodeon decided to split the second order of 26 episodes into what it called season two and season three.

ODDS AND SODS
* The conversation is about an hour long, but this discussion between Chris Cillizza and Taylor Lorenz about whether or not this is the mainstream media's last election as a major player is quite interesting.

WHAT'S NEW TONIGHT AND THIS WEEKEND

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18TH:
* Best Bite Wins Series Premiere (The Roku Channel)
* Blue Bloods Season Premiere (CBS)
* Culte Series Premiere (Prime Video)
* Fanatical: The Catfishing Of Tegan And Sara (Hulu)
* Fire Country Season Three Premiere (CBS)
* Happiness Is Series Premiere (Netflix)
* Happy's Place Series Premiere (NBC)
* Hysteria! Series Premiere (Peacock)
* It's Florida, Man Series Premiere (Max)
* LEGO Marvel Avengers: Mission Demolition (Disney+)
* Lopez vs. Lopez Season Three Premiere (NBC)
* MadS (Shudder)
* Rivals Series Premiere (Hulu)
* Self-Portrait As A Coffee-Pot Series Premiere (Mubi)
* Shark Tank Season Sixteen Premiere (ABC)
* S.W.A.T. Season Eight Premiere (CBS)
* The Devil's Hour (Prime Video)
* The Fabulous Lives Of Bollywood Wives Season Premiere (Netflix)
* The Man Who Loved UFOs (Netflix)
* The Park Maniac (Prime Video)
* The Turnaround (Netflix)
'* Twas the Date Before Christmas (Hallmark)
* Woman Of The Hour (Netflix)
* Yintah (Netflix)

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19TH:
* Blue Miburo Series Premiere (Crunchyroll)
* Christmas In Scotland (Great American Family)
* Holiday Crashers (Hallmark)
* Husband, Father, Killer: The Alyssa Pladl Story (Lifetime)
* 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony (Disney+)

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20TH:
* A Christmas Castle Proposal (Great American Family)
* Bruce Springsteen: Backstage And Backstreets (ABC)
* Dino Dex Series Premiere (Prime Video)
* Interview With A Killer Series Premiere (Court TV)
* Scouting For Christmas (Hallmark)
* Serial Killer Capital: Los Angeles (Oxygen)
* The Equalizer Season Five Premiere (CBS)
* The Life I Can't Remember (Lifetime)
* The Rise Of The Ghoul Log (Shudder)
* Wildlife Rescue Australia Series Premiere (NatGeo Wild)

MONDAY, OCTOBER 21ST:
* Carved (Hulu)
* Contraband: Seized At The Airport Series Premiere (Discovery)
* Poppa's House Series Premiere (CBS)
* Rachael Ray's Meals In Minutes Season Premiere (fyi)
* The Neighborhood Season Seven Premiere (CBS)
* What We Do In The Shadows Season Premiere (FX)
* Whitstable Pearl Season Three Premiere (Acorn TV)

SEE YOU ON MONDAY!