The Netflix stock price is down nearly 50 percent compared to last year, 1,000 employees were just laid off, chief content officer Bela Bajaria is out, Netflix Films chairman Daniel Lin’s future is in doubt, and now director David Fincher has decided to leave.
Fincher, the three-time Oscar-nominated director behind such classics as Seven (1995), Fight Club (1999), Zodiac (2007), and The Social Network (2010), roared into Netflix in 2013 by delivering House of Cards, a game-changer for the streamer that forever changed TV. Instead of rerunning the scraps from established studios, Netflix would produce its own original content. Today, Netflix drops about $20 billion — with a “B” — on original content.
Fincher then delivered the superb first season of Mindhunter in 2017.
Then, in 2020, Fincher signed an exclusive deal with the streamer that, at least to my eyes, cost Fincher his fastball. His two Netflix features — Mank (2020) and The Killer (2023) — were more content than cinema. The second season of Mindhunter was hijacked by woketardery and fashionable identity politics.
Next up is The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth, a sequel to Quentin Tarantino’s 2019 masterpiece Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Tarantino wrote the script. Brad Pitt returned to the role that won him an Oscar. It is set to hit IMAX theaters for a short time next month.
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According to various reports, Netflix has already sunk about $250 million into this. Nevertheless, Fincher looked at his first cut and requested a ton of money for reshoots. Lin, who was hired just two years ago to keep costs down, only approved a fraction of what Fincher requested, and now Fincher is out.
This is probably good for Fincher and good for Netflix. Fincher floundered at Netflix. Netflix spent hundreds of millions for nothing on Fincher.
Overall, though, the issue here is that Netflix is in a bit of a panic. The stock price is in freefall. Subscribers have hit a ceiling. Netflix lost the bid to purchase Warner Bros. As far as people watching content on their televisions, Netflix is in far second place behind YouTube — 7.8 percent compared to 14.2 percent.
Scarier still is that the three top free streaming outlets — Roku Channel, Pluto, and Tubi — nearly equal Netflix’s 7.8 percent.
So Netflix, the biggest disruptor in television since HBO and cable, is now facing disruption in the form of free streaming services that survive on advertising instead of subscriptions. Netflix’s 2025 revenue hit $45.2 billion. YouTube’s revenue hit $60 billion in 2025, $40 billion of that from advertising.
Netflix’s net profit last year was a sweet $11 billion. Alphabet didn’t disclose YouTube’s net profit, but you can bet it was higher. After all, YouTube doesn’t pour $20 billion a year into producing original content.
Netflix is making some smart moves to generate growth, like live sporting events. It’s doing some stupid stuff, like hosting podcasts. What it needs to do is two-fold…
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First, the quality of its TV shows and movies must improve. I didn’t cancel my Netflix subscription and not miss it for any other reason than Netflix is a massive pile of crap content.
Secondly, Netflix needs to monetize that massive pile of crap no one watches (including subscribers) by offering its older catalogue free on a free streaming channel, something like NetflixFree, or license that content out to Pluto or Roku.
Eventually, Netflix would hit a ceiling with the subscriber pool. Oddly enough, Netflix does not seem prepared for this eventuality.