Movie viewership amongst Netflix‘s APAC subscribers grew by practically 20% in 2024, stated Minyoung Kim, Netflix’s head for APAC content material (excluding Korea).
Talking on the streamer’s APAC showcase in Tokyo, Kim added that greater than 100 APAC movies peaked in Netflix’s world prime 10 record for non-English movies all through 2024. These have included titles like Korea’s Rebellion, Indonesia’s The Shadow Strays and Japan’s Metropolis Hunter.
Total, Netflix members globally watch a median of seven movies a month.
Kim additionally highlighted the expansive cultural affect that the streamer’s movie slate has produced throughout Asia. For instance, when Netflix’s live-action adaptation of the favored “Metropolis Hunter” manga sequence premiered in April final yr, gross sales of the unique manga, together with each digital and arduous copies, went up by 900%.
Wanting forward, the streamer is ready to develop its choices throughout Asia this yr, which incorporates two unique zombie movies from Southeast Asia and Netflix Korea’s first-ever animated movie.
Whereas the zombie style has lengthy been dominated by English-language titles — and lately, by Korean tasks like Prepare to Busan, All of Us Are Lifeless and Kingdom — Netflix stated that it’s hoping so as to add Southeast Asia’s choices to the worldwide combine. With a observe document of success in Indonesia and Thailand already with the streamer’s horror titles, Netflix can also be set to launch two unique zombie movies from these nations, titled Elixir and Ziam.
Malobika Banerji, the Netflix’s senior director for Southeast Asian content material, stated that the Indonesian and Thai groups engaged on Elixir and Ziam consulted with a number of the staff members who labored on Korean zombie sequence Kingdom, with the Korean staff providing recommendation in areas like make-up and results.
Over in Japan, the streamer is launching its tentpole movie Bullet Prepare Explosion on April 23. The movie is a reboot of the unique 1975 film The Bullet Prepare, which impressed the Hollywood blockbuster Velocity.
Shin Takahashi, Netflix’s head of Japanese live-action movies and sequence, stated that this movie marked an unprecedented scale of collaboration with Japanese railway firm JR East. The manufacturing managed to safe entry to movie one of many firm’s real-life bullet trains on a number of journeys.
“We have been in a position to hire a complete bullet practice and movie it in movement seven instances, travelling backwards and forwards from Tokyo to Aomori,” stated Takahashi. “This was not doable within the unique The Bullet Prepare and stays unparalleled in Japanese movie manufacturing to this present day. Usually, even when a practice may very well be borrowed, filming could be restricted to 1 or two instances, making this a unprecedented degree of cooperation in Japan.”
“The large distinction this time is the time we took to convey the story, inventive imaginative and prescient and intent to JR East. We have been in a position to work with them by means of repeated discussions and time we spent with them throughout pre-production,” added Takahashi.
Netflix Japan will mark its 10-year anniversary this yr. Different titles on the streamer’s Japanese slate embrace the recently-premiered Demon Metropolis, in addition to 10Dance, a movie in regards to the aggressive dance world, set to launch later this yr.
Ruchikaa Kapoor Sheikh, who leads movies for Netflix India, shared that just about half of the nation’s Netflix viewership comes from movie, which is without doubt one of the highest globally. Up to now yr, no less than one Indian movie featured in Netflix’s world High 10 non-English record each week.
One of many streamer’s Indian titles this yr is Toaster, which stars Rajkummar Rao, who additionally serves as producer alongside his spouse, Patralekhaa. That is the primary title from Kampa Movies, a manufacturing firm run by Rao and Patralekhaa.
“Once we learn a one-pager of Toaster, I believed that this story was very distinctive, so we developed it right into a script,” stated Rao. “The writing must be superb for comedy-genre movies. The state of affairs must be humorous, so you’ll be able to simply be genuine and react to the state of affairs.”
Rao stated that he solely realized that he was good at comedy in 2017 when he starred in Newton, which later gained Greatest Function Movie at India’s Nationwide Movie Awards. “Should you all the time simply react to a particular state of affairs, it’ll come throughout humorous. That’s what I attempt to do. I attempt to not be humorous whereas doing comedy, which is a really troublesome activity, as a result of generally you get grasping, considering that you are able to do extra, which may wreck the scene. You truly must be very managed whenever you do comedy,” added Rao.
In Korea, the place the streamer has seen record-breaking success over the previous few years, the main target for this yr is to diversify its choices, stated Vincent Taewon Kim, Netflix’s director for Korean content material. This yr’s slate consists of its first-ever animated movie, Misplaced in Starlight. Q3 will see the discharge of Wall to Wall, whereas Good Information, The Nice Flood and Kill Boksoon spinoff Mantis are set to premiere in This autumn.
