According to its first quarter earnings report, Netflix said that it will spend more than $17 billion on content. They also said that they would deliver more original titles this year. They mentioned that they’re back in operation and are producing content with safety protocols in major markets almost all over the world; with Brazil and India being the recent exceptions.
In 2020, Netflix spent $11.8 billion amid the raging pandemic which drastically cut down production schedules and decreased the amount of original content that was produced. In 2021, with robust vaccination drives in the U.S. and other countries it has increased its budget by over 5 billion. In 2019 the streaming platform spent $13.9.
Netflix beat Wall Street analyst’s estimates in both earnings and revenue projections. However, it lost in Q1 subscriptions which were set by the company. It added almost 4 million paying households falling quite short of its six million targets. On Tuesday, Netflix shares fell by about 11 percent in after hour trading.
Most watched shows on Netflix for the first quarter as per the company’s report are as follows:
- Firefly Lane – Season 1 – 49 million households in the first 28 days on the service
- Cobra Kai – Season 3 – 45 million
- Fate: The Winx Saga – 57 million
- Ginny and Georgia – 52 million
Most watched films were as follows:
- Outside the Wire – 66 million
- Yes Day – 62 million
- I Care a Lot – 56 million
- To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (trilogy) – 51 million
Non English titles also had a good run on Netflix with viewership in tens of millions. Some of the more noteworthy titles were as follows:
- Who Killed Sara? (Mexico) – 55 million
- Below Zero (Spain) – 47 million
- Space Sweepers (South Korea) – 26 million
- Lupin (French) – 76 million
In early March, Netflix exclusively told Variety that all its series that received Oscar nominations saw a huge increase in viewership after the nominees were announced. These included the following:
- A Love Song for Latasha
- Da 5 Bloods
- Pieces of a Woman
- Mank
