Long-standing heavy criticisms of Netflix’s original movies has reached a new level of intensity in recent weeks. A fresh report has alleged that Netflix executives insist original movies adhere to very restrictive creative norms, including having characters speak in didactic expository dialogue intended to reach audiences who aren’t fully watching the movie. This alleged flourish of Netflix original movies doesn’t speak highly to how the company views these projects, with these productions being built from the ground up to be experienced in a multi-tasking fashion rather than digested on their own merits.
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It’s a dispiriting approach to cinema that, so far, has yielded few true blue pop culture phenomenona. Netflix cranks out near-weekly new release movies, yet save for the occasional Okja or Bird Box, nearly all of its original movies have vanished quite quickly after their debuts on the streamer. These nine long-forgotten Netflix original movies, despite each carrying hefty price tags and star-studded casts, especially epitomize how forgotten Netflix’s movies are. Gaze upon these nine motion pictures and realize just how much money Netflix has burned on movies that leave no real cultural footprint.
Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle
Originally a theatrical Warner Bros. Pictures release, Netflix purchased distribution rights to the Andy Serkis directorial effort Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle and unleashed this feature on subscribers in December 2018. This motion picture was heavy on motion-capture animation and famous faces like Cate Blanchett, Christian Bale, and Benedict Cumberbatch. However, Mowgli went nowhere in the pop culture zeitgeist. Audiences already had one VFX-heavy Jungle Book adaptation with a live-action Mowgli thanks to the 2016 Disney tentpole, so another similar project with creepier animation was the very definition of redundant. Plus, limiting a production meant to epitomize grand spectacle to just the small screen was an endlessly bamboozling choice.
The King
These days, if Timothee Chalamet so much as breathes, the internet loses its mind. We’re all Chalamet-pilled, so how come The King, a 2019 historical epic Shakespeare adaptation where he plays a young Henry V, has vanished from even Chalamet fansites? The feature certainly didn’t lack either spectacle or star power (Lily-Rose Depp and Robert Pattinson were also in the cast). The problem here was both mixed reviews (the kiss of death for an award-season hopeful) and that a big historical epic is a terrible fit for a streamer begging people to watch its “content” on their phones. Plus, Chalamet was also in Best Picture Oscar nominee Little Women in 2019, which overshadowed this pricey David Michod directorial effort.
6 Underground
When you think of Michael Bay movies, many things immediately leap to mind: Explosions, very specific and noticeable color grading, and abrasive editing. What doesn’t hit your brain though, is the thought of experiencing Bay titles on your couch. This man’s movies, for better and for worse, were made for IMAX screens and the loudest speakers possible. In December 2019 however, Bay’s 6 Underground dropped on Netflix. Without being confined to a darkened auditorium, audiences opted to pass on a new original Bay feature. Five years since its release, 6 Underground has vanished from everyone’s memory. Former Netflix film chief Scott Stuber even later said the feature was a misfire.
The Prom
Ryan Murphy’s 2020 musical The Prom attempted to give audiences a feel-good feature about queer acceptance. Unfortunately, this project was more obsessed with aging heterosexual Broadway stars and watching James Corden do a grating caricature of middle-aged gay men than its teenage lesbian characters. Even the presence of future Oscar winner Ariana DeBose couldn’t save The Prom. Reviled by the LGBTQIA+ viewers it hoped to enrapture, The Prom gathered dust on Netflix accounts everywhere in December 2020.
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The School for Good and Evil
Sometimes Netflix original movies sound like a game of movie studio Mad Libs gone horribly wrong, and The School for Good and Evil especially encapsulates this. This 2022 adaptation of Soman Chainani’s novels explores a school where fantasy heroes and villains are trained to indulge in their good and bad side. An obvious attempt to give Netflix its equivalent to Harry Potter or Hunger Games, The School for Good and Evil in film form went nowhere in developing an ardent fanbase despite featuring Charlize Theron, Kerry Washington, and Michelle Yeoh as a few members of its faculty.
Heart of Stone
Heart of Stone wasn’t just another “girl power” Netflix action movie that bizarrely forgot to hire any women directors/cinematographers/composers. It was also Gal Gadot’s return to the streamer after headlining 2021’s Red Notice. Costing an eye-popping $150 million to make, Heart of Stone’s budget clearly didn’t go towards its generic sets or stunt-heavy sequences. The project garnered immediate criticism for failing to establish a distinctive identity. Beyond showing up on many “worst of the year” lists at the end of 2023, Heart of Stone has sunk without a trace from pop culture.
The Adam Project
The Adam Project is one of the few Netflix original movies whose own director has openly admitted didn’t make enough of a splash thanks to its streaming premiere. Talking to Jon M. Chu for Variety, filmmaker Shawn Levy recalled how The Adam Project was a creatively rewarding movie to make, but that its lack of a long-term impact solidified to him that theatrical releases were optimal for motion pictures. Combining Ryan Reynolds, a starry ensemble cast, an Amblin-style tone, and lots of bad digital de-aging couldn’t help The Adam Project overcome the inherent problems with dropping an original movie on streaming first.
Bright
There’s an alternate timeline where Bright became one of the most influential movies of the 2010s. After all, this was the first major tentpole Netflix purchased for development. Beating out other studios like Warner Bros., Bright could have signaled the arrival of a new era in blockbuster cinema. Instead, Bright was an embarrassment only remembered in the 2020s (if it’s even remembered at all) for cringey lines like “fairy lives don’t matter today.” Rather than opening the floodgates for Netflix as a serious blockbuster movie creator, Bright just established how no amount of big stars or hefty budgets could turn Netflix streaming fare into beloved movies.
The Gray Man
At the time of its release, the $200+ million budgeted The Gray Man was one of the most expensive Netflix original movies in history. Based on a string of Mark Greaney novels, Ryan Gosling’s CIA agent Courtland Gentry was clearly meant to sustain multiple movies (and spinoffs). The Gray Man was immediately ridiculed for its slapdash filmmaking and wasting its two leading men (Chris Evans as its baddie fresh off his Marvel run). The Gray Man didn’t even get a notoriety boost with Barbie’s 2023 release tied to its main villain briefly referring to Gosling’s Gentry as a “Ken doll.” If that doesn’t sum up how much people have forgotten The Gray Man, nothing will!
