Netflix is going to get even bigger.
During Netflix’s third-quarter interview, chief content officer Ted Sarandos revealed that they’re looking to achieve the kind of success they have found in TV by increasing the amount of content. How big? According to Sarandos, Netflix plans to release 80 original films in 2018, which means more acting opportunities for aspiring actors.
The streaming service is coming off a big third quarter, growing its subscriber base by 5.3 million new members during the quarter. 850,000 members in the U.S. and 4.45 million members around the world. Netflix also reported a third-quarter revenue of $2.99 billion, up 30 percent from last year.
This news comes after the announcement that the company will be increasing prices for the first time in two years, increasing the cost of its most popular $9.99 plan to $10.99 a month, which allows you to use four screens at once and provides 4K video, is increasing $2 to $13.99 a month.
According to Sarandos, the move to more content is a long-term plan to slowly raise prices in conjunction with increases in company’s value, and that means increasing the amount of original content that can only be found on Netflix. To increase that content, Netflix needs to spend $7 to 8 billion, that is an increase from last year’s $6 billion.
“I think people will start seeing the potential for this original movie initiative,” Sarandos explained, “that it could be done on the enormous scale we have on the television side.” As an example of the scope of films audiences can expect from their continued investment in original films, Sarandos pointed toward David Ayer’s Bright, the big-budget high-concept fantasy actioner starring Will Smith, which debuts on Netflix in December.
80 films is a huge investment of resources and money, which is far beyond what the streaming service has allocated to their film division in the past. That said, the diversity in the content they are making has allowed them to be successful this year.
“We had three different films released this quarter that, if viewing was buying a movie ticket, would be sizable successes in Death Note, Naked and To the Bone,” he said, “and probably very little audience crossover between them.That’s the benefit of the great new original programming coming nearly every day on Netflix.”
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