Interview: Shawn Cauthen, the Director of "Netflix vs the World," a Documentary About Netflix That's on Amazon
How did Netflix grow from an unheralded startup in 1997 that first drew attention for sending its subscribers DVDs, into an entertainment colossus that's worth more than Disney? That's the subject of "Netflix vs. The World," a new documentary that's now available for rental and purchase from… Amazon Prime.
But with you know with Netflix it's not about making the money back. Even if people check out a little bit of it-you know whatever it breaks down to the 160 million people that have Netflix to a $200 million Scorsese film, I think they made up the budget in like a week or something like that It's crazy. It's the Amazon model where Amazon Prime never had to make money because they're making money from selling dog food and other products. Which if you're Paramount or Sony you can't really do that. If you release Bond, Bond's gotta hit for Sony, or else they're gonna be in economic trouble.
Q: Anything else you'd like to add about the movie?
A: Like I said, I see [Netflix] as a modern-day Apple. The movie's good if you like documentaries but it's also good for people that aren't necessarily into the movie scene as in like "oh I I don't see indie films," well if you're an entrepreneur or you're into the business side I think it has a lot of business knowledge in there that you can gain from it. It's one of those things that it's it shows I mean everyone like we say like everyone thinks that Netflix is this big giant-but this was a small startup and not even Silicon Valley I mean in Scott Valley, in the Best Western convention center.
It’s one of those things that if you just go back and you look at where this ginormous company came from I think people just kind of skip over it because it's part of saying you know people always talk about Amazon and Google and things like that, but people just tend to forget about Netflix, and Netflix has his own sort of Facebook type story.
Which it's interesting that if you think about Netflix's the competition is Disney which they won't say it is but their competition is Disney and Hulu and those sort of streamers. But it's really the Apples and the Facebooks and those of the world's because Apple cake you come in and buy Netflix If they wanted to they've certainly put their toes in the water so this story could change dramatically again. But who knows.
Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.
Image: Reuters.