These days, as streaming services are a dime a dozen and there’s more competition for eyeballs than ever before, you’d think that a movie featuring some of the hottest names in Hollywood would get a lot of attention before its release. That wasn’t the case with the new Netflix movie Spiderhead and fans are puzzled over the missed opportunity.
If you haven’t heard of Spiderhead, don’t worry. You’re probably not alone. A quick look at some of the key players will give you a sense of why everyone’s talking about this new Netflix original movie. The cast includes Chris Hemsworth (Rush, Home and Away, Thor: Love and Thunder), Jurnee Smollett (Lovecraft Country) and Miles Teller (Whiplash, Top Gun: Maverick). It was directed by Top Gun: Maverick’s Joseph Kosinski and written by Deadpool scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick.
You’d think that with all of that A-List firepower, Netflix would be shouting from the rooftops about their new movie, especially given the competition from Disney Plus and other streaming services clamoring for attention in the crowded streaming landscape. You’d think they’d be generating as much buzz as possible.
Somehow Netflix remained fairly quiet about the movie until it dropped — although Spiderhead was featured during the recent Netflix Geeked Week. Even then, there wasn’t a ton of fanfare about the movie.
There are any number of reasons why Netflix didn’t aggressively market Spiderhead, chief of which could be the fact that the movie markets itself. Based on the short story “Escape from Spiderhead” by George Saunders, the movie’s cast is what really sells it. You don’t really need to know what it’s about to know that it is — probably, at least — worth a watch.
The trailer is sleek and sexy, offering just enough detail to draw you in. Once you’re there, you’re good to go. Thus far it seems to live up to the hype of being the top movie on Netflix.
It’s more than likely that Netflix decided to take a quieter approach to marketing Spiderhead because it knew it would be a hit once people discovered it. A well-timed social media push from Hemsworth is all it needed to get the ball rolling.
Here’s what viewers had to say about Spiderhead’s bizarre marketing campaign:
I just watched #Spiderhead and I'm again angry that Netflix did nothing to market this movie. Although it won't be for everyone, I really enjoyed it. It's well directed, the soundtrack rules, and Chris Hemsworth absolutely BODIED this shit. Easily my favorite performance of his. pic.twitter.com/HylLeCQF9TJune 17, 2022
a movie called Spiderhead with Chris Hemsworth, Miles Teller & Jurnee Smollett directed by Joseph Kosinski & written by the Deadpool writers is out tomorrow and you’d think Netflix would be marketing it like crazy cause of who’s involved but no there’s been very little marketingJune 16, 2022
Watched Spiderhead on Netflix last night. Didn't know ANYTHING about it, hadn't heard about it at all. So all I'm going to say is, you should definitely watch it. #SpiderheadJune 18, 2022
