At the opening, on the first evening, White Noise by Noah Baumbach, from a short story by Dan De Lillo. And then Blondewhich tells the story of Marilyn Monroe, and more Bardo of the Oscar Award Alexander Gonzalez Iñarritu, quindi Athena by Romain Gavras. Netflix has conquered the billboard of the 79th edition of the Venice Film Festival, just presented: four films in competition, and a mini-TV series, Copenhagen Cowboy by Nicolas Winding Refn. Last year there were three, but already in 2018 the streaming platform had won a Golden Lion with Roma.
Streaming
Advertising on Netflix is coming: is it the end of an era?
by Alessandra Comazzi
Two roads
In recent editions, Venice has become a springboard for the great Netflix titles, unlike Cannes, where the regulation provides that the films in competition are released in French theaters fifteen months before online distribution. The rule has recently changed (previously it took three years), but it didn’t stop Reed Hastings’ company from boycotting the latest edition of the French festival, where it was supposed to present Blonde.
“We’re not really sure they want cinema to survive,” Cannes art director Thierry Frémaux said last year. Ted Sarandos, co-CEO and director of the contents of the platform had been more prosaic some time before in Rome: “Netflix will not be the salvation or the ruin of cinema, everyone is responsible for their choices”.
In the meantime, many things have changed: Netflix has garnered more Oscar nominations than any other Hollywood studio, Apple TV + won the statuette for best movie for 2022 with CodaDisney + is growing at a breakneck pace, Amazon has bought Metro Goldwin Mayer.
Cinema
From Troisi to Fellini, to Nolan: why can’t so many famous films be streamed?
by Francesco Marino
The turning point
And above all, there was the push of the pandemic, with the lockdown and millions of people around the world housebound and cinemas closed. Universal Pictures moved first, canceling the usual 90 days between the release of a new film in theaters and distribution on other platforms. Suddenly, streaming no longer seemed the enemy but the only hope of saving ready-made films from the economic disaster, such as The Hunt, The Invisible Man, Emma, Trolls World Tour. Titles not memorable from an artistic point of view, perhaps, but important because they were among the first to be launched only online, despite being produced by a traditional studio and not by a streaming platform. The business model was also different: they were not included in the catalog, in all-inclusive season tickets, but can be purchased separately for a surcharge, not too far from the ticket price in the hall. Like this Trolls World Tour grossed $ 100 million from streaming alone, a third of the first Trolls grossed in total.
What if Mulan, Onward, Birds of Prey they only came out in streaming, blockbusters like Tenet e No Time To Die have been postponed until the reopening of the rooms, with receipts that have been heavily affected. Yet shortening or eliminating the period of exclusivity granted to cinemas is an advantage for the giants of Hollywood: lower marketing costs, because only one advertising campaign is needed, higher revenues, given that 80% of premium video-on-demand revenue is destined for the studios. Disney, which is very strong in content but needs to push the streaming platform, still relatively young, has chosen to launch many titles simultaneously in the cinema and in streaming, first of all the lucky one Luca.
A few years ago, Netflix, with Roma he had experimented with an intermediate solution: 21 days of exclusivity in small independent theaters, then the online broadcast. Alfonso Cuarón’s film won three Oscars, and it also did very well in The Irishman by Martin Scorsese, which had great critical acclaim and was viewed over 26 million times in its first week of online programming.
And give
Streaming TV, Netflix also slows down in Italy: Amazon and Disney catch up
by Emanuele Capone
The future
Numbers destined to grow steadily: according to the Hollywood Reporter, in four years the total number of subscribers to the main streaming platforms will almost double, from the current 422 million to 834 million. Disney Plus could reach 285 million subscribers, surpassing Netflix (estimated at around 270 million), Amazon Prime Video will follow closely with 243 million and Apple TV + will be fourth, with approximately 36 million.
There is enough to convince even the most skeptical, for example Steven Spielberg, who in 2017 accused Netflix and Amazon of being “real dangers” for the future of cinema. The director of Schindler’s List changed his mind and signed a billion-dollar deal with his production company Amblin Partners to make several films with Netflix, who commented: “It’s an incredible opportunity to tell new stories together and reach audiences in new ways.”
The trend
So algorithms are changing pop culture
by Francesco Marino
