Netflix is no stranger to throwing obscene amounts of money at projects, but its latest fiasco takes things to a whole new level.
According to recent reports, the streamer handed director Carl Erik Rinsch a whopping $55 million to make a sci-fi series. Instead of delivering a finished show, however, he allegedly used the money to go on a spending spree, blowing millions on luxury cars, stocks, and cryptocurrency. Now, federal prosecutors have charged him with wire fraud and money laundering, and Netflix is left with — well, absolutely nothing to show for it.
And the thing is, this isn’t just a case of one rogue filmmaker running off with a bag of cash. It’s yet another example of Netflix’s seemingly endless ability to burn through money with little to no accountability. The dust is still settling on The Electric State, for example, a film which reportedly cost the streaming giant an eye-watering $320 million — only for it to land with a thud, failing to justify its massive price tag.
And let’s not forget the infamous $200 million disaster that was Red Notice, or the hundreds of millions poured into The Gray Man, which Netflix keeps trying to convince us is a franchise despite no one asking for it.
The Rinsch case is particularly embarrassing because Netflix didn’t even get a finished product. Reports indicate that after receiving multiple payments from Netflix between 2018 and 2020, Rinsch was supposed to deliver a sci-fi series originally titled White Horse (later renamed Conquest). Instead, he allegedly used the money to fund his own personal Wall Street fantasy, making reckless investments in cryptocurrency and the stock market. Now, Rinsch faces up to 90 years in prison if convicted.
At what point does Netflix start tightening the purse strings? It’s clear the company has a spending problem, and while it loves to tout its dominance in the streaming wars, these big-money flops (or, in this case, outright scams) don’t exactly scream “fiscally responsible.” The streaming giant recently raised subscription prices again, making its reckless financial decisions even more frustrating for paying customers.
Netflix may be willing to write this off as just another bad investment, but it’s hard to ignore the pattern. When you’re blowing $55 million on a project that doesn’t even exist, maybe it’s time to rethink how you’re handling that checkbook.
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