After its 2020 slate of 30 films was hailed as “massively ambitious,” Netflix announced an unprecedented 70 original films that will be released over the course of 2021 as movie theaters across the country are hammered by the coronavirus pandemic and the lockdowns that followed.
The list includes one of Netflix’s most expensive films to date — a star-studded action film called Red Notice that features Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, and Gal Gadot. This year’s lineup also includes works from award-winning filmmakers such as Jane Campion and Paolo Sorrentino and the directorial debut of Lin-Manuel Miranda, and it will include films starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Sandra Bullock, Idris Elba, and a host of other Hollywood stars.
Since Netflix entered the world of original content in 2013 with House of Cards, the streaming service has ramped up its operations significantly, particularly with its film department under the leadership of Scott Stuber.
“With this big of a global audience, there’s a great appetite for film,” Stuber told Bloomberg. “I’m excited about the diversity of what the teams are doing.”
Netflix was quick to take advantage of that “great appetite” for content in March, when the coronavirus pandemic forced millions of people around the globe to stay home, with the March 20 release of Tiger King, which drew more than 34 million viewers in the United States in just the first 10 days of being on the streaming platform.
One of Netflix’s films slated for this year, 8 Rue de l’Humanité, deals directly with the coronavirus pandemic, tracking the lives of seven families who live in the same Parisian apartment complex and “didn’t escape to the countryside at the arrival of the coronavirus.”
The streaming service’s pivot toward original films also comes as the pandemic continues to devastate the movie theater industry. Massive chains, such as AMC, Regal Cinemas, and Cinemark, have halted some or all operations across the country and received no funds from the most recent round of federal financial aid, according to the Washington Post.
As people stayed home and theaters were forced to shut down, studios likewise had to reposition in order to get their content to viewers. Several movies this year that were expected to be box-office hits were either delayed or streamed digitally instead. Early in the pandemic, Universal Studios released Trolls World Tour to rent digitally the same day that it hit box offices, and other studios followed suit. Last month, Warner Bros. announced that it would release all of its 2021 films for at-home streaming at the same time they’re playing in theaters.
“Now we are waiting to see what the theater business becomes,” Stuber told the New York Times. “When that tectonic plate stops, we will be able to have those conversations. We are open to those conversations.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to Netflix for further comment.
