Netflix DVDs, Scorsese and Me

In 2020 and 2021, my subscription took on a brand new function: serving to to maintain me from going stir loopy throughout essentially the most cloistered months of pandemic lockdown. The DVD service was notably helpful once I determined to embark on a career-spanning marathon of all Martin Scorsese’s motion pictures. Starting with “Who’s That Knocking at My Door,” I labored my approach by way of the highs (“Goodfellas,” certain, however I experience for “The Age of Innocence”) and the lows (“Boxcar Bertha” — not with out its charms).

As the DVD operation wound down and despatched its remaining discs in September, I requested Netflix for some statistics to raised perceive how viewers used it over its 25-year run, and whether or not the numbers — distilled from 5.2 billion discs shipped since 1998 — may illuminate my very own expertise.

Most well-liked movie disc in THE COUNTRY in 2022-23

‘Top Gun: Maverick’

Washington, D.C., was the exception, with ‘Tár.’

What I discovered typically tracked with my very own viewing and typically didn’t. The most rented film general was “The Blind Side” (by no means noticed it) and essentially the most rented TV present “Dexter” (a video retailer rental for me in 2010). Other instances, the info was simply weird: During the ultimate yr of the service, the Tom Cruise box-office juggernaut “Top Gun: Maverick” was the No. 1 film rental in every single place however in Washington, D.C., the place the winner was, inexplicably, “Tár,” the high-minded classical music drama with Cate Blanchett. (I watched each. Seeing Cruise’s Maverick take a youthful pilot below his wing in “Top Gun,” I flashed on a hotshot Cruise being mentored by Paul Newman in Scorsese’s “The Color of Money,” marathon film No. 10.)

The “Tár” outlier speaks to one of many stunning elements of the Netflix DVD. You weren’t bombarded with what was well-liked or trending — or what Netflix wished to be well-liked or trending. You adopted your personal curiosity.

Most Rented Actor

Morgan Freeman

Followed by Matt Damon and Liam Neeson.

By default, my Scorsese marathon in all probability makes his longtime collaborator Robert De Niro the actor whose movies I rented essentially the most. (Don’t sleep on De Niro’s deliciously unhinged efficiency in “The King of Comedy.”) For all Netflix DVD customers, although, De Niro rests at a wholesome however comparatively modest fifth place.

Most RENTED Actress

Cate Blanchett

44.2 million discs rented. Meryl Streep was second, with 42.4 million.

And how about my most rented actress? At first I believed Scorsese didn’t have sufficient recurring actresses to provide you with a reputation (that’s on him!), however then I remembered that his very charming mom, Catherine, made temporary appearances in a lot of his motion pictures earlier than her loss of life in 1997. So she might be my most rented actress.

Most Rented Director

Clint Eastwood

His hottest movie: ‘Gran Torino’ (2008).

In the director class, Eastwood was adopted by Steven Spielberg. And right here, Catherine Scorsese has one thing to brag about: her son Marty was the third most rented filmmaker. (Of Scorsese’s movies, “The Departed” was essentially the most rented. It was additionally the preferred film that includes both Matt Damon or Mark Wahlberg.)

Disc Titles Available at Netflix’s Peak

100,000-plus

U.S. Netflix Streaming Titles in line with outdoors estimates

6,000-7,000

The figures right here trace at a key facet of Netflix’s DVD service: Unlike these of its streaming counterparts (present-day Netflix, in addition to Hulu, Disney+, Apple TV+ and the like), the Netflix library wasn’t restricted to the films and TV exhibits it had the rights to. (Netflix declined to specify what number of productions it was presently streaming past saying that the determine was within the 1000’s.)

In this fashion, the DVD service acted extra as an overstuffed old-school video retailer. You know the kind: dingy lighting, out-of-print overseas movies jammed behind a cardboard cutout of Catwoman.