The Inter Solar System Police attempts to keep peace in the galaxy, aided in part by outlaw bounty hunters, referred to as "Cowboys." The ragtag team aboard the spaceship Bebop are two such individuals. They have what Hollywood lost.In the year 2071, humanity has colonized several of the planets and moons of the solar system leaving the now uninhabitable surface of planet Earth behind. For those sitting at home, movie stars are still brands and star+concept flicks are still franchises. They don’t need IP, be it Netflix-specific or Netflix-acquired. It’s a gift, a blessing and (if they aren’t careful) a curse that they have so many subscribers (around 215 million) that an enormous numbers of viewers will just watch whatever the week’s big television or film debut happens to be. Frankly, the failure of Cowboy Bebop shows A) the notion of streamers being better at IP development than Hollywood is a myth and B) Netflix need not partake in this madness. The industry as a whole is locked in a cycle where folks only show up for previously successful properties, which leaves the industry trying to turn one-and-done hits and blockbuster star vehicles into monetizable IP and replicable franchises. And now, in an attention-based economy, that mentality has gravitated to most streaming platforms. Audiences didn’t walk away from originality, they walked away from movie stars and gravitated toward marquee characters (while the “movies for movies-sake” crowded shifted to streaming consumption). Star power matters as an added value element, but Tom Hardy is only an opener “as Venom” and Will Smith is only an opener “as the Genie in Aladdin.” When movie stars were the brands and were the franchises (an Adam Sandler comedy, a Will Smith action fantasy, a Julia Roberts rom-com, etc.), audiences showed up for original movies, high concepts and new-to-you adaptations. Hollywood is so obsessed with IP, franchises and nostalgia is because such elements are what audiences still show up for in a theater, both before and likely after Covid. They don’t need Bird Box 2 or Bright 2 because Sandra Bullock’s The Unforgivable notched 85.8 million hours on opening weekend (with little media buzz) while Will Smith’s Fast & Loose will score huge viewership when it debuts. They can wait for the “next” Squid Game or Stranger Things.
That’s okay since Netflix can get folks to press “play” on a new-to-you or entirely original show or movie on the basis of old-school “star+concept” appeal. The quick wind-down for Red Notice implies the comparative viewership for a theoretical Red Notice 2 may be less than, since A) Red Notice isn’t anyone’s best work and B) a $165 million Johnson/Gadot/Reynolds action comedy debuting on Netflix will no longer be forbidden fruit. Netflix barely cares about legs as long as the filmmakers don’t mind and audiences don’t change the channel.Įven Squid Game ranked sixth among shows for Nielsen’s newest charts with 426 million minutes. No matter, that’s still a bazillion viewers. However, it dropped from 148 million hours on the weekend of November 19 to 18 million hours in the second week of December. So says Netflix, Red Notice notched around 22 billion minutes-viewed worldwide in the first 24 days, easily Netflix’s biggest movie ever. That translates into sixteen million views of the 115-minute Dwayne Johnson/Gal Gadot/Ryan Reynolds action comedy and around eight million for the 132-minute Simu Liu/Awkwafina/Tony Leung MCU epic. So sayeth the Nielsen ratings for the week of November 19, the top two movies were Netflix’s Red Notice with 1.843 billion minutes viewed and Disney+’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings with 1.072 billion minutes. (Photo by Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Netflix) Getty Images for Netflix LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - NOVEMBER 11: John Cho attends Netflix's "Cowboy Bebop" Premiere at Goya Studios on Novemin Los Angeles, California.
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