Netflix Film Boss Scott Stuber Admits Company Did Not Focus On Quality, Promises Course Correct
Scott Stuber, the Chairman of Netflix Film, admitted the company was not focusing on quality, but put an emphasis on quantity as competitors ramped up their own streaming services. However, he now promises they plan to focus on quality.
Speaking with Variety’s Brent Lang, Stuber admitted the company’s model was churning out as much as they could regardless of quality.
He said, “We were growing a new studio. We’d only been doing this for a few years, and we were up against 100-year-old companies. So you have to ask yourself, ‘What is your business model?’ And for a while it was just making sure that we had enough. We needed volume.”
As for why the business model was to push volume over quality, Stuber noted it was due to companies like The Walt Disney Company, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Paramount creating their own streaming services and wanting to make their films and TV shows exclusive to their own platforms.
He said, “It was clear that these companies were about to take back their own movies and keep them in their own ecosystems.”
“So we had to go all over the world buying as much as we could to make sure that we had the volume our consumers were used to seeing,” he explained.
While Stuber admits the company favored quantity and volume over quality in the past, he also promised that he will be course correcting and putting the focus on quality moving forward.
Not only does he promise higher quality films, but the company will be reducing its film output. Lang details the company will shrink their film output from 50 movies annually to between 25 and 30.
Stuber relayed, “Right now, we’re not trying to hit a set number of film releases. It’s about ‘Let’s make what we believe in.’ And let’s actually put forth a slate that we can stand behind and say, ‘This is the best version of a romantic comedy. This is the best version of a thriller. This is the best version of a drama.’
He also added, “We’re a machine that was built to go, go, go. And that doesn’t always result in quality. A lot of streaming companies made the mistake of moving so fast that we made a lot of things that weren’t ready to be produced. I want to avoid that.”
What do you make of Stuber admitting Netflix’s film division put an emphasis on quantity over quality? Do you believe his promise to course correct and create higher quality movies?
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