Hello, Quartz Index readers!
Have we reached the end of the billion dollar movie at the box office? Chief content officer at Netflix, Ted Sarandos, thinks we might have and made his case in a Q&A in The Wrap this week.
“I think… subscription is a better way to monetize most movies,” he said. “Not all movies but most movies. So ‘Beauty and the Beast’ may be the last billion-dollar movie ever. It’s possible.”
In fact, it’s pretty rare already. There are only 30 movies in Hollywood history that have grossed more than $1 billion. Over 80% of those films were released in the last decade, as rising ticket prices and a growing international box office has made the milestone more attainable.
The US box office has slowed down this year. After a strong start with Beauty and the Beast and The Fate of the Furious, the domestic box-office underwhelmed on a slate of lackluster titles. Netflix, meanwhile, has been producing and distributing more films, and it’s riling up cinema operators in the process.
But Sarandos doesn’t think streaming will kill cinemas entirely: “If you really believe people would abandon movie theaters if day-and-date releasing was going on, that doesn’t say much for that industry. I have more faith in them then they do.” —Ashley Rodriguez
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