The streaming giant Netflix has often been criticized for mass-producing original titles, with some recent criticism coming from actor, producer, and director Ben Affleck. According to IndieWire, Affleck was outspoken against Netflix's business practices during the New York Times' DealBook Summit:
“If you ask [Netflix chairman] Reed Hastings… he’d say, ‘Hey, we went for quantity to establish a footprint... I’m sure there’s wisdom in that and I’m sure they had a great strategy, but I would have said, ‘How are we going to make 50 great movies? How is that possible?’ There’s no committee big enough. There aren’t enough — you just can’t do it... it resists the sort of assembly line process.”
Netflix released over 400 original titles last year, so unless you're watching more than one movie every day, you'll never be able to catch up to their movie-making pace, even if it's the only streaming service you use. Of course, virtually no one is trying to watch every Netflix movie ever, but even after distilling the streaming service's catalog down to their favorite types of films, the average Netflix subscriber can't hope to keep up. Affleck admits that some genres are more watched than others but believes that a good strategy can make audiences care more about smaller dramas:
“There’s a bigger audience for action movies than there is for small dramas. I get that... Certain genres play more broadly and you can’t not be mindful of that. But let’s do a good one, let’s surprise the audience, let’s make them care about it.”
Ben Affleck Says Cinematographers, Editors, and Costume Designers Should be Paid More
Miramax
Affleck's criticisms are more than just talk. He's put his money where his mouth is, having formed a film production company last month with Matt Damon called Artists Equity. It aims to solve the problems that Affleck has discussed by taking a creator-focused approach to filmmaking, going for quality over quantity. They plan to start releasing only three films per year, eventually working up to, but capping off at, five films per year. This is what Affleck had to say when announcing the company:
“As streamers have proliferated, they have really ended back-end participation, and so this is partly an effort to try to recapture some of that value and share it in a way that’s more equitable... Not just writers and directors and stars. But also cinematographers, editors, costume designers, and other crucial artists who, in my view, are very underpaid.”
Ben Affleck has worked on dozens of films, including Good Will Hunting, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, Daredevil, The Town, and The Last Duel. He portrays Batman in the DC Universe and will appear in The Flash and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, both set to release in 2023.