Toward the end of “Red Notice,” Netflix’s flashiest and most expensive attempt to date at starting a film franchise, Ryan Reynolds descends into a cave to search for a bounty pilfered by Nazis.
That homage to the “Indiana Jones” movies also serves as something of an indicator of Netflix’s film aspirations, which have evolved over the years as its subscriber base has grown to 214 million and filmmaker resistance to its streaming-first model has waned.
Shawn Levy is directing Mr. Reynolds in the time-travel film “The Adam Project.” Francis Lawrence, the director behind “The Hunger Games” franchise, will see his fantasy-adventure “Slumberland” with Jason Momoa debut on the service next year.
Netflix has declared “Red Notice,” a globe-trotting heist film that also stars Dwayne Johnson and Gal Gadot, a smash success.
Mr. Stuber, who was a senior film executive at Universal Pictures and an independent producer making films like “Central Intelligence” and “Ted” before coming to Netflix, is satisfied that most of the resistance to Netflix’s decision to essentially abandon the exclusive theatrical window has been quashed.
The main advantage that studios point to when comparing themselves to Netflix is their ability to create a cultural moment when they open a big, boisterous blockbuster in theaters all over the globe.
“All of Hollywood is hanging its hat on one thing: You can’t create a zeitgeist moment from an online movie,” the media analyst Richard Greenfield said.
He directed this year’s “Free Guy,” starring Mr. Reynolds, which earned $331 million at the worldwide box office despite the constraints of the pandemic and not being based on a previously known property.
“I think they can be a little louder and more strategic in how they tell the world something’s coming,” Mr. Levy, who is also a producer of Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” said in an interview.
The service has had success with the way it markets its TV shows, with “Squid Game” prompting a run on green jumpsuits for Halloween costumes and “Stranger Things” causing Eggo waffles to sell out.
“When you have the No.
Mary Parent, production chief at Legendary Entertainment and Mr. Stuber’s former partner at Universal, sold “Enola Holmes,” starring Millie Bobby Brown, to Netflix in April 2020.
“When you have 200 pieces of content a year, there is naturally going to be variety, and quality is subjective,” she said.
Still, Mr. Stuber split his commercial film team in two in July in an effort to both ramp up output and to improve the quality of the product.