Netflix not picking up many noir films released in 2009-2010

[king2clio]

My irritation with Netflix's gutting of the Friends feature led me to cut back my subscription and rejoin ClassicFlix and Greencine.  After reviewing ClassicFlix's holdings, I realized that Netflix is no longer buying many recently released noir and neonoir films, including the following DVD released in 2009 and 2010:

Kitten with a Whip

Brainstorm

Cover Up

The Bribe

I Died a Thousand Times

I Was a Communist for the F.B.I.

British Film Noir (The Slasher/Twilight Women)

Suspense

Nora Prentiss

Highway 301

The Woman on Pier 13

among many others (many bearing a "Warner Archive" label).

 

An increasing number of 1930s mysteries that Netflix used to supply are now being labelled "unavailable", even though they are still in print and available for sale.  About 15 percent of the 500 movies in my various profile queues are now labelled unavailable by Netflix.

 

While it may be a financially sound decision for Netflix to not stock these films, it's driving me as a fan of such fans to give much of movie rental budget to other companies like ClassicFlix and downgrade my Netflix account.

 

Have others noticed these issues of lesser availability of older (1930s and 1940s) films and not stocking recent film noir releases?

[pterosaur]

Interesting. I also downgraded my plan at NF and got a membership at GreenCine. Just today, I noticed there were 5 more titles in my NF queue that went unavailable. I wonder if they have plans to add them to instant watch instead of buying the discs. If NF is trying to alienate their most loyal customers and become an abysmal service like Blockbuster, they're doing a fine job.

[king2clio]

I doubt that most of the films that Netflix is not buying or is moving to "unavailable" (even when they can still be purchased easily) will be added to instant watch. The complaints about the instant watch selections wouldn't be addressed by adding obscure 1930s mysteries that very few people seem to watch, based on the number of ratings such films get. Instead, I think Netflix has given up the idea of supporting the "long tail" of demand for obscure foreign and classic movies and wants to steer people toward instant watching and more popular titles to maximize their profits.

I will be moving my movie reviews (about 240 of them) from Netflix and posting them on Greencine, but it takes a while for me to do all this tedious building up of queues on Greencine and Classicflix and deleting items from Netflix queues that I can get elsewhere. Are you planning to move your reviews and lists over to Greencine, too, Pterosaur?

[The Professor]

Hey Miriam, I don't blame Netflix for not picking up the Warner Archive titles. From what I understand from those who have purchased a few of the titles they are just DVR burns and wouldn't hold up to rental wear and tear.

FWIW, I was a GreenCine member for a year or so and didn't have a very positive experience. They aren't very efficient in keeping up with their mailings, and the in transit times are much longer since everything comes from California.

[beeswax]

The Prof is right about the Warner Archive titles -- NF won't buy DVD-R releases and I can't really blame them for that. It would be exciting if their "28 day deal" with Warner included adding some of the Warner Archive titles to IW, though. (Fat chance.)

However, I have been noticing and becoming annoyed by "skips" in the inventory. I got all excited about this British noir series, only to have some of the titles go "unavailable" in my queue.

People have been grousing on the main board and elsewhere about short shrift on new title stock and replacing depleted stock in all sorts of different genres. But it seems like they're not really keeping up with demand even on new "mainstream" titles, if we're to believe our own "very long waits" and all the complaints about that from newbs and old hands alike.

I am not happy right now for several reasons. I'm taking a "wait and see" drop to one disc at a time. Please keep us posted about your experiences with ClassicFlix and/or GreenCine. (I have read elsewhere that GreenCine is planning to add distribution centers in the Midwest and on the East Coast in the near future....)

[king2clio]

While I can appreciate why Netflix didn't add those Warner archive titles (thanks for the explanation), I am disturbed by how many recent releases they are not picking up these days. Is there really only 1 foreign film released on DVD this coming week, for example, as given on their blog's list? No, they are not picking up the German film Kapo, a Criterion release that is immediately available from Green Cine and Blockbuster. I had to go to the Blockbuster website to get a more complete list of new releases for this week and last week, and found that Netflix is not picking up (or labeling as "unavailable," even though other DVD rental distributors call them available for rent) films like the following: Lucy Calls the President (classic comedy); Plunder (documentary about the recent financial crisis); Kapo (German arthouse release from Criterion); 3-DVD set of classic Hammer horror films called "Icons of Horror"; Irene in Time (Henry Jaglom independent film); 211: Anna (documentary about Russian political dissident that Netflix offers on instant view only); Easier with Practice (independent drama); Shadowplay (2007 horror film). There may (and probably are) other newly-released DVDs that are available for purchase or rental from other companies that Netflix is not picking up; those are just the subset I had some interest in renting. All that they have in common is that they are not hugely well-publicized films, and they appeal to the "long tail" of demand, rather than the audience that watches Hollywood blockbusters (i.e., the cinephiles and power users that Netflix seems to want to drive away these days).

I have found that Greencine has about 2/3rd of the films that I queued at Netflix, and I haven't been bothered by the waiting time because I was using 8-at-a-time at Netflix, anyway, so once I have my first shipment of 8 Greencine DVDs, I always have something on hand to watch, anyway. Also, Greencine allows one to mark a film as "returned" on their website, and will send a replacement w/in 2 days, so the longer mailing time may only affect shipment one way. Greencine also has helpful lists accessible within one's queue or movie descriptions, so there is a good replacement for the largely inaccessible lists at Netflix.

I would never have predicted 6 months ago that I would pick up a Blockbuster account, but the Netflix's poor performance in adding new films has made me adopt the following approach: 1) first look for a film on Greencine, where I have an 8-at-a-time account; 2) then look for a film on Blockbuster, where I have a 1-at-a-time account; and 3) as a last resort, look for a film at Netflix, where I now have a 1-at-a-time-account.

I find it disturbing that Netflix is not only gutting the social web features that made it easy to find obscure films, but also choosing not to stock many such relatively-obscure new releases at a point when their profits, stock prices, and market share are at an all-time high. Sadly, it seems that in terms of stocking interesting new releases, Netflix is the new Blockbuster and Blockbuster is actually outperforming Netflix in satisfying the long tail of demand.

So I'm voting with my pocketbook, and am down to 1 Netflix movie at a time-- and find that of the 500 movies I had in my queue, only 33 are actually only available from Netflix. Conversely, many of the films that Netflix didn't pick up as new releases or lists as unavailable are now in queue and listed as "available" from either Greencine or Blockbuster.

[Knaldskalle]

Isn't there a chance that these are all hit by the 28 day rental embargo? Netflix usually puts "availability unknown" on any title whose "release date" is more than 30 days away, so 28 days plus a couple would put them into "unknown" territory.

I'm not particularly happy with Netflix these days either, but I'd still give them a week or two and then come back and see what the status of these titles is. If they're still in limbo, then I'll agree with you that something fishy is going on.

[king2clio]

The films I listed above as not available from Netflix are all listed by either Greencine's or Blockbuster's website as made available last week or coming available this week. I suppose Netflix might revise their list of "releasing this week" (for the week of April 12th), but I've never noticed them doing so in the past. But I agree it's worth keeping an eye on; I hope this was a temporary aberration, but the fact that an increasing share of my Netflix queue keeps moving into "unavailable" status makes me doubt this.

[beeswax]

The RTW page this week was so abbreviated that I was expecting it to be eliminated soon. I guess I should be worrying more about actual acquisition.

NF now lists Easier With Practice as coming on April 20, for a random example from king2clio's list above, while Amazon lists it as an April 6 release that is also currently available as an "on demand" rental or purchase download. NF still shows Shadowplay (another April 6 release) as "unknown," and it isn't from one of the "delay deal" studios. Isn't horror usually a good buy for them?

Criterion's Kapo (April 13) is "unknown" although they have the right date posted for Criterion's release of the much-better-known Vivre Sa Vie (April 20).

I'm afraid that king2clio's (and others') observation that Netflix finds cinephiles unprofitable is true. And I'm afraid I know what that means. I just wish they hadn't managed to drive so many mom&pop rental stores out of business before they decided they don't like the "long tail" dvd-oriented customer.

[Knaldskalle]

A couple of weeks have passed, so I thought I'd revisit the titles and see what's up. Netflix still doesn't stock all of them, but it doesn't look as bleak as it did:

Brainstorm.
Cover Up.
Suspense (although I'm not sure this is the correct series).
Kapò (releasing this Tuesday, 4/27).
Plunder: The crime of our time (releasing this Tuesday, 4/27).
Irene in Time.
Easier with Practice.

[king2clio]

Thanks for following up on this, Knaldskalle. Some of the titles you linked to share the same names as the films I was kvetching about but are not in fact the same movies.
Brainstorm - I was thinking of a 1965 Warner film directed by William Conrad, released to DVD March 09
Cover Up - I was thinking of a 1949 film directed by Alfred Green
Suspense - I was thinking of a 1946 Warner film directed by Frank Tuttle, released to DVD Sept 2009

In fairness to Netflix, as the Professor points out above, the Warner archive titles were DVR burns that wouldn't hold up to rental wear and tear.

I'm pleased to learn, from your message, that Netflix is adding some new releases like Kapo, Plunder, Irene in Time, and Easier with Practice to their stock, albeit with a delay of a few weeks. (I don't know how many studios Netflix cut a "late release" deal with, but this information suggests that the scope extends beyond a few widely publicized studios.) But, in my view, it's far better that Netflix stock these films late rather than not at all.

It's still disappointing to me that Netflix is failing to pick up (admittedly low demand) older films like the latest releases for the "Forgotten Noir" series (e.g., "Breakdown/Eye Witness"), the "British Film noir" series (i.e., "Twilight Women/The Slasher"), the Hammer "Icons of Suspense" collection, the Hammer "Icons of Horror" collection, the "Michael Shayne: Private Detective" collection, and some classic comedies like "Lucy Calls the President." (There are doubtless others of this ilk that I've overlooked.)

But, again, thanks for showing us that the new release situation looks less bleak if one has patience for a couple of weeks, for films that don't fall under the "classic" heading. I note that this week, the Netflix Blog lists a pretty skimpy set of new releases (including only 1 foreign film). Not included were the following films that Amazon and Blockbuster say will release this week (on April 27): "Dialogues of the Exiled" (Chilean); "Roy Cohn/Jack Smith"; "Voyage Round my Father"; "The Unquiet Death of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg"; "Anna to the Infinite Power"; "Old Enough"; "Crime of Passion" (Italian); "Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman"; "How to Live in the German Federal Republic" (German); "Red Rowan" (Polish); "Without Trace" (Italian); and "Oresama" (Japanese).
I'll try to remember to do as you did and check back in a couple of weeks to see how many of these become available at Netflix after an initial delay. (I only list here films that I had some interest in seeing; the list is not exhaustive.)

[Knaldskalle]

I'm pleased to learn, from your message, that Netflix is adding some new releases like Kapo, Plunder, Irene in Time, and Easier with Practice to their stock, albeit with a delay of a few weeks. (I don't know how many studios Netflix cut a "late release" deal with, but this information suggests that the scope extends beyond a few widely publicized studios.) But, in my view, it's far better that Netflix stock these films late rather than not at all.

I actually asked Netflix (via Twitter) about whether Janus Films was one of the studios they had an "embargo deal" with since there was no Kapo and they said "No agreement for that studio. We're looking at demand for that one, add to your Save queue & let us know you'd like to see it." I guess demand was high enough?

Sorry about messing up some of the titles, I should've known it wasn't the right Brainstorm. ;-)

[king2clio]

Thanks for more useful information, Knaldskalle. If I'm following the reasoning correctly, this suggests that: Netflix is now deciding on whether to order less well-publicized films on the basis of whether people put these films in their "Save" queue or call customer service and request that the missing films be purchased.

This doesn't seem very promising, in that most people are unlikely to go through the hassle of checking an alternative source (e.g., Greencine or Blockbuster websites) to see what is recently released but not available from Netflix and then queue the "unavailable" film at Netflix rather than ordering the film from another DVD rental service that DOES stock it. It seems like the same logic used to justify the removal of the Friends feature (few people used it because it was largely hidden on the website and not publicized, so the feature could be cut because it wasn't widely used.) Similarly, it appears that Netflix is now justifying not ordering newly-released "long tail" demand films because few people queue up these "missing" films--because, of course, most subscribers won't even know that these films are available anywhere.

And even if one acknowledges that the demand for B movie noir films may be very limited, it seems like a no-brainer for Netflix to stock any new Criterion releases, which have their own established arthouse film fan audience . . .

Anyway, I'll go ahead and queue the unavailable noir films and non-released recent releases, since that appears to be how Netflix is "looking at demand" for more obscure (e.g., foreign and classic and independent) films.