Netflix Zombies

Once A Career Kiss Of Death, The Direct-To-Video Model Has Been Revived By Adam Sandler And Other Actors And Comedians Marketing Directly To Their Hard-Core Fans Through Streaming.

- Natalie Robehmed

In a scene from 2006’s Click, Adam Sandler finds a magical remote control that gives him the ability to control time. More than ten years later, it’s remote controls that give him a shockingly good income for someone whose best professional years are way, way behind him.

Over the past 12 months, Sandler has made an estimated $50.5 million (No. 35 on the Celebrity 100), thanks mostly to a Netflix deal that understands his core audience is more couch potato than art-house moviegoer and keen to stream dopey Sandler flicks at home, whenever they want. It’s an updated version of the old straight-to-video model, except it’s geared toward entertainers with deeply loyal audiences versus those whose appeal is broader and thinner. Howard Stern’s $500 million Sirius XM radio deal presaged this era a decade ago. But now the money is bigger—Netflix gives Sandler a budget of around $60 million per movie—as is the audience. Netflix, which generated $8.8 billion in revenue last year (but which keeps viewership numbers largely secret), said in April its members have spent more than 500 million hours watching Sandler’s movies since December 2015, an average of five hours of Sandler per subscriber.