Netflix is the company that revolutionized that movie and TV industry. Founded by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in 1997, it has grown to become the largest entertainment media company in 2020. The two decades of Netflix has seen a lot of ups and downs, but today its dominance in the streaming business is unparalleled. As of now, it has 19 per cent of the OTT subscriptions share which is expected to drop down to 18 per cent at the end of the year, which means it is far from being a monopoly.
The drop in global share of subscriptions does not imply that its dominance is decreasing. The global market of OTT is growing at a breakneck speed. There are new competitors emerging every now and then. With so many options to choose from, the drop in the subscription share is quite natural. But it should not be forgotten that the subscription of Netflix alone is the biggest among all its OTT competitors. In 2012, to ensure the long run of its supremacy, Netflix started producing and distributing both movies and television series. It has incurred huge debts to keep producing Netflix Originals, which it hopes will one day lead them to monopolize the streaming market.
Just recently it was officially announced that Netflix is going to make a spy thriller starring Ryan Gosling who will be playing the role of a former spy turned assassin along with Chris Evans who is trying to hunt him down. It will be directed by Anthony Russo, the man behind the most profitable movie of all time, namely Avengers Endgame. The stardom of both Ryan and Chris along with the director Russo seems like the right recipe for Netflix to make its own Bond-like spy thriller franchise. The movie is going to cost a whopping $200 million and is set to become the most expensive Netflix movie ever produced.
The director Anthony Russo has on record stated that the everyone along with the actors and directors has committed to the movie which they hope to spawn into a franchise for the streaming site centered around the former spy turned assassin, the role which is reportedly being played by Gosling. He also compared the movie to Captain America, remarking that it was moving in that territory which is probably going to excite Chris Evan’s fans.
The movie is based on The Gray Man series of books written by the famous American novelist Mark Greaney. Since the Gray Man series has over ten books, the franchisee will have a great chance of growing into a long run movie series. The production is delayed to January of 2021.
The streaming company has lately been trying to create its own high-budget franchises. The CEO and founder Reed Hastings has been very vocal about this ambition. It is going to be interesting to see how successful Netflix is going to be in this pursuit. Given the success it has had so far, it seems very likely that its move to create its own franchises will be realized sooner or later.
It’s a great opportunity for Netflix to leverage such a large viewer base to give bigger and better hits now. It is going to be interesting to see where it goes from here. The other OTT platforms will definitely have to struggle with the growing popularity and reach of Netflix. This decade will probably see Netflix monopolizing the global OTT market.
