People who pay attention to Netflix’s releases should be familiar with Bright, seeing as how that was one of its new offerings for December of 2017. With that said, said movie stands out because of its rather unusual nature as a cop movie set in an urban fantasy setting. To be exact, Bright is set in a world where humans co-exist with fantasy races such as elves and orcs, with the result that prejudice exists in a familiar and not so familiar form.
Regardless, Bright is an interesting example of how critics and consumers can have significant differences in their responses to the same movies. After all, the critics hated it, so much so that some have outright called it one of the worst movies of 2017. In contrast, the consumers seemed to have been much more positive, as shown by the numbers.
The exact reasons that the critics hated Bright saw significant variation from person to person, but there were some points raised on a regular basis. For example, there are a number of critics who felt that the movie failed to handle either one of its genres well, with the result it became stretched thin between them. Furthermore, there were plenty of people who thought that the movie failed to do anything new or interesting with its material, meaning that its setup was the most distinctive thing about it. Finally, more than one reviewer commented on Bright‘s attempt at social commentary, which they perceived as being ham-fisted in nature. Something that was particularly unfortunate in a social environment in which such issues have come to the forefront of things.
With that said, the consumers seemed to have been fine with Bright in spite of its faults. There were a lot of people who commented upon the movie in a positive manner on social media, which was a sentiment that seems to have been supported by the numbers. After all, Netflix reported that it was its single most viewed movie in its first week, which is supported by Nielsen’s reveal that 11 million Americans chose to stream the movie within the first three days of its release. That might not be the highest numbers that someone has ever managed on Netflix, but they are nonetheless rather impressive in nature.
As a result, it is no wonder that Netflix has made the choice to make a follow-up to Bright in spite of the critical condemnation. After all, it can weather bad reviews so long as it can bring in sufficient viewers to make a project worthwhile, which seems to be the case when it comes to Bright. This is particularly true because Netflix has an even greater need for original material than in previous years, seeing as how more and more media companies are setting up their own streaming services in an effort to eat into Netflix’s commanding position in its chosen market. Simply put, since Bright has managed to secure the interest of a lot of people out there, Netflix can’t afford not to capitalize on that interest.
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