Netflix subscribers in focus ahead of earnings as platform plans to release new movie every week
Streaming service Netflix plans to release one new movie every week in 2021. Yahoo Finance’s Alexandra Canal shares the details.
Video transcript
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- Netflix is making good on its promise to deliver a new movie every week of the year. Here now with the details in a little segment we call Fame and Fortune is Alexandra Canal. So, Alexandra, I guess if any company has the deep pockets to make sure they have the content to do this, it's Netflix.
ALEXANDRA CANAL: Oh, yeah, Netflix says they already have 71 projects in the pipeline. This will be a brand new, never before seen movie every week throughout this entire year. And some of these films look incredibly impressive. I want to call out a few. First is "Malcolm and Marie" starring Zendaya and John David Washington. This film has already been getting some Oscar buzz. It's shot in black and white. It was actually filmed in July at the height of the pandemic, probably one of the only films to be shot at that time. Zendaya, obviously, one actress that's having her moment in the sun after winning an Emmy for her role in "Euphoria," so definitely excited to watch that.
Another film to keep an eye on is a star-studded movie called "Don't Look Up." This stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Jonah Hill, Meryl Streep, Ariana Grande, and that's just to name a few. It's from the same director that brought us "The Big Short." And it's about two astronomers that go on a media tour to try and convince the public that a deadly comet is heading towards earth. So that's another one to check out.
And then another one that I want to highlight is this new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie from the production company of Seth Rogen. He's partnering with Nickelodeon to have a new CGI version of this film. And I think this is a good move for Netflix because we've seen how well the kid category has done at Disney+, and I don't think Netflix has enough of those types of films. So I think this is something that could cause them to have more subscribers. And, of course, Netflix does report earnings next week, all eyes are going to be on that subscriber growth number.
When they last reported earnings back in October, that number did disappoint. They were only able to nab around 2.2 million. That was well below their own company forecasts as well as Wall Street estimates. So this time around Netflix says that they expect to have added six million subscribers, Wall Street is estimating 5.9 million. So that number is going to be closely watched next week and hopefully they can deliver it because there's a lot of things going on in this earnings report. We have those recent price hikes, we have the increased competition, and then, of course, this pandemic, which is still taking its toll on a lot of different industries, streaming included.
- Yeah, I mean, you mentioned the competition. I mean, just recently we've got HBOMax coming online. We've got Comcast's Peacock. And the other night, as I'm watching TV, I saw-- I think it was a 60-second commercial for Netflix talking about all their new content. And, you know, you're not used to it, so, in a bit of a way, it seemed almost desperate, for me, the fact that Netflix was saying, hey, look, we're here, watch us, right? I mean, they really had to up the ante.
ALEXANDRA CANAL: And I think you bring up a great point. And I think they're doing this because of the competition. If you think about HBOMax, for a while there it was only really Disney+ and Netflix. I feel like those were the two streamers that we were talking about, but HBOMax has some impressive content, some star-studded content. They announced earlier this week that they will be the home for the new "Sex and the City" reboot. Sarah Jessica Parker is returning, Cynthia Nixon. The only actress that isn't coming back is Kim Cattrall. And she said for a long time that she just did not want to do any other reboot. So the fact they were able to get those other stars is a big deal. So I think because of that Netflix is evaluating that-- who they can put in front of the camera and also behind it.
- Yeah, I'm bummed out that she's not going to be part of that reboot.
ALEXANDRA CANAL: I know.
- All right, thanks for helping me. I'm always looking for what to watch on Netflix, so that was very helpful. Alexandra Canal, appreciate it.
