Netflix hasn’t been renewing a lot of content for awhile now with various distribution partners and some of that is because some are going their own way, such as the upcoming all-encompassing Disney service that will be a player. Netflix knew this was coming and has forged a lot of great international relationships and firmed up a lot of near-simulcast style things for US TV and more as that drives people to check out the shows when they’re live.
But they also know that original content is king and they’ve got the scale of audience to bring in some great projects. The service has revealed that they’re looking to bring out a total of eighty original films in 2018, which averages a new film every four days or so. That’s a radical change from where things are now as the third quarter that ended in September just had eight films across the three months it ran.
The service is looking for the smaller type films out there referencing the “million-dollar Sundance hit” that goes big to larger big-budget productions like Bright and The Irishman that features actors like Will Smith and Robert De Niro that will be a draw for audiences. Some of this will factor into some theatrical elements as well but with 80 films there’s more than enough room to move with.
While that’s significant and a potential game changer in the long run for Hollywood, anime is not immune to it either. It was revealed that thirty series are being planned to roll out over 2018, which isn’t a surprise as the relationships in Japan have firmed up in competition with Amazon’s streaming service. These aren’t largely “original” in a sense that they’re purely funded by Netflix but rather distribution acquisition in some cases or minor funding by the service in order to acquire worldwide streaming distribution. We know of several of these series already such as Violet Evergarden and Sword Gai as well as Baki and Knights of the Zodiac: Saint Seiya among many others with more obviously to be announced as the seasons and pacts are made public.
