Netflix Is Canceling Tons Of Production And Viewers Are The Losers
Netflix announces plans to cut down its production slate and reduce its number of employees.
Well, another great platform will be slicing and dicing its program slate to save money. Like its competitors at Warner Bros. Discovery and their streamer HBO Max and other platforms and networks like Showtime and The CW, Netflix has revealed that they will be minimizing their production slate and cutting jobs as well. According to Fox Business, this recent shakeup at the company will see a pullback on the number of original films – both long and short.
Coming off hot on their Oscar and BAFTA wins for their gritty adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front, Netflix is planning to reallocate some of the saved money and pour their funds into bigger productions. Moving forward with a quality over quantity mindset, this change will be a major one for the leading streamer as over their years in the movie-making biz, they’ve managed to put out around 50 titles a year. Tapping big names like Joe and Anthony Russo, Adam McKay, and Guillermo del Toro to helm blockbusters for both small and theatrical releases, the company will keep driving towards the excellence that they’re known for.
As we also mentioned, Netflix is saying goodbye to a handful of employees who have helped launch the platform’s status to what it is today. Included in the departures will be Ian Bricke who, for more than a decade, has served as the vice president of the film group, backing one of the streamer’s fan-favorite franchises, The Kissing Booth. Likewise, after 15 years with the company, Lisa Nishimura will be bidding adieu to Netflix, which could spell trouble for comedy and documentary fans as she was a major pusher for standup specials and real-life stories to be told.
Netflix’s decision to cut smaller titles to better serve its major motion picture lineup comes hot on the heels of the company’s crackdown on password sharing. Beginning sometime over the next year, those who share their accounts with others will be slapped with an extra fee to do so. While the current rate of $3 a month may not seem like a lot of money, it’s bound to rake in a nice extra sum for the streaming service over their fiscal year.
The latest Netflix news shouldn’t come as a major surprise to audiences paying attention to the number of titles the company has been giving the ax to in recent days. Just a few months ago, they announced that they would be scrapping the already completed features The Inheritance and House/Wife. Not even big-name films are safe with Scarlett Johansson’s highly-anticipated rom-com, Paris Paramount, also canceled by the streamer, with Warner Bros. now hoping to take in the Nancy Meyers feature.
While Netflix subscribers may be preparing to take a big hit, there are still plenty of big-name titles set to come to the streamer over the next year or so. Between the Russo brothers’ Electric State and Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley coming in the not-so-distant future, there is still some hope for the platform to continue to crank out the content we know and love. And, with several of their titles appearing in the award circuit over the last few years, we can expect more high-end productions to come from this cut.
