By most accounts, Netflix's big-upkeep Will Smith blockbuster Bright is one of the worst movies of the twelvemonth. It has a 32% score on Rotten Tomatoes -- critics don't just dislike it; they've eviscerated it as an barb to cinema. Yet despite that response, which is peculiarly disappointing for a moving picture with a $xc million upkeep, Netflix has reportedly greenlit a sequel with Volition Smith attached. That doesn't make much sense at start, specially since the company tin can't depository financial institution on big box office returns like other studios. Simply for Netflix, information technology turns out hype matters more than quality.

Terminal year, nosotros noted that Netflix never slowed down in 2016. It brought its streaming service to more than countries effectually the globe, invested fifty-fifty more in original content, added offline viewing, and finally saw the fruits of a deal it made with Disney back in 2012. For the most part, Netflix connected with that strategy over the past 12 months. But the addition of major exclusives like War Machine, a $60 million armed forces drama starring Brad Pitt, and Decease Note, an anime accommodation that cost between $40 and $50 meg, aimed to brand the company a direct Hollywood competitor. (Netflix also spent more than $100 million for the rights to Martin Scorsese's The Irishman.)

Vivid, with its huge upkeep, world-famous star and Christmas release, was the crown jewel of Netflix's 2017 program. Why trek out to a movie theater in the common cold when you lot could just hit a button and enjoy a new Will Smith motion-picture show on your couch? Afterwards all, y'all won't have to deal with rise ticket prices, expensive snacks and the hell of unruly audiences. That'due south been Netflix'southward value suggestion for years, but at present information technology's making that statement with the sort of blockbuster that would have sold out theaters a decade ago.

Unfortunately, since Netflix doesn't release stats for its films, nosotros don't have any numbers to back up the company'due south conclusion that Brilliant is successful enough to warrant a sequel. It could be that information technology saw an uptick in subscribers alee of the movie's release. Perhaps fewer people canceled their subscriptions than usual in December. Possibly international markets grew much faster than anticipated, cheers to the star power of Will Smith. Whatever the reasoning, the information must have been convincing.

It's non too hard to see why Netflix subscribers might exist interested in Bright. Like many of the company'due south original entries, information technology feels as if it was put together by an algorithm. It has Volition Smith as a cop (like Bad Boys!) fighting supernatural forces (like Independence Day and Men in Black!) in a fantasy world (similar Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones!). Less compelling to audiences, but perhaps more reassuring to Netflix, is that it was too directed past David Ayer, who made the financially successful (but terrible) blockbuster Suicide Team. He made a name for himself past writing Training Twenty-four hours, helming gritty cop films like End of Watch, and directing Brad Pitt in Fury. His films typically appeared amidst Netflix's trending lists, so it was just a matter of fourth dimension earlier the company brought him in-house.

Terrible movies being deemed hits is nothing new, but Netflix's algorithmic production mode and opaque markers for success are particularly concerning. More and then than with other studios, it doesn't actually thing if the company's original content is skillful, as long equally it hits some mysterious metrics. Netflix plans to spend upwards to $8 billion on original content next yr, so you can expect the budgets for its projects to grow even larger.

While Netflix has long been praised for the freedom it gives creators, that strategy could exist unsafe equally it delves deeper into the world of blockbusters. Rather than being an antitoxin to the worst habits of Hollywood, Netflix could terminate upwards existence yet another source of trashy big-budget films.