What Kinds of Netflix Movies are There? How “Original” are They?

Netflix uses one label for all of its exclusive content: “Netflix Original”, but this is actually quite misleading. In order to better clarify Netflix’s role in creating any given film branded this way – and thereby better understand how much credit we give them for what – I have categorized all the films reviewed here by just how “original” they are to the company. The categories are:

True Original

Netflix invested in this project before cameras started rolling and acquired all global rights to show that film. Here the company can take all credit for the work existing and for having shaped it directly or indirectly into what it is. But it must also take all the blame, of course, if it is substandard. In order to keep you informed about the economics of Netflix film production, I will include the reported budget for the films whenever that information can be found.

Global Acquisition

All other Netflix films should more accurately be understood not as “Netflix Originals” but as “Netflix Exclusives”, meaning that they have acquired the exclusive rights to show the film in whatever markets. In other words, they did not actually originate the film. In many cases, when they buy the film they take the whole world rights, or at least the rights in all the countries that permit Netflix to operate (i.e. everywhere but China). In the case of all Acquisitions, we can judge Netflix not on the basis of their ability to develop and produce interesting work, but instead on their taste in seeing a completed (or nearly completed) film and being able to say “Hey, that’s pretty good.” Though they make headlines when they pay big money for a film (such as The Cloverfield Paradox or Mowgli), they are likely paying much less for others, including possibly less than the amount it cost to finance the film, information which might tell us about the company’s opportunism. Whenever possible, I have tried to find and disclose the price the company is reported to have paid for the film in question.

All/Some Foreign Rights

These are films on which Netflix has taken a number of national distribution rights but which the service did not fully finance or buy the film outright. Typically, these films received a theatrical release in their home market, or in several, and then went out on Netflix in all others. These therefore may not be an Original in your specific market, or indeed even be available on the service at all. We have to be careful with these not to give Netflix any credit for the existence of these films or their management outside of the territories where they have rights, except in the very odd case that their investment was early in the making of the film (e.g. Sunday’s Illness). A recent article in the Guardian for example, said that Netflix decided to release The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society in theaters in the UK. This is a very ignorant thing to write, the film was actually made and distributed by Studiocanal who then sold some of the global rights to Netflix. This tells us something very significant about the state of independent cinema in which direct-to-SVOD in some territories is being viewed as the best option. What it does NOT tell us is that Netflix is deciding to release films in theatres in some countries.