Anything can happen in the Netflix charts, including a movie with a Rotten Tomatoes score not much higher than 20% making it all the way to number one. If anything, today’s news roundup is a good reminder that reviews aren’t everything, and neither is fame. The former should be great news for the platform’s new original Old Dads, which is already getting picked apart by critics, while the latter is perfectly exemplified by the renewal of the trustworthy mid-chart performer Sweet Magnolias for a fourth season.
Meanwhile, Netflix Animation just got further bamboozled by a promising third-party deal, and it sounds like that Assassin’s Creed cinematic universe we’ve heard so much about is not exactly leaving development purgatory any time soon.
Bill Burr’s directorial debut for Netflix Old Dads is getting bashed by critics
Bill Burr might have cultivated quite the following on stage, but it looks like he’s not as apt in the director’s chair. His new film Old Dads, which has just landed on Netflix, is getting absolutely slammed by critics who were not impressed with its dated humor and squeaky tempo. It’s sporting a devastating 13 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes based on only eight reviews so far, but the 89% from viewers will likely soften the blow.
The film follows three Gen X dads who are generally angry at the world and younger generations and are struggling after selling their business. The trio, which sees Bobby Cannavale and Bokeem Woodbine join Burr, must deal with a new millennial boss, money problems, and late-stage parenthood.
Poor reviews didn’t stop this Will Smith action bomb from topping Friday’s charts
Netflix is the place where movies with really low scores on every review aggregator website go to find new life. Nothing is better proof of that than Will Smith’s 2019 science-fiction scrapper Gemini Man, which, despite a 26% score on Rotten Tomatoes, is the top movie on Netflix as of Friday, according to FlixPatrol.
Whether that is because of Smith’s constant presence in headlines as of late or because Netflix subscribers just like a certain type of movie (trashy action flick with big-name headliners) is anyone’s guess. Still, this film, where Smith has to fight a younger de-aged version of himself, is as good an inspirational story as any for movies that aren’t completely embraced by professional reviewers.
Adi Shankar doesn’t have great news for fans of Assassin’s Creed
Fans of any popular IP usually shudder at the thought of Netflix acquiring the rights to it and Assassin’s Creed is probably the poster child for those anxieties. It’s been seven years since Netflix entered a development deal with Ubisoft and more or less the same time since it announced it was planning a sprawling franchise based on the video games. Now, we’ve just heard the latest update from one of the producers involved and it’s not looking great.
“I can’t confirm or deny, but there may be some information on the internet on that,” Adi Shankar told What’s on Netflix about his involvement in a possible Assassin’s Creed project. While it isn’t exactly a rebuttal, it doesn’t sound very hands-on either, which probably means it’ll be a while yet before anything concrete comes out of this partnership.
On the heels of department cuts, Netflix cuts deal with third-party animation studios
Why make your own movies when you can buy them? That is essentially Netflix’s business plan for its animation department at the moment. After putting the breaks on the development of two original animated films, firing animators, and employing other department cuts, Netflix has made the move on a company that used to be in bed with Apple.
Per Variety, Skydance Animation is now moving its entire catalog to Netflix, where it will release all future films exclusively for a few good years. The Rachel Zegler and Tituss Burgess-led Spellbound will kick things off when it drops on the platform in 2024. More movies will follow in 2025 and beyond.
It doesn’t matter if you’re all everyone talks about online, Sweet Magnolias‘ renewal proves nothing beats cold hard numbers at Netflix
It can be frustrating when a show that has made virtually no cultural impact gets a surprising four-season run at a platform famous for cutting the legs of a lot of its original content — a lot of it much better known than Sweet Magnolias.
The JoAnna Garcia Swisher, Brooke Elliott, and Heather Headley vehicle has just been greenlit for a fourth run of episodes, not because it’s the talk of the town or a chart-topper, but because it’s dependable and reliable. While its Season 3 numbers were far from earth-shattering, the fact that the second season was watched for 161 million hours in the 30 days following its release proves this is a mine worth exploring.
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Khushi Patel is a science fiction author who lives in Austin, Texas. She has published three novels, and her work has been praised for its originality and imagination. Khushi is a graduate of Rice University, and she has worked as a software engineer. She is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, and her books have been nominated for several awards.
