Netflix Won't Release As Many Movies Each Year Going Forward

For a long time, Netflix was cranking out movies to the tune of as many as one movie per week in 2021. That strategy is changing going forward, though, as Variety reports that Netflix will now aim to make between 25 and 30 new movies per year, down from about 50 annually in the past.

Speaking to Variety, Netflix movie boss Scott Stuber said Netflix's push for more, more, more was its attempt to play catch-up in a landscape dominated by existing movie studios that have been around for decades.

"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," Stuber said. "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."

But now, Netflix is now focusing on movies that it believes are up to a certain quality level.

"We're not trying to hit a set number of film releases. It's about, 'Let's make what we believe in,'" Stuber said. "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 went on to say that the movie market "got really frothy," adding that Netflix played a role in that. "There were a lot of big star-packaged movies out there, and since we didn't have anything in development or IP, we tried to get them aggressively," Stuber said. "We were vulnerable to the marketplace."

Netflix recently released the movie Pain Hustlers, featuring Emily Blunt, Chris Evans, and Andy Garcia, and the Sylvester Stallone documentary Sly. The next big release is The Killer (November 10), which is David Fincher's next movie starring Michael Fassbender as an assassin. Further out, Netflix is releasing the March on Washington movie Rustin on November 17, the body-switching family comedy Family Switch on November 30, the Adam Sandler animated movie Leo on November 21, and the apocalyptic Leave the World Behind on December 8.

Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon (December 22) is another big Netflix original movie coming this year. The movie exists within the same story universe as Snyder's other Netflix project, Army of the Dead.