“Stranger Things 4 — Vol. 2″ arrives on Netflix this weekend, and the kids from Hawkins, Indiana, return just in time for the streaming service.
Netflix has had a terrible 2022. Its stock has dropped by 70% this year. The company reported losing subscribers for the first time in more than a decade in April. Netflix laid off 300 employees last week. It is expected to lose two million more subscribers in its earnings report later this month.
But one thing has worked well for Netflix : “Stranger Things.“
The first installment of the fourth season of the science fiction horror series debuted in May to record numbers, becoming Netflix’s most popular English-language TV show. It has remained at the top of Netflix’s English top 10 list for all four weeks since its debut, and it has also helped resurrect a 1985 hit.
So, why would a company that revolutionized the viewing experience with binge watching split up its most successful franchise? The answer is not at all strange.
Should you binge or not? What about splitting up?
So splitting the season has both a business and a creative reason. But there’s another reason for it: it keeps the show in the public eye.
“They changed things up a little by splitting ‘Stranger Things‘ into two halves,” said Zak Shaikh, vice president of programming at research-based media firm Magid. “However, in general, they can delay the release of some of their major franchises, allowing those shows to stay in the conversation for longer.”
By separating “Stranger Things” episodes by a month or so, Netflix gets two bites at the apple, markets the same season twice, and keeps the show at the top of its viewers’ minds.
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It’s not the first time Netflix has divided a series. Another Netflix hit, “Ozark,” had its final season split into two quarters, with episodes premiering in January and April of this year.
There has been much discussion about whether streamers should release episodes weekly or all at once. Netflix, which has primarily relied on the binge model, may have discovered a happy medium.
“Bingeing worked as a strategy to disrupt the market,” Shaikh explained. “However, it does not increase the value of hot properties.”
separating the upside down
The two premieres take place in the company’s two different quarters. “Stranger Things 4—Vol. 1″ was released on May 27, kicking off Netflix’s second quarter, and “Vol. 2” will be released on July 1, kicking off the company’s third.
Fans of the popular show are unlikely to cancel their subscription before finishing the entire season. With new episodes spanning two quarters around holiday weekends, the company has a better chance of retaining subscribers, which it needs to do in order to keep Wall Street happy.
The other, non-monetary reason for the split is that “Stranger Things” is massive this season.
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“With nine scripts, over 800 pages, nearly two years of filming, thousands of visual effects shots, and a run time nearly twice as long as any previous season, ‘Stranger Things 4′ was the most challenging season yet, but also the most rewarding,” the show’s creators, the Duffer Brothers, wrote in a February note. “Season 4 will be released in two volumes due to the unprecedented length and to get it to you as soon as possible.”
The Duffers weren’t exaggerating.
“Stranger Things 4 — Vol. 1″ lasts about nine hours. The final two episodes of “Vol. 2” have run times comparable to feature films, with episode eight clocking in at an hour and 25 minutes and episode nine clocking in at a whopping two hours and thirty minutes.
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