Sometimes, Netflix makes it very difficult to try and understand why it does the things that it does in terms of budgeting and expenditure, with the curious case of May December being just one of them.
While the company is happy to funnel hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars into star-powered blockbusters that almost always turn out to be reliably mediocre, the streaming service is also ruthless when it comes to cancelling episodic content that doesn’t perform to its standards.
Prestige dramas are another kettle of fish altogether, with Netflix shelling out the princely sum of $11 million earlier this year to land the distribution rights for Todd Haynes’ acclaimed May December, which could be in with a shot at landing a smattering of Academy Award nominations.
However, the deal was only to stream the film in the United States – with Sky Cinema swooping in to close off the United Kingdom side of the deal – so it seems like an exorbitant amount of cash to spend on a feature that’s only going to be made available in one of the hundreds of countries where Netflix is beamed onto the devices of its subscribers.
The story finds Natalie Portman as an acclaimed actress who shacks up with Julianne Moore and her husband in order to get into character for her latest role, where she plays a younger version of the actress’ former starlet and tabloid favorite. An 89 percent Rotten Tomatoes score is solid, but not really worth $11 million, although we see how it fares among audiences after What’s on Netflix revealed a December release window.
Published: Jul 12, 2023 10:18 am