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Netflix’s latest crowd pleaser, the gray manreportedly cost $200 million – a price tag comparable to that of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. An action-packed spy thriller starring Ryan Gosling, Ana de Armas and Chris Evans. The gray man is directed by Joe and Anthony Russothe brothers behind some of the biggest hits in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including Avengers: Endgame. In other words, it was designed to succeed, and it succeeded. The film was almost immediately the top film on the service in 92 countries. Sure, this is the kind of thing Ted Sarandos dreams of.
Naturally, Netflix want more.
On Tuesday, less than a week after the film premiered on Netflix, the streamer announced a sequel to The gray man was already in the works, as was a spin-off movie. These efforts, the company said, were part of what Netflix hoped would become “a major spy franchise” — a cinematic universe that The Verge cheekily called.50 shades of gray men.”
Look, there’s never a good reason to complain about more Ryan Gosling being funneled into your living room, but this is ridiculous. the gray man is fine, but at best it’s the kind of movie you’ll be glad you downloaded onto your iPad before a six-hour flight. Also, you’ve probably seen it before; it only had the words “Mission”, “Impossible” or “Bourne” in the title. There will never be too many fun spy thrillers, but they don’t all have to be part of a franchise. And if they do, can we please prioritize? in continuation to The old guard and Atomic Blonde? Or at least have Charlize Theron and Gosling fight in a crossover event?
But in the end, this isn’t really about the quality of the franchise, it’s about whether Netflix has a franchise at all. Now that the streamer is losing or has lost access to established movie universes like Marvel’s, DC’s or Lucasfilm’s, they need more of themselves. Netflix is losing subscribers, and if it really wants to compete with companies like Disney+ and HBO Max in the long run, it needs to have the kind of features that those services have. “We want our own version of Star Wars or our own version of Harry Potter,” Netflix vice president Matthew Thunell told Reuters recently, “and we’re working really hard to build that up.” Hence the Brooding Gosling Cinematic Universe.
It’s not just Gos, of course. There also is a reality series Inspired by squid gameand that series of Blades off movies that Rian Johnson makes. Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss reportedly adjusting The three-body problem, the first book in Liu Cixin’s sci-fi trilogy. The list goes on. Will these all be bad to mediocre? No. Chances are, some of them will be pretty good. But building a franchise with a following of fans who are so committed that they will continue to pay $15 a month to access it year. This is what my colleague Brian Barrett was talking about when he… called Disney+ a “juggernaut” on the day it was launched. Netflix could have that someday, but it also needs customers now if it hopes to be around long enough to build it.
Netflix isn’t alone in playing this game, of course. This strategy is also why Amazon is make one Lord of the Rings show. And there are hints of it in Apple TV+ adapting Isaac Asimov’s Foundation or have Steven Spielberg made great stories. The difference is that streaming video isn’t Amazon’s or Apple’s only business. They sure would love to have their own cinematic universe, but they may not need it to survive. Netflix does.