The Power of The Dog director Jane Campion said that she worries Netflix might soon take fewer risks on their original content due to the recent layoffs that occurred amid recent bad news for the streamer.

Campion, the respected director from New Zealand, has won two Academy Awards, one for her 1994 drama The Piano and another more recently for her 2021 Netflix original film The Power of the Dog. Campion's concerns stem from recent reports that Netflix, for the first time ever, saw its total subscriber count decrease in the first quarter of this year.

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The streaming giant expects to lose over two million subscribers by the end of the second quarter as well. As a result of the decrease, Netflix recently fired around 300 of its employees. However, Campion is concerned they may do even more to cut costs. In an interview with the BBC Campion stated, "I do think they're going to be more picky about other projects or, maybe, what's sad is not taking risks on people without names." Still, she believes that established filmmakers like herself likely will not be affected by the cost-cutting, saying, "I don't think it would be hard for me if I wanted to do something because I've established a relationship and they're incredibly loyal."

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Indeed, according to Campion, The Power of the Dog “couldn't have been made without [Netflix].” Because of the medium-sized budget (under $30 million) and the small scale of the story, she says, “the only people that were willing to go near that was Netflix.” With the streamer’s new financial troubles, however, things might be changing.

This could come as a blow to the film industry, as the streaming platforms are in many ways the last bastion of medium-budget filmmaking. In the past two decades (and perhaps even longer) Hollywood has been moving increasingly toward a blockbuster-only strategy. Because of the rise of the internet and streaming platforms, theater attendance has become harder and harder to secure, meaning only large-budget films or films based on existing properties perform adequately at the box office. For the major Hollywood studios, medium-budget films have become a thing of the past.

As a result, streaming platforms have moved in to fill a small portion of the void. Netflix, for example, has now become a significant player in the area of prestige projects from major directors (like Martin Scorsese's The Irishman) and small actor-centered dramas (like The Two Popes). Because of the major studios’ vacancy in the medium-budget realm, streaming platforms also have a larger and larger presence at the Academy Awards every year, perfectly exemplified by last year’s Best Picture award, which was a battle between Apple TV Plus' CODA and Netflix's The Power of the Dog.

The Power of the Dog is available to stream on Netflix.

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Source: BBC