Netflix’s Q1 Movie Output Slashed By Half

A new report has examined Netflix’s original output and found that in the first quarter of this year, the number of films the streamer has released is under half of its peak (2022).

What’s On Netflix reports that in the first quarter of each year since 2016, Netflix has been releasing original films starting with 2 that year, jumping to 13 in 2017, 25 in 2018, and 39 in 2019.

During the height of COVID in 2020, it fell to 32, but then rose again to 46 in 2021 and 50 in 2022. In 2023, the number dropped to 39, then held steady at 35 in 2024 and 34 in 2025.

But this year? This year, it was just 23 – the lowest number of Netflix Original movies since 2017.

Going into the data is even more telling – just 4 films originated from North America during this year’s first quarter, the second lowest on record and a long way from the 12 released in 2024 or 17 released in 2018.

European movies have also seen a massive drop in output from the height of 22 films in 2022, down to just 6 this year. The Asia-Pacific region is the only region that saw an increase to 9 films, but that’s still below its peak of 15 in 2021.

These numbers don’t take into account the increased licensing deals with distributors, which means more theatrical releases making their way to the streamer during their pay-1 windows.

TV shows have also seen a drop, but not as severe – down to 49 new seasons of TV released compared to a height of 71 in 2020.