Netflix’s battle with cinemas seemed to have reached a conclusion when the COVID 19 forced people to stay home and moviehouses to close.
When it seemed that in January 2020, cinema operators had won, after the multi award-winning non-English, South Korean movie “Parasite’ made a killing at movie houses. Although already available at streaming sites, millions still flocked to movie houses in order to see the movie in full cinematic view, and find out why Parasite won the Film Academy’s Oscar awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Foreign Language Film.
“Parasite” had delivered earnings of as much as $44.3 million to theaters in North America. The outcome made the future of the cinema industry at the start of year 2020, look bright and promising. After all, several potential blockbuster movies were already in the lineup of films scheduled for release, led by Daniel Craig’s “No Time to Die” James Bond movie.
Netflix came out of the battle beaten, hardly winning any award that the streaming giant had hoped to claim, by investing heavily in the production and promotion of the Martin Scorsese/Robert DeNiro movie “The irishman.”
The Coronavirus Crisis, Made Netflix the Winner by Default
However, an unfortunate stroke of luck swayed the decision in favor of Netflix, as the COVID-19 disease had imposed restrictions that made the streaming giant, the winner by default.
Moviegoers had no other choice, since theaters were ordered to shut down, while residents were told to stay-at-home to avoid contracting and spreading the disease. Netflix became a lifesaver. The streaming giant continuously provides millions of people throughout the world with fresh and original content, keeping them entertained while forced to stay at home.
Perhaps, it will take moviegoers some time before they will venture to see a movie at cinemas, as they will probably wait until the health crisis clears out. Nonetheless, during the months that the lockdown orders have been in place in every region, the streaming company already emerged a winner.
Last April 2020, Netflix reported to have gained 15.8 million subscribers, which brought the current tally of Netflix customers to a total of 183 million. The increase enabled the streaming company to generate as much as $709 million in Net Income, which more than doubled the Income Netflix generated in the same period last year.