Ben Affleck & Matt Damon Reveal Why Netflix Is Intentionally Dumbing Down New Shows & Movies

Streaming has forever changed how things in Hollywood will work.

There’s always been a push and a pull between movie theaters and streaming services every since platforms like Netflix showed up. And as time has gone on, the presence of streaming has apparently changed the way studios are approaching movie making. Two of the biggest stars of the 21st century have taken notice of the shift, and now they are pulling back the curtain a bit.

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon have over 60 years of acting and movie making experience between the two of them. They are behind some of the biggest blockbusters in the past two decades, so the two actors (and directors) clearly know what it takes to make a successful film.

That being said, people watching movies at home have changed the way they are being made, and Affleck and Damon are pretty sure it’s not for the better. While speaking with Joe Rogan on The Joe Rogan Experience, Damon explained how Netflix puts their fingerprints on movies made in the modern day:

“For instance, Netflix. The standard way we learned to make an action movie was you usually have three set pieces – one in the first act, one in the second, one in the third. They kind of ramp up and the big one with all of the explosions, you spend most of the money on that one in the third act.

Now they are like, ‘Can we get a big one in the first five minutes? We want people to stay tuned in. And it wouldn’t be terrible if you reiterated the plot three or four times in the dialogue because people are on their phones while they are watching.’ It’s really gonna start to infringe on how we are telling the story.”

Yeah… that’s really sad.

Affleck said there are some exceptions, but admitted that it does seem to be moving that way. And even though the “numbers” would support explaining dialogue and putting the most exciting sequences at the very beginning, Ben Affleck believes that kind of stuff shouldn’t dictate how filmmaking is approached:

“If people want to look at their phones or look at TikTok, they’re gonna do that. I think what you can do is make s*** the best you can, and make it really good.”

All in all, it was really interesting to hear two veteran actors speak on how much things have changed over the years, with one concern being how consumers view movies and TV shows. Damon apparently jokes with directors all the time that shots might not look as good when people are watching the movie or TV show on their phone or laptop… and though that’s comical, it’s a very real concern for studios.

That and the move towards only making “safe” decisions when green lighting new projects, which Damon also touched on:

“There’s a move towards more intellectual property… everyone just got way more conservative. The business is so different theatrically and streaming. To put out out a movie theatrically, you have to put so much more money behind it.”

Of course, we’ve seen the IP game played with super heroes, Disney and the Star Wars universe, and more recently, Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone universe.

Affleck added that if you make a $25 million movie, you have to spend equal to that on marketing, so a studio has to bring in $100 million just to break even.

Simply put, the process of making a movie or series – then releasing it – looks nothing like it did when Matt Damon and Ben Affleck got started. They aren’t trying to be two older guys “yelling at the clouds” about how things used to be… they are just uneasy about how entertainment will look if phones, TikTok, and box office numbers continue to dictate big decisions in Hollywood.