When Netflix released a rundown of its most-watched movies and TV shows for the first half of the year on Thursday, its TV rankings offered few surprises. Of course big shows like “Bridgerton,” “Griselda,” “Ripley,” and the final season of “The Crown” all brought in millions upon millions of views.
But it’s top-viewed movies tell a different, more interesting story.
The Millie Bobby Brown fantasy thriller “Damsel” had the most views in the last six months, with 143.8 million. Kevin Hart’s heist movie “Lift” came in second with 129.4 million. The Spanish-language drama “Society of the Snow” came in third with 103.8 million. (Netflix bases the data on hours viewed for every title — original and licensed — that was watched for over 50,000 hours.)
You probably saw all of these movies. But were you waiting in anticipation to see them on the streamer, or did you stumble across them once they were already on the service?
Chances are, it was the latter.
What the top three titles have in common is that they all were released by Netflix with little to no publicity or marketing fanfare. While that might come as a shock, the streaming giant has been using this strategy since it began making original content, especially movies, back in the 2010s.
Clearly, this new data proves the strategy is working. The Netflix homepage has essentially become its own watercooler destination, directing users to the hottest titles on its Top 10 list and putting its newest releases in splashy top banners, encouraging users to push play first, ask questions later.
That robust landing page has allowed Netflix to eschew spending tens of millions of dollars promoting many of its original films. If audiences will find them on the app anyway, why bother building pre-release hype?
Of course, that’s not the strategy for every single Netflix Original. Eddie Murphy returning to one of his most beloved franchises with “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” rightfully put Netflix’s marketing department in overdrive: there was a splashy premiere in Beverly Hills, and huge billboards featuring Murphy in his character’s iconic Detroit Lions jacket spread for miles on Sunset Boulevard.
But “Society of the Snow,” a Spanish-language true story about a rugby team stranded in the Andes after their plane crashes, got next to nothing in terms of promotion from Netflix — and it still came out in the top three. (The movie did, however, land a best foreign film Oscar nomination, which may have helped its exposure — but it certainly did not get billboards on Sunset Boulevard.)
It’s a strategy that’s left most of Hollywood still scratching its head. The logic goes that because Netflix wants to be a destination, it doesn’t need major promotion, or even its movies in theaters first in order to get eyeballs (unless the big-name talent involved demands it). The streamer has so many subscribers all over the world that it’s betting that sooner or later you’ll open the app — and when you do, you’ll be fed a movie on its landing page and hit play.
Here’s another example of Netflix’s strategy in action. As a movies reporter whose job it is to know about upcoming releases (and who regularly fields countless pitches from publicists about their newest titles), I had no idea that the teen comedy “Incoming” and action movie “Rebel Ridge,” existed — that is, until I started seeing them on my timeline the day they were released. Both spent time on Netflix’s coveted Netflix Top 10 list.
While Netflix’s watercooler model may be proving itself a cost-saving win, it came with a lot of trial and error. It’s also a strategy that’s hard to duplicate.
Just ask Apple. Its Apple TV+ service is finding success on the TV side with “Ted Lasso,” “Severance,” and “The Morning Show,” but it’s still struggling to become a destination for movies since “CODA” won best picture at the Oscars in 2022.
Recent Apple releases like “Napoleon,” “Fly Me to the Moon,” and “The Instigators” haven’t drawn big audiences. And though the streamer did get Martin Scorsese to come on with “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which also earned Oscar nominations, it’s building an unfortunate reputation as the streamer with higher-quality content from A-list actors that simply doesn’t get watched.
“It’s hilarious how Apple keeps curating these auteur-driven critically acclaimed projects with with some of the greatest actors we have and NO ONE is watching meanwhile Netflix are reporting record viewership for season 7 of the worst slop you’ve ever seen,” X user @baileylikemovie wrote in a viral tweet.
The post has 116,000 likes. Chances are, a good portion of those users watched “Damsel,” too.
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