Since I don’t have any Tenet box office numbers to dissect, I guess I’ll note a certain oddity in today’s “most-watched” movies list on Netflix. Folks seem to enjoy these and it gives me a chance to reminisce about some older, often forgotten blockbusters and bombs from a prior generation. Illumination’s The Lorax is currently ranked number seven this morning, as the Illumination toon came to the service earlier this month and has been hanging around the top ten ever since. But this morning, it is the only title in the top ten that isn’t a Netflix original.
That was (at the time) the biggest toon debut for anything that wasn’t a Pixar flick or a Shrek sequel. While it wasn’t terribly leggy, it did earn $212 million domestic and $345 million worldwide on a $70 million budget right before Illumination was a brand unto itself. Six years later, after four Despicable Me/Minions flicks and two blockbuster originals (Secret Life of Pets and Sing), The Grinch would parlay both Suess fandom and the Illumination brand for a $267 million domestic (from a $67 million Fri-Sun debut) and $527 million global gross. The Grinch was pretty popular on Netflix for a run as well.
The Lorax isn’t a milestone of the form, but it is a surprisingly cynical adaptation of the author’s famous environmentalist screed, one which delves into the whole “ethical consumption under capitalism” debate. Granted, it’s one of any number of socially-progressive blockbusters which, judging by the company that made it and the populace that made it a hit, played to deaf or oblivious ears. Regardless, it’s one of the better feature-length adaptations of a Suess book as all three recent toons (including Blue Sky’s Horton Hears a Who which earned $298 million global in 2008) are better than Jim Carrey’s The Grinch and Mike Myer’s The Cat in the Hat.
It sits behind Cursed (which is number one this morning, implying that folks waited until the weekend to binge the ten-episode fantasy episodic), Fatal Affair, Charlize Theron’s The Old Guard (still allegedly number one worldwide), Zac Efron’s Down To Earth documentary series, The Business of Drugs (another documentary series) and Dark Desire (which would love to be the next 365, and I can only hope it passes the “sexier than The Floor is Lava” test). It sits just ahead of the frankly lousy Unsolved Mysteries reboot (why the hell was this not rebooted, in its original template, for Quibi?), the episodic Warrior Nun and Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich.
My mourning for The Babysitter’s Club’s short tenure in the top ten aside (it really is one of the best episodics of the year and should be held up as genuine “prestige TV”), this is interesting for two reasons. The Lorax is one of those movies that made a ridiculous amount of money, especially for its moment in time, and then was mostly forgotten by pop culture at large. While this may change with Tuesday’s new offerings, it is currently is the only offering preventing total Netflix domination of its own streaming service. I have to assume that is Netflix’s endgame.
Netflix’s long-term future partially depends on new subscribers and existing subscribers paying for Netflix in order to get specifically “home grown” movies, documentaries and TV shows. A “trending” list and/or “top ten” list mostly made up of Netflix originals is a promising development as the streaming giant exploits Hollywood’s forced sabbatical and offers its own “blockbuster summer.” Save for Quibi and AppleTV, most of the newly launched streaming services are banking of older stuff that consumers want to watch. If Netflix convince folks that its originals are worth the subscription by themselves, it won’t matter what third-party content they lose to HBO Max, Disney+ and Peacock.
I’ve studied the film industry, both academically and informally, and with an emphasis in box office analysis, for nearly 30 years. I have extensively written about all
I’ve studied the film industry, both academically and informally, and with an emphasis in box office analysis, for nearly 30 years. I have extensively written about all of said subjects for the last 11 years. My outlets for film criticism, box office commentary, and film-skewing scholarship have included The Huffington Post, Salon, and Film Threat. Follow me at @ScottMendelson and “like” The Ticket Booth on Facebook.