Warning: This piece contains mild spoilers for Netflix's The Discovery.
As much as we all obsess over Stranger Things, remember that Netflix started with movies. And back when the company didn't make headlines with its first original TV programming, 2012's Lilyhammer, it didn't make headlines with its first original film, either—a documentary released in that same year called Art of Conflict: The Murals of Northern Ireland.
The key difference in these two programming tracks, of course, is that Netflix has hit a few series homeruns since. Orange is the New Black, Stranger Things, Making A Murderer, and House of Cards were hits with viewers as well as the Golden Globes and the Emmys. And while some Netflix documentaries have succeeded within their niche, it's harder to point to an original narrative film reaching the same levels of buzz (the Idris Elba-led Beasts of No Nation has probably been the biggest hit; those Adam Sandler originals that kids supposedly love and Netflix keeps making don't count).
But in 2017, Netflix seems hellbent on flipping this script. The company made a bold declaration in March that it would produce 30 original movies in 2017. These will not be small mumblecore affairs. A trailer for the Will Smith-led Bright ran during the Super Bowl, Brad Pitt stars in the war-in-Afghanistan inspired War Machine, and filmmakers from Bong Joon-hoo (Snowpiercer) to Martin Scorsese (... a lot of stuff) have signed up to make their next films for Netflix. All but the Scorsese film are expected to surface in this 2017 crop.
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