Movie viewership amongst Netflix‘s APAC subscribers grew by almost 20% in 2024, mentioned 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 international 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 mean of seven movies a month.
Kim additionally highlighted the expansive cultural influence 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 exhausting copies, went up by 900%.
Wanting forward, the streamer is about 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 in recent times, by Korean tasks like Prepare to Busan, All of Us Are Lifeless and Kingdom — Netflix mentioned 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 be set to launch two unique zombie movies from these international locations, titled Elixir and Ziam.
Malobika Banerji, the Netflix’s senior director for Southeast Asian content material, mentioned that the Indonesian and Thai groups engaged on Elixir and Ziam consulted with among the workforce members who labored on Korean zombie sequence Kingdom, with the Korean workforce 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, mentioned 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 whole bullet practice and movie it in movement seven instances, travelling forwards and backwards from Tokyo to Aomori,” mentioned Takahashi. “This was not attainable within the unique The Bullet Prepare and stays unparalleled in Japanese movie manufacturing to at the present time. Sometimes, even when a practice may very well be borrowed, filming can be restricted to at least one or two instances, making this a rare stage of cooperation in Japan.”
“The massive distinction this time is the time we took to convey the story, artistic 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 concerning 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 likely one of the highest globally. Previously yr, not less than one Indian movie featured in Netflix’s international Prime 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,” mentioned Rao. “The writing must be excellent for comedy-genre movies. The scenario must be humorous, so you possibly can simply be genuine and react to the scenario.”
Rao mentioned 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 scenario, it can 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 typically you get grasping, considering that you are able to do extra, which may wreck the scene. You really should be very managed once you do comedy,” added Rao.
In Korea, the place the streamer has seen record-breaking success over the previous couple of years, the main target for this yr is to diversify its choices, mentioned Vincent Taewon Kim, Netflix’s director for Korean content material. This yr’s slate contains 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.
