>In what sense is Bird Box a “box office smash?”
the article you're commenting on makes a pretty thorough case for why it is a box office hit.
There’s a difference between content people “don’t like” and content with a mediocre, but broadly acceptable level of quality.
It seems like the real magic is the capability to make a particular piece of content the “thing that prople talk about”, and so you watch it just so that you’re able to talk about it in conversation, because it’s part of the social consciousness.
In other words, I’m saying that yes, Netflix can fairly easily promote a film and get millions of people to watch it, but that doesn’t mean they have a magical sustainable model. If they were to consistently flex this muscle with content people don’t like, it’s pretty obvious things will turn out badly for them.