The blockbuster success, despite awful reviews, of Red Notice proves that Netflix making bad movies won't hurt them. Famously beginning life as a DVD rental company, Netflix has seen its pop-culture cache increase by leaps and bounds in the near 25 years it's existed. It wasn't until their mid-2000s introduction of instant streaming that they really began to take off, and it wasn't until the mid-2010s saw them begin to create original programming that they became a true entertainment titan.
The primary factor keeping Netflix on the top of the streaming heap is indeed Netflix originals, both TV shows and movies, that provide a constant supply of content to keep subscribers hooked. It's no secret that Netflix has been pouring billions of dollars into its originals, and Red Notice is the culmination of that push. Red Notice is Netflix's most expensive original movie to date and stars three of Hollywood's biggest names in Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, and Gal Gadot.
To their credit, the hundreds of millions of dollars that Netflix put into Red Notice has seemingly paid off, as the tale of an Interpol agent reluctantly working with an art thief in order to capture an even better one has quickly become the most-watched movie in the history of the service. That's even with a woeful Rotten Tomatoes critics' score of 36 percent, putting Red Notice just above a recent flop like Johnson, Reynolds, and Gadot leading the same movie, its success in the face of not being good is quite common for Netflix original movies. In fact, the most popular Netflix movies being critical duds is closer to the rule than the exception.
While critics and audiences having differing opinions on movies is certainly not a recent phenomenon, that dynamic is oddly common when it comes to Netflix originals. Of Netflix's 10 most-watched original movies to date, four of them, including Red Notice, have Rotten Tomatoes scores in the 30s or below. Expanding further past the top 10 rapidly increases the number of movies with scores in the 40s or below, especially when considering the many hit Netflix movies starring or produced by Adam Sandler, which have almost all earned terrible reviews. Yet, recent history is littered with examples of movies that choked at the box office seemingly in part due to rampant critical scorn, so it's not like critics are ignored in general.
The most logical reason behind this disconnect, in which bad reviews almost never seem to hurt Netflix movies, is that audiences are just more forgiving of flaws in movies that don't cost them exorbitant theatrical ticket prices or require them to leave the comfort of their couch. That makes sense to an extent, as seeing a bad movie definitely stings way more when someone has shelled out money for tickets, concessions, and gas, as well as likely had to devote several hours of time beyond the movie's length toward the overall endeavor. There's a key appeal to streaming over the theater experience: it's less of a commitment to watch movies, and the overall experience is more private.
On Netflix, and streaming services in general, the act of checking out the latest movie release is so fast, easy, and problem-free that there's really no incentive to get that bent out of shape if something ends up underwhelming. To that end, it's also easier to sit back and enjoy the good parts of what might otherwise be a bad movie. Even those who enjoyed Red Notice aren't generally trumpeting its greatness from the rooftops, but are instead saying it was a fun, breezy watch with likable stars and thrilling (if mindless) action. Its smash success — like the success of Sandler's bad Netflix movies — makes it clear that when it comes to streaming services, quality control isn't really an issue worth worrying about.
