Netflix’s quarterly results have been a headline-hogger in 2022, and mostly for the wrong reasons. As we see them deliver an impressive rebound on subscription numbers in Q4 of 2022, they still have only lackluster financial gains to offer. Our industry expert and entertainment lawyer with Blake & Wang P.A, Brandon Blake, breaks it down further.

7.66M New Subscribers Globally

With the company taking substantial dings in their share price in Q1 and Q2 for subscriber losses, the addition of 7.66M new subscribers globally, for a cumulative total of 230.75M, isn’t to be sniffed at. Especially when Netflix itself was only anticipating 4.5M and Wall Street only stretched it to 5M.

Much of this can be tied to the launch of their new ad-supported programming tier, which joined their stable in November. 

Lackluster Financials

Accompanying this boost, however, was some rather dingy financials. Earnings per share totaled just 12c, from $7.52B in revenue and only a net income of $55M. If you’re taking notes, that’s the lowest since 2016. It’s not far off Wall Street predictions, which was $7.85B- but that EPS figure was anticipated to be 45c. Netflix themselves originally predicted 36c and $163M in net income. The company was keen to blame dollar depreciation against the Euro for much of its woes. 

They did meet their internal revenue estimate, giving operating profit of $550M over $330M. It’s tough not to compare that EPS to 2021’s Q4 $1.33. Nor can we ignore that the downturn in their stock price earlier this year all happened against a much stronger balance sheet, too. 

However, they did also produce a very strong slate for Q4, with Dahmer: Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story and Wednesday doing incredibly well, The Crown holding strong, and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery all attracting a lot of attention.   

Overall, it was a mixed bag. Where to from here? It’s impossible to say, so let’s just look to Q1 for now.

The buzz from the Berlin Film Festival is always strong, and the Berlinale Special Program typically attracts wide interest across the industry. This week we see 8 more strong contenders added to the lineup. Brandon Blake, entertainment lawyer from Blake & Wang P.A, shares the news.

Golda and Others

A key focus among the 8 new additions will no doubt be Embankment’s Golda, a biopic-lite based on Golda Meir’s decisions during the so-called Yom Kippur War of 1973. We also see Netflix’s Kill Boksoon, starring Cannes Best Actress (2007) Jeon Do-Yeon take a spot in the lineup.
Last Night of Amore, which follows a retiring police lieutenant whose last case will be that of the murder of a friend during a high-stakes heist, nets another spot. Massimo Troisi: Somebody Down There Likes Me, Sun and Concrete, Mad Fate, Talk To Me, and Der vermessene Mensch will finish the roster of new additions.

New Forum Titles

In addition to the expanded Berlinale Special Program lineup, we have also had confirmation on the Forum section. This will include quite an interesting piece indeed. I Heard It through the Grapevine, the 1982 documentary by Dick Fontaine and James Baldwin will snag a spot. It has recently been restored through the Harvard Film Archive. With 11 other interesting titles, including two for Wanjiru Kinyanjui (The Battle of the Sacred Tree and A Lover & Killer of Colour), this is looking to be a can’t-miss section of the event. 
Other titles for the Forum section include:
Ein Herbst im Ländchen Bärwalde
Aufenthaltserlaubnis
I, Your Mother
Other than That, I’m Fine
All in Order
Oyoyo 
Black Head 
Mein Vater, der Gastarbeiter
The Devil Queen
Despite the return of most festivals to at least some kind of in-person presence in 2022, 2023 is shaping up to be the year we truly see a ‘taste of normality’ for the festival circuit. These latest additions to the Berlin lineup look fit to make it a great one indeed.

After a start that was sluggish to say the least, the momentum has truly picked up for James Cameron’s long-delayed Avatar sequel. Carrying forward a 2022 trend of revival for older franchises, the film has accelerated its performance massively in the opening weeks of 2023, managing to bust some box office records and take a spot on the Top 10 movies of all-time list. Blake & Wang P.A entertainment lawyer, Brandon Blake, fills us in.

7th of the Top 10

Now sitting at a global performance of $1.7B (and looking like it might feasibly reach the $2B needed to break even), Avatar: The Way of Water has blazed passed the 2019 The Lion King and 2015 Jurassic World to claim the number 7 spot on the top 10 for best performing pictures of all time. 

A remarkable $1.19B of this comes from the international box office, which has also made the sci-fi infused fantasy epic the highest-grossing overseas release of the pandemic era. This unseats Top Gun: Maverick, although Top Gun retains the title of 2022’s best performer- much of Avatar’s growth has come in the early weeks of 2023. This also pushes it into the To 5 offshore titles, behind only Titanic, Endgame and Infinity Wars from the Avengers franchise, and the original Avatar movie.

Boosting Sluggish Box Offices

No doubt the wider market is pleased to have Avatar 2 running currently, because there isn’t much else to dethrone it. This past weekend saw a 30% drop on the last frame recorded, with only the Puss in Boots spinoff and M3GAN offering any sort of competition at all.

For Avatar 2, China, Germany, France, Korea, and the UK remain its strongest international markets. Interestingly, it’s also become IMAX’s fourth biggest release ever. With some hope of at least breaking even for this massive movie undertaking now on the cards, we bet James Cameron is pleased.

With the 2022 entertainment playing field now all but in the bag, it seems Top Gun: Maverick is the gift that won’t stop giving. After a stellar performance in theaters, it opened to a new record on Paramount+, too. Our local entertainment attorney, Brandon Blake of Blake & Wang P.A, unpacks this new record for us.

Paramount+ Record

Top Gun: Maverick now officially beats out Sonic the Hedgehog’s premier weekend record to take the title of most-watched film to debut on the streaming service. And it’s not by a small percentile, either- it tops Sonic by 60%. Sadly Paramount haven’t revealed exact viewership numbers for either, however. 

A Smart Revisit

Let’s give the achievement a small nod towards the marketing department, too. Paramount has the sense to revive the original Top Gun movie in the weeks leading up to the sequel’s debut on the service, and kept a Tom Cruise weekend theme going with replays of Mission Impossible, too. Both can be seen as a smart way to bolster their flagship launch, and it’s a worthy strategy to keep audience’s minds fresh and focused. Coincidently, this also saw a 400% boost for viewership on the original, and about 140% for the Mission Impossible franchise. We saw something very similar happen earlier this year with Game of Thrones on HBO Max, which saw a solid revival in anticipation of the launch of House of the Dragon that even managed to propel the old series onto the Nielsen top 10 viewership stats for a while.

Is this the resounding victory for Paramount’s ‘multi-platform’ release strategy as they claim? Well, at least they have the sense to see that a smart and well-marketed theatrical release can be a massive drawcard for subsequent streaming viewings. That’s a lesson a few other streamers need to learn, so let’s give them the kudos for it.