Netflix has spent a record-breaking $320 million on The Electric State, making it the most expensive film in the streamer’s history and one of the costliest productions of all time. The Russo Brothers-directed sci-fi feature, which stars Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt, has struggled to impress critics, currently holding an 18% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
The production marks the directors’ lowest-rated non-MCU project to date.
The film’s astronomical budget represents a significant escalation in the platform’s content spending strategy — particularly notable for a direct-to-streaming release that bypasses theatrical distribution entirely.
Industry analysts point out that The Electric State‘s $320 million budget approximately equals the combined production costs of the past 13 Best Picture Oscar winners:
- Anora (2024) – $6 million
- Oppenheimer (2023) – $100 million
- Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) – $25 million
- CODA (2021) – $20 million
- Nomadland (2020) – $5 million
- Parasite (2019) – $11.4 million
- Green Book (2018) – $23 million
- The Shape of Water (2017) – $20 million
- Moonlight (2016) – $1.5 million
- Spotlight (2015) – $20 million
- Birdman (2014) – $18 million
- 12 Years a Slave (2013) – $22 million
- Argo (2012) – $44.5 million
The film follows a similar spending pattern to Netflix‘s previous high-budget action thriller The Gray Man, which also featured substantial production costs and star power but failed to generate lasting cultural impact or critical acclaim.
Despite assembling a cast that includes Brown, Pratt, and Stanley Tucci, the production has struggled to translate its considerable resources into critical success — raising questions about the streamer’s content strategy in an increasingly competitive market.
Industry observers note that while competitors have found success with mid-budget prestige projects, Netflix continues to allocate substantial resources to tentpole productions with questionable return on investment.
The platform’s spending decisions come at a time when subscriber growth has slowed in key markets and content competition has intensified across the streaming landscape.
