The Reason Netflix Posts Movies Before They Are Available on DVD

Reader @MCWHammer had an interesting exchange on Twitter with @Netflixhelps about the reviews and 932 ratings for Toy Story 3, a movie that is still in production and won't be shown in theaters until next year.

@MCWHammer: Toy Story 3 is now on Netflix. But it doesn't come out for 1 year. Isn't that setting yourself up for 100s of fake reviews?

@MCWHammer: I only say that because there are already several fakes, and that's likely just the beginning.

@Netflixhelps: True, there are some fake reviews, but we have measures that allow the community to week out fake reviews.

@Netflixhelps: It's very helpful to us to be able to establish what the demand for a film is well in advance of the release date.

Netflix has to figure out the correct number of DVDs to purchase or we'll see "Long Waits," so they must be using customer ratings, the number of reviews, ticket sales, and other factors to forecast demand. There's no way they can possibly read the millions of reviews, so they count on customers to help identify fake reviews, spoilers, bad language, etc.

Note: If you spot a fake review, you can always use "flag This:"

Comments

[MCW]

Hopefully none of the members of the elite class of fake reviewing visit this site. It would just be pointing out one more title for them to copy and paste a "oH BOY I RED THIS SKRIPT AND FOR IT WAS GOOD" review in.

I can understand gauging demand, but this is a Pixar movie. And as I said in my final reply to Netflix:

@Netflixhelps Okey dokey. I think demand for Toy Story 3 should be pretty easy to gauge, though ;)

[Gran]

so they must be using customer ratings, the number of reviews, ticket sales, and other factors to forecast demand.

And number of times it's queued

[Micah]

How the hell can Toy Story 1 be unavailable on Netflix, but Toy Story 2 be available??

[Seth]

flagging reviews barely works. They need to lower the threshold.

[Gran]

How the hell can Toy Story 1 be unavailable on Netflix, but Toy Story 2 be available??

Simple, Toy Story 1 and 2 are out of print. (i.e. manufacturer no longer printing) All of NF's copies of TS1 must have become unusable, while they still have usable copies of TS2.

[Gran]

flagging reviews barely works. They need to lower the threshold.

A review needs 5 flags to be removed from the list. But, having some "useful" votes raises that threshold. Also, once the threshold has been hit, it may take a couple weeks to be removed.

[CopaceticOpus]

Sometimes it is convenient to be able to add a movie I have read about to my Queue, especially if I'm not likely to see it in theaters. I'm glad they add movies before they are released.

I think it's funny how many reviews get posted on Netflix. Why bother adding your own review when a movie already has 700+ reviews?

[jmchamblis]

If they use this to determine how many copies of a movie to order, must not be working with all the Long Waits I see on poplular movies in my queue.

[tsrblke]

Wouldn't it be easier to be able to lock reviewing for some movies?

[Toffer Peak]

Adding movies before they are released in the theatres/dvd is of course a necessary feature but why the heck do they allow reviews before its American theatrical release? That would hugely cut down on bogus reviews while on preventing a few legitimate reviews.

[Gran]

why the heck do they allow reviews before its American theatrical release?

Because a lot of movies are pre-screened (oftentimes weeks in advance) for selected audiences before it gets a major release.

[Toffer Peak]

Yeah, but pre-screens aren't always the final product and, as I suggested above, this policy would only prevent a few legitimate reviews. This seems like it would be a fair trade off in order to prevent bogus reviews before its official release.

[wowwee123]

I have a group on the Netflix Members Community site - http://community.netflix.com/group/nonreviews - together we have posted over 800 REVIEWS of which over 250 have been removed. We need more people to join and help flag them. I started the group based on an over 3000-plus reviews to a thread - http://community.netflix.com/forum/topics/reviews-that-arent-reviews - yes, we can remove non-reviews - but only together as a community.

[Chance the Gardener]

"How the hell can Toy Story 1 be unavailable on Netflix, but Toy Story 2 be available??"

"Simple, Toy Story 1 and 2 are out of print. (i.e. manufacturer no longer printing) All of NF's copies of TS1 must have become unusable, while they still have usable copies of TS2."

Disney movies sometimes land in the "Disney vault". For an explanation, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney_Vault

[A Movie A Day]

I suggest that Netflix disables any sort of review for any movie until the day that the movie is released at the theatre. That will cut down on the number of fake reviews for the movie.

Seems logical to me.

[Paul]

I used to work in Netflix customer service. They use the amount of people that have the title saved in their queue to help determine the demand, it has nothing to do with reviews or ratings.

[CJ]

It's very helpful to us to be able to establish what the demand for a film is well in advance of the release date.

Which is why, under my Netflix name, I watch, rate, and review non-region 1 (i.e. not U.S. released) DVDs. I have access to DVDs in other regions. If they show as a Netlix "Save" DVD, even though some haven't had a U.S. theatrical release yet, and I like the movie, I'll usually write a review. Purpose is to generate interest, so Netlix will eventually carry more copies of a title I liked. Of course I'm not talking mainstream Hollywood stuff titles...

[Toy Story 3]

Toy Story 3

Thank you for sharing information. I have never seen the movie "Toy Story 3" but heard lot about it from my friends. They told me that this movie is very similar to "Avatar". Is it so ?