This weekend marked the release of Stranger Things 4 Vol. 2 on Netflix, and the kids from Hawkins, Indiana, are back just in time for the media behemoth.
Netflix’s year in 2022 has been terrible. This year, its stock price has decreased by 70%. In April, the business announced its first subscriber loss in more than ten years. Netflix fired 300 workers last week. It is anticipated that its earnings report this month will reveal a further two million subscriber losses.
However, Stranger Things has been fantastic for Netflix. The sci-fi thriller series’ fourth season’s premiere episode had a record-breaking debut in May, making it Netflix’s most-watched English-language TV program.
Since its debut four weeks ago, it has remained at No. 1 on Netflix’s English top 10 list and contributed to the resurgence of a 1985 smash song.
So why would a corporation that popularized binge-watching divide up its most popular property into two parts? The response is not at all odd.
Popular program viewers are unlikely to renounce their subscription before seeing the complete season. The firm has a higher chance of keeping customers with new episodes spanning two separate quarters around holiday weekends, which it has to accomplish to please Wall Street.
The show’s popularity this season is the second, non-financial reason for the division of “Stranger Things.”
“With nine scripts, over eight hundred pages, almost two years of filming, thousands of visual effects shots, and a run time nearly twice the length of any previous season, ‘Stranger Things 4’ was the most challenging season yet, but also the most rewarding one. Given the unprecedented length, and to get it to you as soon as possible, season 4 will be released in two volumes.”
The show’s creators, the Duffer Brothers stated in February.
The Duffers weren’t overstating their claim. It takes about nine hours to complete Stranger Things 4 Vol. 1. Vol. 2’s last two episodes, with episodes eight and nine clocking in at a staggering two hours and thirty minutes each, having run durations that are comparable to that of feature films.