$250 million to produce and star in films that garner as low as 0% on Rotten Tomatoes?

“Yes, please,” says Netflix, recently inking another deal with actor/producer Adam Sandler for another four films, following the success of his initial $250 million, four-film deal.

This may seem like a bad deal for Netflix, until you realize that Sandler’s latest movie, Murder Mystery, was the most-watched movie on the streaming service in 2019, despite its 44% Rotten Tomatoes score. Back in 2015, Sandler’s movie, The Ridiculous 6, became Netflix’s most-watched movie ever, despite its 0% Rotten Tomatoes score.

Is the lesson here that we should produce low-quality content in order to attract a bigger audience and more money? Of course not.

In today’s episode, Curt Mercadante discusses the two lessons we can learn from Netflix: 1) Focus on the audiences that matter, and 2) Don’t be afraid of becoming an acquired taste.