It had been foreshadowed: The Netflix series “Blockbuster” is a nasty flop and has now been cancelled accordingly. This is particularly bitter because with this title the mocking comments and headlines practically write themselves…
In the last days of the year, the Netflix executive suite mercilessly wields its scythe and cancels one series after another. “Warrior Nun”, “Resident Evil”, “Fate: The Winx Saga”: We have already explained in detail in another article why so many popular top 10 series are being hit. But in the case of the series that has now been hit, the cancellation is actually no surprise – because it has been apparent for some time that “Blockbuster” is a flop in almost every respect.
After its release, “Blockbuster” made it into the top 10 series in just two countries (Canada and Australia, and only 9th and 10th place respectively) and never into the global top 10 of the most-watched series. Thus, it probably accumulated far fewer watched hours than other titles in the same period.
In addition: “Blockbuster” was also punished by critics and audiences, which is why the low viewing figures are not particularly surprising. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, for example, rates only 22 percent of the reviews counted as positive (out of a total of 46), while the user ratings show 45 percent positive reviews (out of 300).
Metacritic shows a similar picture: the critics’ average is 45 out of 100 points (23 reviews) and the user score is 4.7 out of 10. IMDb also shows an average score of 5.1 out of 10 (with 5,900 votes, all as of 17 December 2022, 12 p.m.).
DOUBLE IRONY
The flop and now the cancellation of “Blockbuster” are particularly ironic and bitter because the title naturally suggests a box-office hit – even though that is not what is meant here. It is not about Blockbuster in the sense of “successful film”, but about the video store chain of the same name, which has meanwhile almost completely disappeared into oblivion.
Nevertheless, the mocking headlines and gloating comments in the social media naturally write themselves here – especially since there is also a second level of irony.
For it is not without a certain tragicomedy that Netflix, of all people, produces a series about the classic video shop business that then goes down completely. After all, Netflix, as a streaming pioneer, has played a major role in the demise of video stores in large parts of the world – and is now burying Blockbuster for a second time…
