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104-855: The first releases originally featured Michael J. Nelson , Kevin Murphy , and Bill Corbett , through audio-only tracks intended to be played in unison with unaltered VHS and DVD copies of these programs. After the introduction of already-synced VHS and DVD material, added to the riffers were Mary Jo Pehl and Bridget Jones Nelson , who also wrote and performed for the MST3K series. Guest riffers have also added commentaries, including parodist "Weird Al" Yankovic , comedians Paul F. Tompkins , Cole Stratton and Janet Varney , and actors Joel McHale , Fred Willard , and Neil Patrick Harris , among others. RiffTrax products are sold in downloadable media online and delivered by app, streaming video, and DRM-free download. It

208-500: A CA$ 500 million (US$ 400 million) investment over the next five years in producing content in Canada. The company denied that the deal was intended to result in a tax break . Netflix realized this goal by December 2018. In October 2017, Netflix iterated a goal of having half of its library consist of original content by 2019, announcing a plan to invest $ 8 billion on original content in 2018. In October 2017, Netflix introduced

312-428: A Defenders miniseries that would tie them together. Daredevil and Jessica Jones premiered in 2015. The Luke Cage series premiered on September 30, 2016, followed by Iron Fist on March 17, 2017, and The Defenders on August 18, 2017. Marvel owner Disney later entered into other content agreements with Netflix, including acquiring its animated Star Wars series Star Wars: The Clone Wars , and

416-523: A compact disc to Hastings's house in Santa Cruz. When the CD arrived intact, they decided to enter the $ 16 billion Home-video sales and rental industry. Hastings is often quoted saying that he decided to start Netflix after being fined $ 40 at a Blockbuster store for being late to return a copy of Apollo 13 . Hastings invested $ 2.5 million into Netflix from the sale of Pure Atria. Netflix launched as

520-546: A music publishing deal with BMG Rights Management , whereby BMG will oversee rights outside of the United States for music associated with Netflix original content. Netflix continues to handle these tasks in-house in the United States. On April 25, 2017, Netflix signed a licensing deal with IQIYI , a Chinese video streaming platform owned by Baidu , to allow selected Netflix original content to be distributed in China on

624-508: A "Netflix Player" that would allow streaming content to be played directly on a television rather than a desktop or laptop. Hastings eventually shut down the project to help encourage other hardware manufacturers to include built-in Netflix support, which would be spun off as the digital media player product Roku . In January 2008, all rental-disc subscribers became entitled to unlimited streaming at no additional cost. This change came in

728-413: A DVD rental service, which not only allowed users to check out titles through online sites but allowed for them to return them at brick and-mortar stores. By 2006, Blockbuster's service reached two million users, and while trailing Netflix's subscriber count, was drawing business away from Netflix. Netflix lowered fees in 2007. While it was an urban legend that Netflix ultimately "killed" Blockbuster in

832-824: A Netflix original series, receiving much critical acclaim. On January 22, 2019, Netflix sought and was approved for membership into the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), making it the first streaming service to join the association. In February 2019, The Haunting creator Mike Flanagan joined frequent collaborator Trevor Macy as a partner in Intrepid Pictures and the duo signed an exclusive overall deal with Netflix to produce television content. On May 9, 2019, Netflix contracted with Dark Horse Entertainment to make television series and films based on comics from Dark Horse Comics . In July 2019, Netflix announced that it would be opening

936-766: A concession stand. In January 2020, Netflix announced a new four-film deal with Adam Sandler worth up to $ 275 million. On February 25, 2020, Netflix formed partnerships with six Japanese creators to produce an original Japanese anime project. This partnership includes manga creator group CLAMP, mangaka Shin Kibayashi , mangaka Yasuo Ohtagaki, novelist and film director Otsuichi , novelist Tow Ubutaka, and manga creator Mari Yamazaki . On March 4, 2020, ViacomCBS announced that it will be producing two spin-off films based on SpongeBob SquarePants for Netflix. On April 7, 2020, Peter Chernin 's Chernin Entertainment made

1040-516: A contest was held by RiffTrax, in which a winning iRiffs user would be given $ 1,000 and a chance to develop a RiffTrax Presents title, receiving instruction and critique from Nelson, Murphy and Corbett. The winners of the contest were Doug Walker , Rob Walker and Brian Heinz of That Guy with the Glasses , who contributed an iRiff of The Lion King . The RiffTrax commentary they produced was for Batman Forever . In October 2015, RiffTrax negotiated

1144-1970: A deal with Open Road Films . On August 23, 2012, Netflix and The Weinstein Company signed a multi-year output deal for RADiUS-TWC films. In September 2012, Epix signed a five-year streaming deal with Netflix. For the initial two years of this agreement, first-run and back-catalog content from Epix was exclusive to Netflix. Epix films came to Netflix 90 days after premiering on Epix. These included films from Paramount, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Lionsgate. On October 18, 2012, Netflix launched in Denmark , Finland , Norway and Sweden . On December 4, 2012, Netflix and Disney announced an exclusive multi-year agreement for first-run United States subscription television rights to Walt Disney Studios ' animated and live-action films, with classics such as Dumbo , Alice in Wonderland and Pocahontas available immediately and others available on Netflix beginning in 2016. Direct-to-video releases were made available in 2013. On January 14, 2013, Netflix signed an agreement with Time Warner 's Turner Broadcasting System and Warner Bros. Television to distribute Cartoon Network , Warner Bros. Animation , and Adult Swim content, as well as TNT 's Dallas , beginning in March 2013. The rights to these programs were given to Netflix shortly after deals with Viacom to stream Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. Channel programs expired. For cost reasons, Netflix stated that it would limit its expansion in 2013, adding only one new market—the Netherlands—in September of that year. This expanded its availability to 40 territories. In 2011, Netflix began its efforts into original content development. In March, it made

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1248-483: A half seasons (surviving the show's switching networks from Comedy Central to the Sci-Fi Channel) until the original run ended in 1999. Writing Since the series ended, Nelson has worked steadily as a writer, publishing several books (as of March 2006): Mike Nelson's Movie Megacheese , Mike Nelson's Mind Over Matters and Mike Nelson's Death Rat! , the last being his first novel. His other works include

1352-412: A hub at Shepperton Studios as part of a deal with Pinewood Group . In early-August 2019, Netflix negotiated an exclusive multi-year film and television deal with Game of Thrones creators and showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss . The first Netflix production created by Benioff and Weiss was planned as an adaptation of Liu Cixin 's science fiction novel The Three-Body Problem , part of

1456-666: A multi-year deal to create original projects for the service. In May 2014, Netflix & Sony Pictures Animation had a major multi-deal to acquired streaming rights to produce films. It also began to introduce an updated logo, with a flatter appearance and updated typography. In September 2014, Netflix expanded into six new European markets, including Austria , Belgium , France , Germany , Luxembourg , and Switzerland . On September 10, 2014, Netflix participated in Internet Slowdown Day by deliberately slowing down its speed in support of net neutrality regulations in

1560-472: A new season of the previously cancelled Fox sitcom Arrested Development . Netflix acquired the U.S. rights to the Norwegian drama Lilyhammer after its television premiere on Norway's NRK1 on January 25, 2012. Notably departing from the traditional broadcast television model of weekly episode premieres, Netflix chose to release the entire first season on February 8 of the same year. House of Cards

1664-437: A new sixth season. In February 2014, Netflix began to enter into agreements with U.S. internet service providers, beginning with Comcast (whose customers had repeatedly complained of frequent buffering when streaming Netflix), in order to provide the service a direct connection to their networks. In April 2014, Netflix signed Arrested Development creator Mitchell Hurwitz and his production firm The Hurwitz Company to

1768-491: A per-rental model for each DVD but introduced a monthly subscription concept in September 1999. The per-rental model was dropped by early 2000, allowing the company to focus on the business model of flat-fee unlimited rentals without due dates, late fees, shipping and handling fees, or per-title rental fees. In September 2000, during the dot-com bubble , while Netflix was suffering losses, Hastings and Randolph offered to sell

1872-736: A popular gift for holiday sales in late 2001, and demand for DVD subscription services were "growing like crazy", according to chief talent officer Patty McCord . The company went public on May 23, 2002, selling 5.5 million shares of common stock at US$ 15.00 per share. In 2003, Netflix was issued a patent by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office to cover its subscription rental service and several extensions. Netflix posted its first profit in 2003, earning $ 6.5 million on revenues of $ 272 million; by 2004, profit had increased to $ 49 million on over $ 500 million in revenues. In 2005, 35,000 different films were available, and Netflix shipped 1 million DVDs out every day. In 2004, Blockbuster introduced

1976-621: A response to the introduction of Hulu and to Apple 's new video-rental services. In August 2008, the Netflix database was corrupted and the company was not able to ship DVDs to customers for 3 days, leading the company to move all its data to the Amazon Web Services cloud. In November 2008, Netflix began offering subscribers rentals on Blu-ray and discontinued its sale of used DVDs. In 2009, Netflix streams overtook DVD shipments. On January 6, 2010, Netflix agreed with Warner Bros. to delay new release rentals to 28 days after

2080-426: A series of pop-culture humor books, Happy Kitty Bunny Pony , Goth-Icky , and Love Sick , as well as a monthly column for Home Theater Magazine . He also wrote for the short-lived game show Let's Bowl . He has commentary tracks for DVD releases of several films, including Reefer Madness , The Little Shop of Horrors , House on Haunted Hill , Plan 9 from Outer Space , Carnival of Souls , and Night of

2184-764: A settlement with the American Council of the Blind , Netflix agreed to provide descriptions for its original series within 30 days of their premiere, and add screen reader support and the ability to browse content by availability of descriptions. In March 2015, Netflix expanded to Australia and New Zealand . In September 2015, Netflix launched in Japan , its first country in Asia. In October 2015, Netflix launched in Italy , Portugal , and Spain . In January 2016, at

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2288-536: A short piece about his experience for the New York Times in 2007. Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple languages. Launched in 2007, nearly a decade after Netflix, Inc. began its pioneering DVD-by-mail movie rental service, Netflix

2392-477: A small team of writers; longer works are divided into 20- to 30-minute sections for each writer to rewatch and develop riffs for before assembling the entire work. RiffTrax continues to release audio track riffs that can be used to play over the owner's own copy of a film as well as making versions friendly for films offered on online streaming services like Netflix . They have also since expanded to produce full-length video-on-demand riffs for films that have entered

2496-539: A straight-to-series order from MRC for the political drama House of Cards , led by Kevin Spacey , outbidding U.S. cable networks. This marked the first instance of a first-run television series being specifically commissioned by the service. In November the same year, Netflix added two more significant productions to its roster: the comedy-drama Orange Is the New Black , adapted from Piper Kerman 's memoir , and

2600-452: Is also featured on Pluto TV , Twitch , Xumo , Tubi and a channel on Samsung TV. Following the cancellation of MST3K , Nelson, Murphy and Corbett attempted to bring the riffing concept to a podcast series known as The Film Crew . During this time, Rhino Entertainment collaborated to produce four riffed films on DVD: Hollywood After Dark , Killers from Space , The Wild Women of Wongo , and The Giant of Marathon . After

2704-424: Is responsible for building and leading the company's creative content, providing continuous commentaries, and developing other premium web-based programming. "I'm very excited. Legend Films is such a great fit for me—talented people who consistently put out a great product. Plus, there are Flaming Hot Cheetos in the lunch room vending machine . That made it an easy choice to join the team," enthused Nelson. One of

2808-636: Is the 23rd most-visited website in the world , with 23.66% of its traffic coming from the United States , followed by the United Kingdom at 5.84%, and Brazil at 5.64%. Netflix was founded by Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings on August 29, 1997, in Scotts Valley, California . Hastings, a computer scientist and mathematician, was a co-founder of Pure Software , which was acquired by Rational Software that year for $ 750 million,

2912-400: Is the most-subscribed video on demand streaming media service, with 282.7 million paid memberships in more than 190 countries as of 2024. By 2022, "Netflix Original" productions accounted for half of its library in the United States and the namesake company had ventured into other categories, such as video game publishing of mobile games through its flagship service. As of 2023, Netflix

3016-604: The Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy. On September 30, 2019, in addition to renewing Stranger Things for a fourth season , Netflix signed The Duffer Brothers to an overall deal covering future film and television projects for the service. On November 13, 2019, Netflix and Nickelodeon entered into a multi-year agreement to produce several original animated feature films and television series based on Nickelodeon's library of characters. This agreement expanded on their existing relationship, in which new specials based on

3120-506: The BBC , Sarandos said the company also looking to expand investments in non-traditional foreign markets due to the growth of viewers outside of North America. At the time, this included programs such as Dark from Germany, Ingobernable from Mexico and 3% from Brazil . On May 22, 2018, former president , Barack Obama , and his wife, Michelle Obama , signed a deal to produce docu-series, documentaries and features for Netflix under

3224-647: The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the year's live shows were postponed to 2021, and therefore no new campaign was held in the latter year, but RiffTrax experimented with live virtual shows, using films available on Netflix and the Scener app was used by viewers to pay to watch the event. These shows included riffs on the first episode of Stranger Things in July 2020, and the film Starship Troopers in September 2020. The list of live Rifftrax shows is: In conjunction with

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3328-621: The Consumer Electronics Show , Netflix announced a major international expansion of its service into 130 additional countries. It then had become available worldwide except China , Syria , North Korea , Kosovo and Crimea . In May 2016, Netflix created a tool called Fast.com to determine the speed of an Internet connection. It received praise for being "simple" and "easy to use", and does not include online advertising , unlike competitors. On November 30, 2016, Netflix launched an offline playback feature, allowing users of

3432-643: The Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse cases . In November 2017, Netflix announced that it would be making its first original Colombian series, to be executive produced by Ciro Guerra . In December 2017, Netflix signed Stranger Things director-producer Shawn Levy and his production company 21 Laps Entertainment to what sources say is a four-year deal. In 2017, Netflix invested in distributing exclusive stand-up comedy specials from Dave Chappelle , Louis C.K. , Chris Rock , Jim Gaffigan , Bill Burr and Jerry Seinfeld . In February 2018, Netflix acquired

3536-466: The MP3 file is synchronized with the film, fictional character and riffer "DisembAudio" (voiced by writer Conor Lastowka) speaks occasional lines in exact synchronization with the movie. "RiffTrax Presents" commentaries feature a female synchronization voice, Debbie. Though RiffTrax are suggested to be played on an MP3 player or with computer software, they are sold as unrestricted MP3s, allowing users to choose

3640-666: The Mystery Science Theater 3000 team. In 2016, additional MST3K alumni, Joel Hodgson , Trace Beaulieu , and Frank Conniff , all appeared for a live reunion at the State Theatre in Minneapolis with Nelson, Murphy and Corbett. They were also joined by the newest host, Jonah Ray . Voice work In 2013, Nelson agreed to do voiceover work for Armikrog . Nelson voices the lead character, Tommynaut. Podcasts In 2016, Nelson and David Berge started

3744-556: The National Geographic Channel , Nelson, Corbett, and Murphy created a 3-part television series, "Total Riff Off" that aired on the channel on April 1, 2014, and became available to buy as video-on-demand later on the RiffTrax site. Each episode is one hour long featuring the three riffing on older National Geographic footage. According to Nelson, the idea for the series came from a National Geographic producer who

3848-472: The Netflix Prize , $ 1,000,000 to the first developer of a video-recommendation algorithm that could beat its existing algorithm Cinematch, at predicting customer ratings by more than 10%. On September 21, 2009, it awarded the $ 1,000,000 prize to team "BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos". Cinematch, launched in 2000, was a system that recommended movies to its users, many of which might have been entirely new to

3952-514: The domain name DVD.com. By 2016, Netflix rebranded its DVD-by-mail service under the name DVD.com, A Netflix Company . In April 2012, Netflix filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to form a political action committee (PAC) called FLIXPAC. Netflix spokesperson Joris Evers tweeted that the intent was to "engage on issues like net neutrality , bandwidth caps , UBB and VPPA ". In June 2012, Netflix signed

4056-747: The podcast Like Trees Walking . They look at life and faith from a Christian perspective, with a lightly humorous, offbeat approach. Since 2017, he has created, with Conor Lastowka, the podcast 372 Pages We'll Never Get Back , which analyses books of contested quality. Nelson has described the role of Christianity in his family as "the very centerpiece of our lives. We're heavily involved in our church, my wife works with youth groups and churches as her profession, and almost every career and life decision I make depends upon it." He studies Christian apologetics and cites William Lane Craig and C.S. Lewis as influences. Nelson has suffered from chronic debilitating headaches for most of his adult life; he wrote

4160-567: The remote controls of devices compatible with the service, such as Blu-ray players . By May 2011, Netflix had become the largest source of Internet streaming traffic in North America, accounting for 30% of traffic during peak hours. On July 12, 2011, Netflix announced that it would separate its existing subscription plans into two separate plans: one covering the streaming and the other DVD rental services. The cost for streaming would be $ 7.99 per month, while DVD rental would start at

4264-465: The "Profiles" feature that permits accounts to accommodate up to five user profiles. In November 2013, Marvel Television and ABC Studios announced Netflix had ordered a slate of four television series based on the Marvel Comics characters Daredevil , Jessica Jones , Iron Fist and Luke Cage . Each of the four series received an initial order of 13 episodes, and Netflix also ordered

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4368-440: The "Skip Intro" feature which allows customers to skip the intros to shows on its platform through a variety of techniques including manual reviewing, audio tagging, and machine learning . In November 2017, Netflix signed an exclusive multi-year deal with Orange Is the New Black creator Jenji Kohan . In November 2017, Netflix withdrew from co-hosting a party at the 75th Golden Globe Awards with The Weinstein Company due to

4472-487: The "dynamic queue" of DVDs available for each customer, Netflix's method of using the ranked preferences in the queue to send DVDs to subscribers, and Netflix's method permitting the queue to be updated and reordered. The second cause of action alleged infringement of the subscription rental service as well as Netflix's methods of communication and delivery. The companies settled their dispute on June 25, 2007; terms were not disclosed. On October 1, 2006, Netflix announced

4576-587: The Belcourt, occurred on October 28, 2010, with special guest Paul F. Tompkins . A fifth took place on August 17, 2011, featuring the film Jack the Giant Killer . A sixth took place on August 16, 2012, featuring the film, Manos, The Hands of Fate . A seventh live event took place on October 25, 2012, featuring Birdemic: Shock and Terror . The live event featuring Starship Troopers took place on August 15, 2013. The ninth live event featuring Night of

4680-655: The DVD rental market, Blockbuster's debt load and internal disagreements hurt the company. On April 4, 2006, Netflix filed a patent infringement lawsuit in which it demanded a jury trial in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California , alleging that Blockbuster 's online DVD rental subscription program violated two patents held by Netflix. The first cause of action alleged Blockbuster's infringement of copying

4784-575: The DVDs became available for sale, in an attempt to help studios sell physical copies, and similar deals involving Universal Pictures and 20th Century Fox were reached on April 9. In July 2010, Netflix signed a deal to stream movies of Relativity Media . In August 2010, Netflix reached a five-year deal worth nearly $ 1 billion to stream films from Paramount , Lionsgate and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer . The deal increased Netflix's annual spending fees, adding roughly $ 200 million per year. It spent $ 117 million in

4888-504: The Ice Cream Bunny at different live events throughout the year. The Rifftrax riff of The Room was performed live during the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival 's series of midnight special events. For 2016, RiffTrax used a Kickstarter campaign to successfully fund their events for the year, meeting their initial goal of $ 225,000 within four days after the start of the campaign, with $ 620,999 as the total amount raised. The first event

4992-494: The Internet. However, at that time it only had 1,000 films available for streaming, compared to 70,000 available on DVD. The company had for some time considered offering movies online, but it was only in the mid-2000s that data speeds and bandwidth costs had improved sufficiently to allow customers to download movies from the internet. The original idea was a "Netflix box" that could download movies overnight, and be ready to watch

5096-488: The Living Dead . With his MST3K co-stars Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett , he was part of a comedy team called " The Film Crew ", which has created comedy segments for National Public Radio . The first Film Crew DVD, Hollywood After Dark , was released July 10, 2007, and three more followed in the months after. Legend Films | RiffTrax In 2006, Nelson was appointed Chief Content Producer for Legend Films . He

5200-636: The Living Dead was performed on October 24, 2013 . On February 25, 2013, RiffTrax announced a Kickstarter campaign to raise money to secure the rights to riff Twilight , the first film of The Twilight Saga , for their live show in August 2013. Although the Kickstarter was successful, RiffTrax could not work a deal to secure the rights to Twilight and they, instead, used the funding to secure Starship Troopers . On May 12, 2014, RiffTrax announced another Kickstarter campaign to raise money to secure

5304-470: The Netflix production logo at the screening. Netflix's attempts to negotiate to allow a limited release in France were curtailed by organizers, as well as French cultural exception law—where theatrically screened films are legally forbidden from being made available via video-on-demand services until at least 36 months after their release. Besides traditional Hollywood markets as well as from partners like

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5408-515: The Netflix mobile apps on Android or iOS to cache content on their devices in standard or high quality for viewing offline, without an Internet connection. In 2016, Netflix released an estimated 126 original series or films, more than any network or cable channel. In April 2016, Hastings stated that the company planned to expand its in-house, Los Angeles-based Netflix Studios to grow its output; Hastings ruled out any potential acquisitions of existing studios. In February 2017, Netflix signed

5512-546: The New Black had been its most-watched original series so far, with all of them having "an audience comparable with successful shows on cable and broadcast TV." On March 13, 2013, Netflix added a Facebook sharing feature, letting United States subscribers access "Watched by your friends" and "Friends' Favorites" by agreeing. This was not legal until the Video Privacy Protection Act was modified in early 2013. On August 1, 2013, Netflix reintroduced

5616-533: The Obamas' newly formed production company, Higher Ground Productions . In June 2018, Netflix announced a partnership with Telltale Games to port its adventure games to the service in a streaming video format, allowing simple controls through a television remote. The first game, Minecraft: Story Mode , was released in November 2018. In July 2018, Netflix earned the most Emmy nominations of any network for

5720-550: The RiffTrax Kickstarter campaign had officially ended. RiffTrax had been wanting to do a Doctor Who episode for some time as a way to bridge into its fandom , but had to get permission from the BBC . The BBC had been hesitant, fearing that the nature of RiffTrax may have been mean-spirited, but after seeing some of RiffTrax's work, agreed to the use, feeling it would help promote Doctor Who in America. Due to

5824-476: The RiffTrax Player currently supports Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X Snow Leopard and up. RiffTrax On Demand features downloadable DRM -free video files of films with RiffTrax commentaries embedded. RiffTrax On Demand has released many short, public domain, and educational films similar to the ones that MST3K would sometimes mock before a full-length movie began. In March 2022, Rifftrax: The Game

5928-620: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles . The agreement with Disney ended in 2019 due to the launch of Disney+ , with its Marvel productions moving exclusively to the service in 2022. In November 2019, Netflix announced that it had signed a long-term lease to save the Paris Theatre, the last single-screen movie theater in Manhattan . The company oversaw several renovations at the theater, including new seats and

6032-608: The UK subscribers in 2021 was £1.4bn. In April 2018, Netflix pulled out of the Cannes Film Festival , in response to new rules requiring competition films to have been released in French theaters. The Cannes premiere of Okja in 2017 was controversial, and led to discussions over the appropriateness of films with simultaneous digital releases being screened at an event showcasing theatrical film; audience members also booed

6136-436: The United States. In October 2014, Netflix announced a four-film deal with Adam Sandler and his Happy Madison Productions . In April 2015, following the launch of Daredevil , Netflix director of content operations Tracy Wright announced that Netflix had added support for audio description , and had begun to work with its partners to add descriptions to its other original series over time. The following year, as part of

6240-893: The World and worldwide distribution of Universal's Extinction , Warner Bros.' Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle , Paramount's The Lovebirds and 20th Century Studios' The Woman in the Window . In March, the service ordered Formula 1: Drive to Survive , a racing docuseries following teams in the Formula One world championship. In March 2018, Sky UK announced an agreement with Netflix to integrate Netflix's subscription VOD offering into its pay-TV service. Customers with its high-end Sky Q set-top box and service will be able to see Netflix titles alongside their regular Sky channels. In October 2022, Netflix revealed that its annual revenue from

6344-415: The agreement. In December 2018, the company announced a partnership with ESPN Films on a television documentary chronicling Michael Jordan and the 1997–98 Chicago Bulls season titled The Last Dance . It was released internationally on Netflix and became available for streaming in the United States three months after a broadcast airing on ESPN . In January 2019, Sex Education made its debut as

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6448-465: The association with Rhino Entertainment and Shout Factory (who distributed The Film Crew DVDs) ended, Nelson and Legend Films started RiffTrax in 2007 based in San Diego . In 2012, RiffTrax was purchased from Legend by Nelson, Murphy, Corbett, and RiffTrax CEO David G. Martin. The movies chosen for Mystery Science Theater 3000 were predominantly low-budget B-movies because the show itself

6552-519: The company to Blockbuster for $ 50 million. John Antioco , CEO of Blockbuster, thought the offer was a joke and declined, saying, "The dot-com hysteria is completely overblown." While Netflix experienced fast growth in early 2001, the continued effects of the dot-com bubble collapse and the September 11 attacks caused the company to hold off plans for its initial public offering (IPO) and to lay off one-third of its 120 employees. DVD players were

6656-432: The competition, beating fellow musicians Jonathan Coulton , Paul and Storm and, in the final round, Jason Morris. After the competition, they decided to continue creating songs as The Rifftones, making songs based on the movies they've riffed and releasing two albums of music, which are available on the RiffTrax site. RiffTrax commentaries are synchronized at the start of the movie using a cue . To reassure consumers that

6760-609: The country, except in the Pacific Time zone, where a replay of the broadcast is shown. The first show was performed live at the Belcourt Theatre in Nashville , Tennessee on August 20, 2009, where Mike, Kevin, and Bill riffed Plan 9 from Outer Space , along with the short film Flying Stewardess and guest appearances by Veronica Belmont , Jonathan Coulton , and Rich Kyanka of Something Awful . An encore showing

6864-547: The episode sales on the RiffTrax website goes to the cast members of MST3K . On July 20, 2021, RiffTrax celebrated its fifteenth anniversary. As part of SF Sketchfest in San Francisco , California , Nelson, Murphy, and Corbett have appeared several times performing live riffs alongside a screening of a film. Early on the team riffed Daredevil and Over the Top (1987) in 2007 and Plan 9 from Outer Space . "Plan 9"

6968-432: The films at the same time. The company originally produced audio-only tracks which were intended to be played in unison with unaltered VHS and DVD copies of these programs. The early RiffTrax were almost all solo efforts on Nelson's part, but it soon became apparent that there was a strong demand for them. Nelson was quickly able to recruit more riffers for the project. Most official RiffTrax (not counting fan-made iRiffs and

7072-424: The first DVD rental and sales website with 30 employees and 925 titles available—nearly all DVDs published. Randolph and Hastings met with Jeff Bezos , where Amazon offered to acquire Netflix for between $ 14 and $ 16 million. Fearing competition from Amazon, Randolph at first thought the offer was fair, but Hastings, who owned 70% of the company, turned it down on the plane ride home. Initially, Netflix offered

7176-444: The first six months of 2010 on streaming, up from $ 31 million in 2009. On September 22, 2010, Netflix launched in Canada, its first international market. In November 2010, Netflix began offering a standalone streaming service separate from DVD rentals. In 2010, Netflix acquired the rights to Breaking Bad , produced by Sony Pictures Television, after the show's third season, at a point where original broadcaster AMC had expressed

7280-589: The first time with 112 nods. On August 27, 2018, the company signed a five-year exclusive overall deal with international best–selling author Harlan Coben . On the same day, the company signed an overall deal with Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch . In October 2018, Netflix paid under $ 30 million to acquire Albuquerque Studios (ABQ Studios), a $ 91 million film and TV production facility with eight sound stages in Albuquerque , New Mexico , for its first U.S. production hub, pledging to spend over $ 1 billion over

7384-408: The guests were fellow MST3K cast members Joel Hodgson , Bridget Jones Nelson , Mary Jo Pehl , Trace Beaulieu , Frank Conniff , and Jonah Ray . The third event for 2016 was Toho's 1961 Kaiju classic Mothra on August 18, 2016, and featured a brand-new widescreen print. The fourth RiffTrax event was the horror classic Carnival of Souls and took place on October 27, 2016. The print used

7488-434: The movies being mocked such as Torgo from the infamous Manos: The Hands of Fate . When series creator and host Joel Hodgson decided to leave halfway through the fifth season, he chose Nelson as his replacement, reportedly because he thought Nelson was a natural leader, a gifted comedian, and a gifted muse, and also because Nelson simply looked good standing next to the puppets. Nelson remained as host for another five and

7592-532: The name Netflix and that its streaming and DVD-rental plans would remain branded together, citing customer dissatisfaction with the split. In October 2011. Netflix and The CW signed a multi-year output deal for its television shows. On January 9, 2012, Netflix started its expansion to Europe, launching in the United Kingdom and Ireland. In February 2012, Netflix reached a multi-year agreement with The Weinstein Company . In March 2012, Netflix acquired

7696-534: The next day. By 2005, Netflix had acquired movie rights and designed the box and service. But after witnessing how popular streaming services such as YouTube were despite the lack of high-definition content, the concept of using a hardware device was scrapped and replaced with a streaming concept. In February 2007, Netflix delivered its billionth DVD, a copy of Babel to a customer in Texas. In April 2007, Netflix recruited ReplayTV founder Anthony Wood , to build

7800-502: The next decade to create one of the largest film studios in North America. In November 2018, Paramount Pictures signed a multi-picture film deal with Netflix, making Paramount the first major film studio to sign a deal with Netflix. A sequel to AwesomenessTV 's To All the Boys I've Loved Before was released on Netflix under the title To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You as part of

7904-460: The past Nickelodeon series Invader Zim and Rocko's Modern Life ( Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus and Rocko's Modern Life: Static Cling respectively) were released by Netflix. Other new projects planned under the team-up include a music project featuring Squidward Tentacles from the animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants , and films based on The Loud House and Rise of

8008-660: The platform. On August 7, 2017, Netflix acquired Millarworld , the creator-owned publishing company of comic book writer Mark Millar . The purchase marked the first corporate acquisition to have been made by Netflix. On August 14, 2017, Netflix entered into an exclusive development deal with Shonda Rhimes and her production company Shondaland . In September 2017, Netflix announced it would offer its low-broadband mobile technology to airlines to provide better in-flight Wi-Fi so that passengers can watch movies on Netflix while on planes. In September 2017, Minister of Heritage Mélanie Joly announced that Netflix had agreed to make

8112-494: The possibility of cancelling the show. Sony pushed Netflix to release Breaking Bad in time for the fourth season, which as a result, greatly expanded the show's audience on AMC due to new viewers bingeing on the Netflix past episodes, and doubling the viewership by the time of the fifth season. Breaking Bad is considered the first such show to have this "Netflix effect". In January 2011, Netflix announced agreements with several manufacturers to include branded Netflix buttons on

8216-430: The project led to the establishment of RiffTrax Presents, a series of tracks exclusively hosted by guest riffers. The success of the guest format is such that "Three Riffer Editions" of some films previously solo riffed by Nelson have been re-produced for VOD services. These feature new riffs by the present lineup, with Nelson having ceased producing solo riffs in 2007. Most recent works created by RiffTrax are crafted by

8320-410: The projects put together by Nelson and Legend Films was RiffTrax , a website offering the purchase of downloadable audio commentaries once again costarring two former MST3K cast members Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett . The first commentary made available through the service was for Road House . In a September 2006 interview, Nelson said he felt that Rifftrax may be the closest thing to a reunion of

8424-644: The public domain or otherwise have been licensed cheaply, such as Night of the Living Dead and Santa Claus Conquers the Martians . Along with the feature-length tracks, Corbett, Murphy and Nelson have created riffs for a number of short films , typically educational and safety films, similar to the shorts presented before features on MST3K . These include films by the Jam Handy Organization, Alfred P. Higgins Productions, Coronet Films and ACI Films, amongst others. Because these shorts are in

8528-461: The public domain, they can be downloaded with the commentary already recorded onto them. Shorts are usually released at least once, and often twice, a week. In 2008, RiffTrax launched iRiffs, which allows fans to upload commentaries to be sold on the website. iRiffs users are paid 50% of the net revenue generated by their products. iRiffs differentiates from normal RiffTrax in that both serious and humorous commentaries can be uploaded. In February 2009,

8632-539: The rights to The Cloverfield Paradox from Paramount Pictures for $ 50 million and launched on its service on February 4, 2018, shortly after airing its first trailer during Super Bowl LII . Analysts believed that Netflix's purchase of the film helped to make the film instantly profitable for Paramount compared to a more traditional theatrical release, while Netflix benefited from the surprise reveal. Other films acquired by Netflix include international distribution for Paramount's Annihilation and Universal's News of

8736-455: The rights to release available MST3K episodes through Vimeo via an all-access subscription plan, with a new re-release uploaded each Monday; individual episodes could also be rented through the site, and in November 2015, RiffTrax also started to sell MST3K episodes on their website. The RiffTrax.com releases contain a newly recorded introduction on each episode by Nelson, Corbett, Murphy, or Jones Nelson and Pehl. A substantial percentage from

8840-565: The rights to the 1998 version of Godzilla . The Kickstarter raised the goal of $ 100,000 within a day. On May 29, they announced a stretch goal of $ 250,000 to secure the rights to Anaconda for their Halloween show; the goal was reached on June 10, the day before the Kickstarter's end. For 2015, RiffTrax repeated the Kickstarter approach, successfully funding its four-movie event for the year, dubbed "The Crappening". The successful Kickstarter allowed them to riff on The Room , Sharknado 2: The Second One , Miami Connection , and Santa and

8944-536: The same price. On September 11, 2011, Netflix expanded to countries in Latin America. On September 18, 2011, Netflix announced its intentions to rebrand and restructure its DVD home media rental service as an independent subsidiary called Qwikster, separating DVD rental and streaming services. On September 26, 2011, Netflix announced a content deal with DreamWorks Animation . On October 10, 2011, Netflix announced that it would retain its DVD service under

9048-663: The show was similar to the shorts shows from the SF Sketchfest "Night of the Shorts" and the MST3K Reunion Show. Alongside Nelson, Corbett, and Murphy, the guest riffers were Bridget Jones Nelson, Mary Jo Pehl, Trace Beaulieu, Frank Conniff, and Paul F. Tompkins. The third event was the Doctor Who special " The Five Doctors ", held on August 17, 2017; which, for legal reasons, RiffTrax could not reveal this until

9152-591: The spin-off RiffTrax Presents series) have a stable cast of Nelson, Murphy and Corbett, identical to The Film Crew and the three Sci-Fi Channel seasons of MST3K . Guest riffers vary often; other MST3K alumni have been featured, such as Pehl and Jones Nelson, in addition to Internet personalities Richard Kyanka (of Something Awful fame), Josh Fruhlinger (writer of The Comics Curmudgeon ) and Chad Vader , as well as actors Harris, Willard, and McHale, and parodist Yankovic. Nelson has said that he would like to bring in other guests. The enthusiasm of guest riffers for

9256-729: The then biggest acquisition in Silicon Valley history. Randolph had worked as a marketing director for Pure Software after Pure Atria acquired a company where Randolph worked. He was previously a co-founder of MicroWarehouse , a computer mail-order company, as well as vice president of marketing for Borland . Hastings and Randolph came up with the idea for Netflix while carpooling between their homes in Santa Cruz, California , and Pure Atria's headquarters in Sunnyvale. Patty McCord , later head of human resources at Netflix,

9360-451: The user. Through its division Red Envelope Entertainment , Netflix licensed and distributed independent films such as Born into Brothels and Sherrybaby . In late 2006, Red Envelope Entertainment also expanded into producing original content with filmmakers such as John Waters . Netflix closed Red Envelope Entertainment in 2008. In January 2007, the company launched a streaming media service, introducing video on demand via

9464-432: The viewing method that suits them the best. A RiffTrax Player is also offered as a free download for Windows computers. The movies chosen for RiffTrax are based on two criteria: whether the movie lends itself towards a funny riffing, and whether the film is widely available on DVD. These criteria have resulted in a wide variety of genre and era of movies chosen to be riffed. The first audio commentary made available through

9568-423: The web site in July 2006 was for the 1989 film Road House , long cited by Nelson as the cheesiest movie ever made. The RiffTrax Player (RiffPlayer) is a program which automatically synchronizes the commentary playback to the DVD playback. The RiffTrax Player makes use of a commentary MP3 as well as a text file (.sync) containing the synchronization information of the DVD and the commentary. As of February 2015,

9672-465: Was a riffing of the film Time Chasers on May 5, 2016, and used a high definition remaster of the film provided by its director, David Giancola. The second event was a Mystery Science Theater 3000 cast member reunion on June 28, 2016, and took place in Minneapolis. The format of the reunion was similar to RiffTrax's SF Sketchfest "Night of the Shorts" shows, using various educational shorts as riffing material. Alongside Nelson, Corbett, and Murphy,

9776-581: Was also a fan of RiffTrax. RiffTrax and National Geographic worked together to find the best footage to use. In 2015, three additional episodes of "Total Riff Off" were created (two as 2015 RiffTrax Live Kickstarter rewards), which were also later available for purchase as video-on-demand on the RiffTrax website. In August 2008, Nelson, Corbett and Murphy formed a musical trio named The Rifftones, initially to compete in Quick Stop Entertainment 's second Masters of Song Fu competition. They won

9880-494: Was also in the carpool group. Randolph admired Amazon and wanted to find a large category of portable items to sell over the Internet using a similar model. Hastings and Randolph considered and rejected selling and renting VHS as too expensive to stock and too delicate to ship. When they heard about DVDs, first introduced in the United States in early 1997, they tested the concept of selling or renting DVDs by mail, by mailing

9984-414: Was announced. Developed with Wide Right Interactive, and was released on May 5, 2022 on Nintendo Switch , PlayStation 4 and 5 , Xbox One and Xbox Series X and Series S , as well as Steam . Michael J. Nelson Michael John Nelson (born October 11, 1964) is an American comedian and writer, most known for his work on the television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 ( MST3K ). Nelson

10088-701: Was born in the Chicago suburb of St. Charles, Illinois . His ancestry is Danish , German, and Irish . He lived in Geneva, Illinois , until the age of twelve, when his family moved to north-western Wisconsin . He studied theatre and music at the University of Wisconsin–River Falls , but he left before graduating and moved to the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area. Nelson was working as a waiter at T.G.I. Friday's and doing occasional stand-up comedy when he

10192-574: Was low budget and producers could only afford films in the public domain or otherwise cheap licenses. Nelson had researched bringing about directly releasing DVDs of films with the commentaries included, then realized this initial idea was not feasible since he would be "sued out of existence." The best way to distribute the commentaries would be to sell them independently of the films, avoiding rights issues. There would be no legal or monetary restrictions to prevent RiffTrax from producing them, though viewers would have to play their own physical copies of

10296-405: Was offered a job on Mystery Science Theater 3000 , typing the suggestions in the writing room. The writers told him to feel free to make some comments on the movies they were watching, and Nelson impressed them so much with his wit and comedic timing that they made him a staff writer, and, later, head writer. Nelson also appeared frequently in the show's host segments, often playing characters from

10400-401: Was released by Netflix on February 1, 2013, marketed as the first "Netflix Original" production. Later that month, Netflix announced an agreement with DreamWorks Animation to commission children's television series based on its properties, beginning with Turbo: F.A.S.T. , a spin-off of its film Turbo . Orange is the New Black would premiere in July 2013; Netflix stated that Orange is

10504-447: Was shown in the historic Castro Theater . The RiffTrax crew have done live internet broadcasts on Ustream.tv , riffing public domain films and taking viewer questions. RiffTrax has teamed with NCM Fathom Events to host special one-night live RiffTrax events. Nelson, Corbett, and Murphy, along with special guests, perform their riffing to a live audience in one theater, which is simultaneously broadcast live to select theaters around

10608-498: Was shown on October 8 of that year. The second RiffTrax Live! show in theaters took place on December 16, 2009, where they riffed several Christmas short films, one featuring special guest Weird Al Yankovic . An encore showing was shown in theaters the next day. The third RiffTrax Live! show took place on August 19, 2010, with the trio riffing the cult classic Reefer Madness (its encore showing took place on August 24). A fourth live show riffing House on Haunted Hill , also filmed at

10712-454: Was the 78-minute colorized version of the film previously released on DVD by Legend Films . For 2017, RiffTrax again used a Kickstarter campaign to successfully fund their events for the year, meeting their initial goal of $ 250,000 on March 8, 2017, sixteen days into the Kickstarter campaign. The first event was a new riff of Samurai Cop , on April 13, 2017. The second event was the "Summer Shorts Beach Party" on June 15, 2017. The format of

10816-402: Was the head writer of the series for most of the show's original eleven-year run, and spent half of that time as the on-air host, also named Mike Nelson . In addition to writing books, Nelson is currently part of the online movie riffing site RiffTrax , and was previously part of the straight-to-DVD Film Crew with fellow MST3K alumni, Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy . Michael John Nelson

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