Netflix, for the moment, does not have to fear that its reign among streaming platforms will be discussed: a few weeks ago, ‘Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story’ shattered the record for the best third week of all time for an English-language Netflix series. At that time, 701.37 million hours in 19 days, it was placed only behind ‘Stranger Things 4’ (which also had the momentum of the premiere in two batches) in the ranking of the series in English.
However, not everything is good news for the platform. The ambitious ‘Blonde’, the biopic of Marylin Monroe directed by Andrew Dominik that -before its lackluster premiere- had become one of the big bets on the platform for the Oscars, has run into misunderstanding from the public and critics. Specialists have accused her of sexism, being unnecessarily cruel and offering a naive and outdated view of abortion.
But the public reception has not been particularly warm either. According to figures from Netflix itself, kicked off in its debut, the week of September 26 to October 2, with 37.34 million hours watched, very far from the successes of the platform (and also, it premiered on a Wednesday instead of the more usual Friday). It did not even reach the top of that week. Some figures that placed it in line with the 35.4 million of ‘Spiderhead’, which was also considered a failure.
The thing did not improve over time: in its second week (usually the best for platform productions, when word of mouth has had its effect) it has passed just 17.41 million hours. It is not a huge financial failure for the company, since it cost only 22 million dollars, but it is a setback for Netflix’s constant search for prestige.
half midnight club
It is not the only recent Netflix production that has encountered a cold reception from the public. ‘The Midnight Club’ debuted two Fridays ago with only 18.79 million hours played in its first days on the platform. It remains to be seen what figures the second week throws up, but in these cases the comeback is doubtful.
The fruitful relationship between Mike Flanagan and Netflix thus receives a new blow: the days of his acclaimed ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ are far away, and in fact there is the possibility that Netflix announces the cancellation of ‘The Midnight Club’ in few days. Other horror series on the platform, such as ‘File 81’ or ‘The First Death’ had much better results (22.22 million and 30.34 million, respectively) and were quickly cancelled.
These are the most recent and notorious failures of the platform, but there have been others in recent months, which place Netflix in a delicate situation in these times in which, perhaps, a paradigm shift is coming with the arrival at Disney + and Netflix itself of cheaper fees and with ads. Other series and movies that have not worked as desired have been ‘BigBug’, ‘El Pentavirato’, the second seasons of ‘Russian Doll’ or ‘Space Force’ (the latter already cancelled) and the ambitious Apolo 10 1/ 2′ by Richard Linklater.
None of those failures compares, perhaps, to the collapse of ‘Blonde’, a movie for which Netflix had undeniable aspirations, but which hardly anyone is talking about anymore. A perhaps unfair setback for a platform that needs to find the formula for success again (especially now that series like ‘Stranger Things’ are drawing to a close).
