Netflix Wants To Buy Its Own Movie Theaters Now

The legitimacy of Netflix movies is something that has always bugged critics and the company itself. It’s also something that has kept directors and creators away from the streaming service, deciding against committing their projects to Netflix since they won’t be able to get the critical acclaim they desire.

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According to the LA Times, Netflix was recently pursuing a deal to purchase Landmark Theaters, a movie theater chain based in Los Angeles. Netflix wasn’t able to purchase the theaters due to a high sale price, but the fact that the streaming service is looking into this sort of deal is telling.

Gizmodo reports that last year Netflix spent over over $8 billion producing it’s own content, including TV shows and movies, which can only be viewed on their website. Due to this limitation, Netflix movies can never earn nominations for major awards.

This limitation surely influences the directors and creators that choose to work with Netflix and the public’s perception of these movies, which are somehow seen as lesser movies than those who have a theater run. The fact that Netflix makes a staggering amount of bad movies a year is also something that a lot of people criticize, making them think that Netflix cares more about money instead of making good movies.

Recently, Netflix had an disagreement with Cannes Film Festival, and decided to pull their films from the event, prompting arguments from both sides of the stand off. The festival believes that Netflix is doing a disservice to movies since they’re not giving them a theater run, while Netflix thinks that Cannes is being annoying and elitist. There’s a little bit of truth on both sides.

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Maybe if Netflix buys their own theaters they’ll figure out a way to earn major awards and the critical acclaim they desire. If there’s one company in the world who can own a streaming service and a movie theater chain is Netflix, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this were to happen.