A new Guardian long read dissects how Netflix’s data-driven culture, scale, and shifting incentives helped normalize easy-to-follow, mass-appeal movies, then hints at a corrective under new film leadership. Here is what matters for working filmmakers: where decisions are really made, how “personalization” flattens taste, and why AI is poised to super-charge more of the same. Netflix’s most expensive bet to date, The Electric State, briefly hit No. 1, then vanished from the service’s top 20, despite a reported 320 million dollar budget. The Guardian piece, which I really recommend reading in its entirety, positions it as the archetypal “algorithm movie,” built from recognizably safe ingredients and optimized for background viewing. The claim frames a larger thesis: scale and data nudge storytelling toward low-friction beats, bright flat imagery, and mixes that translate on phones as much as on living-room setups. Remember Netflix’s “The Electric State”? We don’t either. Image credit: Paul Abell / Netflix How Netflix’s real content decisions happen Former executives and collaborators describe a commissioning pipeline that models likely performance early, long before creatives see data. Greenlights are increasingly shaped by historic signals such as talent attachments, repeatable genres, and proven “altgenre” combinations. By the time a filmmaker hears interest, many of these factors are already locked in, narrowing creative flexibility. This filtering process helps explain why projects with unusual voices often get trimmed or reshaped into safer packages. Once inside the production cycle, executives may still give notes in a “traditional” studio style, but the crucial gatekeeping has already...
Published By: CineD - Yesterday