Netflix, streaming and the Oscars: a battle between innovation and prestige
So you’ve read the headlines — “Netflix has taken over the Oscars,” and many more of the like. In a few short years, Netflix went from being a fringe Oscars competitor to leading the field in total nominations.
Last year, the studio received its first Oscar nomination for best picture. This year, in 2020, movies released by Netflix garnered a whopping 24 nominations, almost doubling the total sum of nominations from previous years for the studio. It is undoubtedly a major victory for Netflix amid ongoing tensions with the Academy and industry professionals.
Oscar nominations earned by Netflix, per year
Hover over each section to see the nominees.
In order to be eligible for an Oscar, a film must be screened in theaters for at least seven days in both New York City and Los Angeles. In 2018, Netflix began making exceptions to its strict day-and-date policy. Previously, any films released by the studio in theaters began streaming on the same day — now, however, Netflix occassionally grants exclusive theatrical releases for films and begins streaming the film at a later date.
Netflix released 10 movies with exclusive theatrical windows ahead of their online release in 2019, several of which went on to be nominated for an Oscar.
For comparison, Netflix gave only four films theatrical releases in 2018: Bird Box, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Mowgli, and the Academy Award-winning Roma. This year’s increase in Oscar nominations, therefore, isn’t necessarily a story of improving quality — it could be a story of Netflix's increasing will to screen original movies and toss their hat in the ring for an Oscar.
By the Box Office Numbers: Netflix's biggest Oscar contenders
Though Netflix does not publicly disclose box office figures for its films with theatrical releases, film newssite IndieWire was able to estimate weekend grosses by looking at individual theater's websites.
In terms of revenue earned, Netflix's The Irishman has been the most successful with an estimated domestic gross of $7 million. Still, at its peak, The Irishman only played in 500 theaters (in its fifth week since opening). Critics have argued that Netflix is foregoing potentially "millions" by not giving the film a wide theatrical release.
Any earnings at the box office was unlikely to offset The Irishman's reported budget of $159 million, though, under Netflix's current policy. Netflix films rarely stay in theaters for more than two months, with the notable exception of Roma — by its 15th week in theaters, Roma had grossed an estimated $3,975,000.
Most Netflix films went down to minimal theater play and earnings following its online release, with Roma, again, being the exception. In its 10th week of release — the weekend following the Oscar nominations announcement — it made an additional $175,000, earning more than $3 million in sum.
In the lead up to the 2019 Oscars ceremony, Netflix reportedly spent between $40 and $60 million promoting Roma. Despite the company's hesitance to screen original films in theaters and abandon its business model, it clearly wants to build prestige and money is little object in that race — The Irishman's large budget is further confirmation.
The Irishman's budget was initially estimated to be around $100 million due to the cost of de-aging technology and expensive CGI. Concerns about the cost and effectiveness of this technology caused Paramount Pictures to pull its support for the film in early 2017 — and in swooped Netflix.
Martin Scorsese, the director behind The Irishman, has advocated for the theatrical experience on numerous occassions. Netflix, wanting to keep Scorsese happy while not backing down on its stance, gave the film a more than a monthlong run and established partnerships with small, independent theater chains.
Several of the U.S.'s biggest theater chains — including AMC, Regal and Cinemark — have refused to play Netflix's movies because it did not agree to an exclusive 90 day release window, as is par for the course in Hollywood.
The result is that landmark films from legendary filmmakers like Scorsese — and even those who are newer to the scene — are blacklisted from wide releases because of theater chains adhering to old business practices, and Netflix's determination to push the ball forward in the spirit of change.
About
The Oscar nomination data was collected from this Wikipedia article. The revenue data was largely collected from IndieWire's weekly box office round-ups.
This project is open-source on Github.