The Russo brothers' latest Netflix movie, The Electric State, came with a reported $320 million budget – but the directors aren't actually sure that kind of spending makes sense for streamers.
"They ascribe the same algorithmic attention to something they spend a lot of money on as something they spend very little money on," Joe Russo reflected to The Hollywood Reporter on high budget streaming movies. "By that model, you should probably just make everything for a medium number, right?"
But that doesn't mean he thinks this kind of spending will dry up. "Logically, it probably doesn't make a ton of sense to continue to spend that way, but I think they might – because people still believe in ambition," he continued. "Executives still believe in ambition. People still want the branding that comes with ambition. They still want that sex appeal that comes with ambition. So I still think you’ll see some of those pop through, but I don't think it's going to be a healthy part of the business model."
Anthony Russo also shared his thoughts. "The Electric State is certainly a big test case for this whole thing," he said. "The struggle is, can you eventize a streaming [film] when they don't create any sense of special place in terms of how they're presenting to the audience for a movie to say it is an event – and they don't go out into the wider marketplace to declare that an event. But they have tried using the tools they have available to them to eventize this film, and we've tried. So we'll see how this plays, we'll see what this does for Netflix, and we'll see where it all goes."
The Electric State's hefty price tag totals more than the previous 10 Oscars Best Picture winners combined, to put things in perspective – but, since there's no theatrical release to generate box office returns, Netflix's metric of success is different to the traditional model. We'll just have to wait and see what kind of viewing figures The Electric State pulls in, but it's got the lowest Rotten Tomatoes score of the Russos' career at just 14% (with a much higher audience score of 76%).
The movie, adapted from Simon Stålenhag's graphic novel, stars Millie Bobby Brown, Chris Pratt, Anthony Mackie, Woody Harrelson, Ke Huy Quan, Stanley Tucci, and Giancarlo Esposito. It follows Brown's Michelle, a young woman searching for her missing brother in the aftermath of a robot uprising, travelling through a wasteland populated with sentient machines.
It's streaming on Netflix now, and you can see our The Electric State review for our spoiler-free verdict. You can also fill out your watchlist with our guide to the best Netflix shows and the best Netflix movies.
