The streaming giant has the data that proves we all just watch things with one hand gripping our phones, so need to have the plot explained to us over and over again
M
att Damon has a new film out, a $100m cop thriller co-starring Ben Affleck called The Rip. It is currently the most watched film on Netflix, because it is a Netflix movie. So how is Damon choosing to promote his new Netflix movie? By kind of laying into Netflix.
During an interview on The Joe Rogan Experience, Damon went to great lengths to describe the differences between going to see a film theatrically and watching it on television. Explaining his experience of watching One Battle After Another in an Imax screening, Damon said: “I always say it’s more like going to church – you show up at an appointed time. It doesn’t wait for you.”
Making something that you know will be primarily watched on Netflix, on the other hand, means resigning yourself to a lack of concentration. Maybe the lights are on. Maybe you’re watching it in chunks. Maybe your kids won’t shut up. Damon told Rogan that the streamer asks film-makers to dumb things down a little, adding a big action set piece early on to keep viewers interested, and advising them that: “It wouldn’t be terrible if you reiterated the plot three or four times in the dialogue because people are on their phones while they’re watching.” Describing this, Rogan added: “It’s going to really start to infringe on how we’re telling these stories.”
