Netflix might have conquered our dwelling rooms, however in relation to discovering success in the world of movie? The numbers converse for themselves. And so they’re not sort.

The most recent reminder of Netflix’s function movie struggles comes from The New York Occasions, which unveiled a reader-voted checklist of the top 100 films of the twenty first century. Greater than 200,000 folks participated, and out of the a whole bunch of original movies Netflix has churned out since launching its original film ambitions over a decade in the past, guess what number of made the lower?

Not one.

Knives Out, ranked at #91 on the checklist, no less than has a tangential connection to the streamer, in that the original was launched in theaters by Lionsgate in 2019; Netflix later swooped in with a $450 million deal for the sequels. However that’s it.

Clearly, this ought to be a sobering actuality test for Netflix, which has spent years and billions of {dollars} attempting to persuade everybody that it’s simply as a lot a severe participant in movie as it’s in TV. The corporate has actually tried to purchase its manner into cinematic respectability: Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma, Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story, and David Fincher’s Mank all scored awards consideration and essential reward. And but, Netflix continues to fall quick the place it issues most.

At this yr’s Oscars (the 97th), the streamer’s huge focus was the cringe-worthy Emilia Pérez, the umpteenth Netflix film to rack up a great deal of nominations and stroll away with two lesser awards — for Finest Original Track, “El Mal,” and Finest Supporting Actress (Zoe Saldaña). That film, in the meantime, nonetheless has a crazy-low 17% viewers rating on Rotten Tomatoes, primarily based on greater than 10,000 person scores. 

In case you ask me, this persistent disconnect between status and viewers approval signifies a bigger downside that Netflix up to now appears unable to unravel. Its films over and over once more test all the proper packing containers — from award-winning administrators to big-name stars — however they type of simply come and go, hardly ever leaving a lot of a cultural footprint. In the meantime, Netflix continues to throw jaw-dropping quantities of cash at film tasks, typically with little to indicate for it. Certainly one of the latest examples is The Electric State, a 2025 sci-fi epic from the Russo brothers that reportedly value a staggering $320 million.

It landed with a thud, at the moment sitting at a brutal 14% on Rotten Tomatoes.

In fact, none of this can cease Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos from doubling down on the concept that film theaters are “an outdated idea for most people,” and that his streamer is “saving” Hollywood, by no means thoughts that the most beloved movies of the century — Parasite, Mulholland Drive, There Will Be Blood, Interstellar, and No Nation for Previous Males, which comprise the Occasions checklist’s high 5 — all performed in theaters. They constructed their reputations the old style manner, by being skilled communally and remembered lengthy after the credit rolled.

Netflix has the cash. It has the expertise. What it doesn’t have, regardless of years of attempting, is proof that its films matter.