After shocking the film world with it’s $469 million purchase of two Knives Out sequels from director Rian Johnson and star Daniel Craig, Netflix is making it clear that it will be dropping huge amounts of cash on content in 2021. In an attempt to significantly bulk up the back half of its content offerings for the year, Netflix will be spending over $17 billion, which is a considerable increase over last year’s budget of $11.8 million. Via Variety:
“As we’ve noted previously, the production delays from Covid-19 in 2020 will lead to a 2021 slate that is more heavily second half weighted with a large number of returning franchises,” said the company in its letter to shareholders. “And while the roll out of vaccines is very uneven across the world, we are back up and producing safely in every major market, with the exception of Brazil and India. Assuming this continues, we’ll spend over $17 billion in cash on content this year and we’ll continue to deliver an amazing range of titles for our members with more originals this year than last.”
There’s also a bit of urgency to Netflix’s increased spending. While the pandemic was initially a boon for subscriber growth, the streamer is reportedly in the midst of a “dramatic slowdown” for nabbing even more subscribers, according to CNBC. Netflix attributes the phenomenon on production delays weakening new content offerings, and it’s confident that wheeling out new films and movies will restart its subscriber growth.
To aid in that effort, Netflix recently won a multi-year auction that will give it access to Sony’s streaming library in 2022.