Ted Sarandos, chief content officer at Netflix, has said that 90 per cent of Netflix subscribers have watched its original programming, although these figures have not been verified by a third party. The streaming firm is estimated to have spent $12 billion on original programming in 2018 alone.
Read more: 52 of the best films on Netflix UK this week Self-promotion is important for Netflix, which has put billions of dollars into its expansion from a streaming service into a purveyor of original content. But unlike many of Netflix's shows, the movie doesn't have its own account pumping out constant memes and updates.
“Netflix itself helped give the film its own boost by tweeting about how many people have watched it, and whether it’s true or not, the tweet was a marketing tool and a form of vindication or seal of approval for the content to the Netflix audience.”īird Box was also helped by a tweet from Kim Kardashian West – she has 59m followers. “Timing is a key factor here – Christmas is known as prestige movie season, and people are home for the holidays, off from work, and it’s cold outside, so there are more reasons to stay in.”īenjamin Burroughs, a professor of emerging media at the University of Nevada, says that Netflix’s own self-promotion on social media probably gave the film even more momentum.
In any case, releasing a film that isn’t festive around Christmas is a fairly straightforward way to ensure that there are people around to watch it, says Jeffrey Scheible, a researcher into film and contemporary media at King’s College London.
Other users who chimed in said that it was a welcome distraction for people who were home for the holidays – both of which would have been unlikely to translate directly into box office figures. Richard Brody of The New Yorker pointed out in his review that the fact that it was so easy to access could be the reason why so many people watched at least a part of it.
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