While Netflix original movies do not have to be critical hits to be successes, there is starting to be no getting around the fact that The Electric State is shaping up to be a disaster for the service.
The reportedly $320 million Russo Brothers production starring Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt is one of the most expensive movies ever made. Its viewership is now lower on Netflix’s Top 10 list than Kraven the Hunter, one of the worst-performing superhero movies at the box office ever, a film so bad it killed the entire Sony spider-universe.
The Electric State is also bad with a frankly stunning 15% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, something that even makes Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon movies look good. There are “insider” reports that Marvel’s Kevin Feige is concerned about the film and will be taking a more active role in the Russo’s upcoming dual Avengers movies. If that isn’t true, it should be, given what we’ve just seen here.
We do not have an updated set of viewership numbers for The Electric State yet, but the film is down to #6 in Netflix’s top 10 list, behind some extremely random entries. Den of Thieves 2 has now been planted at #1. A tornado documentary next, then Despicable Me 4, Kraven and M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap. This has been the case for a few days now, and it was under a week after release that it had dropped off being #1, which you just do not want to see with a movie this expensive, which Netflix hoped would be one of its biggest ever.
With a 25 million view start and this much of a drop-off, I’m finding it hard to believe that The Electric State will be able to crawl its way into Netflix’s top 10 most viewed movie list behind well, every single movie that cost less there, some quite cheap. Netflix’s recently released Carry-On, for instance, cost $47 million, approximately 14 percent of The Electric State. Something went very wrong here, and this should result in three things:
- Netflix examining how much it spends on original content, even if it claims to have infinite money to make it.
- Netflix getting more involved in at least some level of quality control in these big projects so they don’t produce embarrassing disasters.
- I think it’s more than fair for the Russos to be scrutinized at this point, and heading straight into two hugely important Avengers movies right after producing this film is unsettling, even given their past successful history with Marvel.
Will any of that happen? We’ll see, but no, I don’t think this is going to be a “critics hated it but it did massive numbers” situation in the end.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
