Genre, Distribution, Audience Analysis: Red Notice versus The Harder They Fall and the Complicated Future of Streaming Entertainment
The action-comedy-drama is a popular source of entertainment for many demographics. Whether a Marvel movie, the James Bond franchise, or The Hunger Games adaptations, action movies with subtle comedy and drama attract audiences of various demographics. Last year, Netflix released two films of this genre onto their platform: Samuel’s The Harder They Fall (2021) and Thurber’s Red Notice (2021). The films are comparable in fast-paced action, target audience, and star power; however, they handle narrative, aesthetic, and comedy vastly differently. Also, while distributed in the same manner, their viewership status had very different outcomes. This essay will examine if differences in narrative, aesthetic, and comedy are the reason for the films’ dissimilar success in Netflix viewership or if instead the viewership success was a result of Netflix’s distribution strategy and platform building itself.
The Harder They Fall is a modern Western depicting Black historical figures - cowboys, outlaws, and sheriffs - that lived during the Construction Era in the American West. The film is rated R for violence and language with a target audience age group ranging from 16-50 year olds. Despite its all-star ensemble cast, the story particularly follows Nat Love (Jonathan Majors) from the traumatic killing of his mother and father as a young boy to his status as a cowboy and journey to hunt down his parents’ murderers. When Nat discovers that Rufus Buck (Idris Elba), the man responsible for his parents’ murder, is out of prison, Nat reunites his gang - Pickett (Edi Gathegi), Beckswourth (RJ Cyler), and Mary Fields (Zazie Beetz) with additions Cuffee (Danielle Deadwyler) and Sherif Bass Reeves (Delroy Lindo) - to rival Buck’s gang of Cherokee Bill (LaKeith Stanfield) and Trudy Smith (Regina King). In the third act climax, the gangs face off and Beckwourth, Pickett, and Cherokee Bill are killed. Buck reveals to Nat that he is his half-brother by their father, explaining that their father was abusive and killed his mother, justifying his revenge. Buck refuses to defend himself and Nat shoots him six times. Out of respect, Nat closes Buck’s eyes. After burying Beckwourth and Pickett, the film ends with Trudy Smith watching Nat and Mary ride off together, possibly implying a sequel.
The narrative clearly has sentimental power in themes of familial revenge. Other than Nat and Buck’s intertwining story, Trudy also reveals a troubling backstory about the childhood death of her sister. Besides these revelations, few other characters actively talk about family. However, when Trudy and Cherokee Bill break Buck out of prison, they each have a moment of intimate embrace - the gangs create bonds synonymous with family. This is reinforced by Pickett and Beckwourth’s brotherly relationship and Nat’s view of Reeves as a father figure.
A fascinating balance of the family narrative is the stylized aesthetics. The opening credits set the tone of the film, with rap song “Guns Go Bang” playing over each actor’s introduction as a historical character. The credits’ visuals feature pop art with darker colors and heavy red accents. The sequence implies a fast-paced, voguish swagger that the rest of the film takes in stride. Westerns traditionally implement country soundtracks, simple iconography, and neutral colors. While THTF is characterized as a Western, its soundtrack consists of pop and rap songs from numerous Black artists, including Jay-Z and Kid Cudi, has quirky iconography like pure gold guns, top hats, and bowler hats, and the set design and costuming are busily colorful (Maltin and Messam). Westerns were notoriously racist; the choice to aesthetically divert from traditional Westerns in THTF mirrors the narrative about real Black figures in the historical West.
Another divergence from traditional Westerns is THTF’s satirical comedy. The characters speak in contemporary slang language and ironically use classic Western lines. One of the best comedic moments in the film comes when Nat and Cuffee travel to Maysville (a caricarized white town) to rob a bank in order to pay off Buck. The production design of the town - buildings, the dirt road, even all the horses – emphasizes a physically white terrain, matching the white townspeople. The white characters are dressed in more traditional, neutral Western clothing, making Cuffee’s bright red dress and Nat’s brown coat stick out. Big block letters appear onscreen: “Maysville. (It’s a white town).” The white people in the bank are wittless, bad fighters, and cowards. The design is meant to resemble traditional Westerns, while the townspeople and the stark whiteness are meant to show how dull and lifeless traditional Westerns were compared to this narratively and aesthetically rich, satire-filled revision.
Red Notice is a heist film in which two con artists, Nolan Booth (Ryan Reynolds) and the anonymous “Bishop” (Gal Gadot), race against each other to attain all three of Cleopatra’s lost golden eggs. The film is rated PG-13 for action violence, sexual references, and strong language; it targets the same age group as THTF. In the film, FBI agent John Hartley (Dwayne Johnson) tracks down Booth as he steals the first of Cleopatra’s eggs and detains him. However, The Bishop frames Hartley and throws him into the same prison as Booth. They hatch an escape and plan to steal the second egg at a billionaire’s house party, where they run into and fight The Bishop. Hartley and Booth head to the secret location of the third egg, a Nazi bunker in Argentina. The Bishop follows them, but rather than fight each other again, Interpol agents appear and Bishop, Hartley, and Booth work together to escape with the eggs. Hartley then reveals that he and The Bishop were running a long con and are lovers. They abandon Booth, take the eggs, and retreat to their yacht. The end of the film sees Booth catching up to them and proposing a three-way partnership, implying a sequel.
There is a soft spot in the film due to the underlying theme of family: Booth and Hartley bond over their father issues and by the end of the film the three resemble a chosen family, much like the gangs in THFT. However, this narrative is overlooked by the story arc resembling a long con structure - Hartley and The Bishop fooled the audience just as much as Booth. The narrative style is engaging, fast paced, and adventurous - just when Hartley and Booth get in a pickle, they seem to already be out of it and onto the next task.
The aesthetics of Red Notice mix high-end class with Indiana Jones style adventure. Present in the film is wealth, famous art, expensive cars, and locations like Rome, Bali, and Valencia, creating a first and second act aesthetic of upscale chic. The final act, though, finds the trio in the jungle and an underground bunker, paying homage to Raider of the Lost Ark and implementing treasure iconography, 1940s fascist visuals, and adventure-style clothing. Just as THTF uses stylized aesthetics to mirror the revised Western and satire comedy, Red Notice’s mixed aesthetics of class and adventure match the narrative’s balance of heist and perilous quest.
Red Notice’s comedy is more universal, and tamer as opposed to THTF’s overt irony and satire. While some of the comedy stems from situational events, like the destruction of a brand-new Porsche or Hartley and Booth being placed in the same jail cell, more of it is through banter-style dialogue between the three main characters, especially Booth. Booth implements pop culture references, like “look for a box that says, ‘MacGuffin,’” or refers to the egg as the billionaire’s “precious,” complete with a Gollumized voice. The comedy matches the universal appeal of the film as simply “fun,” rather than creating a commentary or proposing progressive notions, like THTF’s revision of the Western.
The Harder They Fall balances family drama, stylized action and aesthetics, and satirical comedy to create a commentary on historically racist Westerns. The film was highly-reviewed at 87% on Rotten Tomatoes and in its first week it racked up almost 1.2 billion minutes, which equates to a little less than 8.7 million views (Hayes). Not a bad return until you look at Red Notice. Red Notice, which relies on its action-packed blend of heist and adventure, balance of classy and Indiana Jones-style aesthetics, and universal comedy, scored a 36% on Rotten Tomatoes but reportedly racked in 328.8 million hours, which comes out to 28.6 million views (Mendelson). Both films share the action-comedy-drama genre, the thrills of stylized action, star power, and targeted the same audience. Despite their differing narratives, aesthetics, and comedy, for any online Netflix-scoller the films should be equally appealing based on their genre status and star power. The question still remains then, why did The Harder They Fall, a film with the same appeals as Red Notice, have a significantly lower performance for online audiences?
Per Daniel Fellman’s “Studio Distribution” chapter in Jason Squire’s The Movie Business Book, there are traditionally three basic strategies for movie distribution: wide release, limited release, and exclusive (platform) release. In the past, a majority of films experienced a wide release pattern over limited release, which is still theatrical distribution but only opens in 50-700 theaters. The exclusive release sees a film open in a few major cities and relies on word of mouth and buzz to expand into the larger markets (Fellman).
This was the case of studio distribution several years ago, but since COVID-19 and lockdowns throughout the world, studios altered their approach to distribution. Because people couldn’t go out to theaters, studios started creating deals with streaming platforms (some of which studios already owned) to release their new pictures for subscription viewing audiences. For instance, Warner Bros. owns HBO Max and chose to release many of their films in the 2021 year in theaters and on HBO Max (like James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad (2021) or Dune (2021)).
Netflix, however, has always practiced straight-to-streaming. The first Netflix original series was Lilyhammer, which premiered in 2012 (Moore). Most major studios spend 1.5-2 billion dollars making and marketing their slate of films every year; in 2021, Netflix spent 18.5 billion (Korchek). Netflix spends a lot to market and produce original content, easily the biggest spending name in streaming and probably in the industry with its only possible rival in Disney. Why practice a straight-to-streaming strategy when big-budget movies with star-studded casts and large target audiences, like The Harder They Fall and Red Notice, could bring back strong returns in a box office run? Netflix’s global film chief, Scott Stuber, believes that Red Notice is “the culmination of four years of working to convince Hollywood that [Netflix’s] subscriber base is worth more than any box office returns a film can muster” (Sperling). This is a strong conviction, especially given the money Netflix pours into its content.
Both films achieve their goals: THTF of satire and commentary and Red Notice of adventure-packed, mindless fun. The films are very different in content, aesthetics, and tone, but from a Netflix-scrolling audience member, the two films offer the most basic appeals for audiences: fast-paced action, engaging narratives, and all-star casts. The most probable conclusion for a high rated film to do poorer in viewership than a low rated film, then, is the way that Netflix’s distribution algorithm operates. When Red Notice went live on Netflix, it was at the top of my (and I imagine the entire viewership’s) page with the stamp, “Number 1 in the US today.” It stayed at number one for a while, yet when THTF released it stayed at the top 1 for only a week (Hayes). Thurber, the Red Notice director, said himself that “because of Netflix, more people will watch Red Notice than any of my other films’ viewership combined” (Maltin). It’s a dangerous prospect, that Netflix has so much influence over what the world watches compared to going out the theater and choosing what to watch. For instance, going to a theater, would an audience member choose to watch the 90% rated film with great cast and action or the 40% rated film with equally great cast and (arguably) great action? The film industry is changing. If The Harder They Fall simply doesn’t align with a person’s algorithm, they might never even know the film exists. Red Notice, however, is perceived (by Netflix) as universal enough to be at the top of everyone’s algorithm.
The film industry is growing. The growth it’s experiencing, and how audiences are being affected by it, is painful. Although straight-to-streaming distribution for a film like Red Notice is beneficial for its success, The Harder They Fall was limited by straight-to-streaming and would have probably benefited more from a wide release. Nothing is ever certain with the box office or with the complications of COVID, and it's true that much remains to be seen with the future of movie-going in general. Yet, this case study regarding THTF and Red Notice should be an indication and a warning to audiences of what we could be risking by blindly putting our faith in streaming platforms. We risk the ability to choose for ourselves the media we consume, because we no longer see all the options.
If you’re interested in reading more about streaming platforms and the complications of algorithms and audience choice, I would direct you to this article: https://observer.com/2021/09/netflix-amazon-disney-hbo-max-possession-lost-movies-streaming-wars/, written by Laura Babiak on “Lost Movies” in an area of streaming accessibility. We must consider what systems of power, like Netflix, are in play and how they influence and control what we watch if we are to continue having free choice in an ever growing industry and world.
Works Cited
Fellman, Daniel R. “Studio Distribution.” The Movie Business Book, by Jason E Squire, 4th ed.,
Routledge, 2017, pp. 371-382.
Hayes, Dade. “The Harder They Fall Tops Nielsen U.S. Streaming Chart as Netflix Has Strong
Overall Movie Showing.” Deadline, Deadline, 2 Dec. 2021, https://deadline.com/2021/12/the-harder-they-fall-nielsen-us-streaming-chart-netflix-1234883908/.
Korchek, Jeffery. “The Studio Way of Motion Picture Production.” CNTV 440: The Business of
Motion Pictures, TV, Animation, Video Games, and Interactive Entertainment. Lecture, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, August 30, 2021.
Maltin, Leonard and Rawson Thurber. CTCS 466: Theatrical Symposium. Lecture, Q & A,
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, November 4, 2021.
Maltin, Leonard and Antionette Messam. CTCS 466: Theatrical Symposium. Lecture, Q & A,
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, October 21, 2021.
Mendelson, Scott. “'Red Notice' Takes 61% Third-Week Drop in Netflix Rankings.” Forbes,
Forbes Magazine, 1 Dec. 2021, https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2021/12/01/red-notice-takes-61-third-week-drop-in-netflix-rankings/?sh=5849830b2e7a.
Moore, Kasey. “What Was the First Netflix Original?” What's on Netflix, 14 Dec. 2016,
https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/news/first-netflix-original/.
Samuel, Jeymes, director. The Harder They Fall. Netflix, 2021.
Sperling, Nicole. “Netflix Turns Its Attention to Films It Hopes Everyone Wants to See.” The
New York Times, 22 Nov. 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/22/business/media/netflix-movies-theaters.html.
Thurber, Rawson, director. Red Notice. Netflix, 2021.