The annual movie awards season kicks off with the Golden Globes tonight, and interestingly for the first time it’s Netflix movies which lead the way this year, rather than the traditional film studios.
The Irishman by Martin Scorsese with Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, one of the contenders for awards tonight. With a budget of $159 million it is not only one of the more expensive films is Scorsese’s career, but with a playing time of 3 1/2 hours quite possibly also his longest (I enjoyed every minute of it!).
Netflix spent in excess of $14 billion in 2019 on original content, almost triple the $5 billion Apple has budgeted for it’s new streaming service and Amazon’s Prime Video service approximately $6 billion. Not to mention the spends by HBO, Hulu, Disney etc.
Clearly there is a fierce war for viewers going on or developing as the traditional TV- and cable networks find it increasingly difficult to hold on to their viewers, let alone the movie studios such as Paramount and Warner Brothers who depend on the ever rarer blockbusters.
The trend is certainly towards more content directly produced by the streaming services: Netflix made more than 40 productions in the UK last year, including The Crown, Sex Education and Outlaw King and since October has exclusive access to the Shepperton Studios in west London, home to film such as Alien and Mary Poppins Returns.
So good luck to all the contenders for awards tonight, whether they are produced by Netflix or other streaming platforms or not. But we will probably have to get used to seeing more of the Netflix, Prime Video or Apple logos on future releases than the warner Brothers of yore.
The grumpy older man 