One of the biggest stories going into this year’s Cannes Film Festival was the controversy surrounding Netflix and the festival. With the inclusion of two Netflix original films, “Okja” and “The Meyerowitz Stories,” in the festival, film purists and theater distributors (specifically in France, where films released in cinemas must wait 36 months before streaming) were upset that Cannes would show films that would have no major theatrical release. Cannes responded by announcing that starting next year, any film without a theatrical release scheduled for France, would not be allowed to play in Competition. It’ll be interesting to see what happens to Netflix and other streaming services that want to show their films. One thing is for sure, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings didn’t think the controversy hurt them at all.
In an extensive interview at Recode, he said, “The two films, ‘The Meyerowitz Stories’ and ‘Okja,’ got in [to Cannes] on their own on artistic merit… they were just normal movies. But sometimes the establishment is clumsy when they try and shut out the insurgent and then the insurgent’s role is to play that up. Where someone picks a fight with us, that gets a lot of attention which then brings attention [to our films].”
He continued, “[The Cannes controversy] has been fantastic for us, most importantly for ‘Okja’ and ‘The Meyerowitz Stories,’ which are small films and very artistic and they’ll get a lot more awareness.”
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But that’s not all. Hastings has never been one to keep quiet on issues regarding film releases, so it wasn’t a shock that during the interview, he went on to describe the film strategy at Netflix and the paradigm shift in media consumption.
“So big movies will come out and they’ll be on Netflix and on Amazon… and also in theatres. If you want a communal experience with your friends, you’ll go to the theater, just like you’d go to a restaurant even though you know how to cook,” said Hastings.
This is the biggest point of contention between the streaming giant and the theater chains. Theater chains know that even though most of the people who watch a film on Netflix might not have gone to the multiplex to watch it anyway, there will definitely be some that will prefer to watch the film at home, and won’t spend their money at the theater. For Netflix, it’s not really a big deal, as long as subscription numbers continue to rise.
It’s clear that the debate over the future of film distribution is just beginning. Good news is that it looks like there’s going to be some great content out there for film fans to watch, wherever they choose to watch it. [via Screen Daily]