Netflix’s Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria swears she is open to doing more backend deals with filmmakers, talent, and producers, but she says almost none of them really want one, despite some public lobbying.
On his “The Town” podcast, Puck founder Matt Belloni grilled Bajaria on a large variety of topics: the scandal plaguing the “Emilia Pérez” Oscar push, Greta Gerwig’s special “Narnia” deal, and the usual chatter about sports programming and data transparency. One standout segment for us was a relatively brief conversation about backend deals, in which talent — an actor, a director, or a producer — reaps the financial rewards of a hit film or show through a percentage of the profits. The Netflix model of almost always skipping any meaningful theatrical release for films definitely complicates matters, and for series, some newly shared (but still kind of limited) viewership statistics open the back door a bit — but not completely.
