Netflix to Spend $8 Billion on Original Content Including 30 Anime Series, 80 Movies and More
Perhaps looking to shape up for the inevitable showdown with Disney, Amazon, and other content owners, Netflix is looking to secure its library of shows by investing a cool $8 billion on original content. These include 30 new anime shows and 80 all-original films to launch in 2018.
This move to lock down its own original content comes as content providers like 20th Century Fox have become the latest of several studios that have pulled out their content off of Netflix. Just this July, Hulu has announced that it has partnered up with Fox, making it the exclusive home of all their shows including "Bob's Burgers," "American Dad," and just recently, "Futurama."
Perhaps in view of this, Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos outlined the plan to spend $8 billion on new shows, as Netflix revealed in their recent video call with analysts on Monday, Oct. 16.
Sarandos went so far as to share that out of that sizable budget, a good part of it will go towards the 30 new anime series that they will be launching starting 2018.
Netflix also plans to stretch that budget to make 80 original movies. These will be a mixed collection in terms of production value, with many of them slated to be lower-budgeted drama and comedy features, according to Bloomberg via BGR. The streaming service also plans to put out some highlight, big-budget films like "Bright" as well to fill in their line-up for next year.
"We plan on about 80 coming up next year. And they range anywhere from the million dollar Sundance [Film Festival] hit all the way up to something on a much larger scale, like we're seeing on Bright, which will be at the end of this year and Irishman, which is with Martin Scorsese, that should be in early 2019," Sarandos explained, as quoted by Polygon.
Aside from working on its own original content, Netflix is also looking to continue moving forward with deals with content producers. Their last agreement with Millarworld has brought the popular "Kick-Ass," "Kingsman" and "Wanted" movies to Netflix, and the company wants to build on that as well.