Sci-fi action flick “The Electric State” landed on Netflix last week, and within less than 24 hours, had already claimed the No. 1 spot in the streaming service’s top 10 list.
As one of the platform’s flagship original movies of 2025, such a high level of interest would seemingly confirm this Russo brothers' effort as a streaming success story.
Yet, I cannot shake the feeling that with a colossal reported budget of $320 million, and a critical reception that is, to be blunt, shockingly bad (pun intended), “The Electric State” is a failure.
It might have brought blockbuster spectacle into the home of Netflix viewers but it’s also doing at least some degree of reputational damage for the world’s biggest streaming service. Not to mention, "The Electric" already appears to be dropping off with interest on a rapid decline as it now sits at No. 5 a week later (as of March 21).
It’s hard not to wonder what else Netflix could have done with that obscene amount of cash. “The Electric State” may have been a No. 1 movie on the platform and racked up millions of views, but it’s also the latest example of Netflix’s big tentpole movie problem.
‘The Electric State’ is a waste of time and money
One look at “The Electric State’s" critical score paints a grim picture. The movie currently holds a poor 15% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
That’s significantly lower than Netflix’s two other major original movies released so far in 2025, “Back in Action” and “Kinda Pregnant,” both of which hold a 29% rating. That’s still poor, but comparatively OK.
Netflix is no stranger to producing original movies with poor critical ratings (its 2024 slate was packed with duds), but “The Electric State” has been on the receiving end of some very unfavorable write-ups.
Here, I'll acknowledge that the movie's Rotten Tomatoes audience score is 79%, so it would appear at least some Netflix subscribers are enjoying it. "The Electric State" also scored 6/10 on IMDb, which is mediocre but not awful.
However, one of the most telling signs that Netflix subscribers aren’t particularly impressed with “The Electric State” is that it’s already been ousted from the No. 1 spot in the Netflix movie charts.
Looking again at another Netflix original from this year, “Back in Action,” the spy action-comedy held onto the No. 1 spot for more than two weeks and was only dethroned when Amy Schumer’s pregnancy-themed comedy arrived on the scene.
The fact that “The Electric State” has been displaced from the summit of the Netflix most-watched list in less than seven days isn’t a great indication of long-term success. Subscribers are losing interest, rapidly.
Remember, this movie reportedly cost Netflix an eyewatering $320 million, making it not only the most expensive Netflix original ever, but in the top 15 most expensive movies ever made (per Wikipedia).
While I can only speculate, I have to imagine that when this movie was greenlit at such a sizeable cost, the suits wanted more than a few days at No. 1.
“The Electric State’s” first week ratings sound impressive on paper at 25 million views but are significantly down on other big-budget (but still cheaper) Netflix tentpoles including “The Adam Project,” “Back in Action” and Russo Brothers' own “The Gray Man” (per Collider).
The sci-fi flick is leagues behind the streamer’s biggest movie win, 2021's “Red Notice,” which had 80 million first-week views. Even Millie Bobby Brown’s fantasy movie “Damsel” debuted to better viewership last year.
While the respectable audience scores offer a silver lining to cling to, based on the available viewing data, “The Electric State” seems less like a franchise starter for Netflix and more like a very costly flop.
Netflix could have done so much more with the budget
My other prevailing thought regarding “The Electric State” — aside from just wishing I could have the two hours back I wasted watching it — is reflecting on everything Netflix could have done with the nine-figure budget instead.
I was writing about Netflix’s trigger-happy habit of canceling TV shows after just a single season all the way back in the summer of 2021. And over the subsequent years, that reputation hasn’t exactly improved. Already this year Netflix has canceled half a dozen original shows including “The Recruit,” “Territory,” “Surviving Summer” and more.
Could the huge amount of money Netflix invested in “The Electric State” not have been better spent keeping a few of these shows running for an additional season or two and giving their respective showrunners the chance to wrap up their stories with a proper conclusion?
Perhaps I’m being overly optimistic with the above idea. After all these shows were presumably canned due to a lack of viewership rather than budget.
Returning to the world of movies, I do have to note the streaming service has given a load of legendary directors a platform to create passion projects including Martin Scorsese (“The Irishman”), David Fincher (“Mank”, “The Killer”), Spike Lee (“Da 5 Bloods”) and Alfonso Cuarón (“Roma”).
I'd much prefer Netflix split "The Electric State's" budget between three or four acclaimed filmmakers to give them the chance to craft their next feature, especially as Netflix has often been credited with allowing a larger degree of creative control than traditional movie studios. But again, this may be a rather unrealistic suggestion because as “His Three Daughters” proved last year, prestige projects don’t always perform on Netflix.
Perhaps, Netflix should have used the money invested in “The Electric State” to hold back its latest price hike. At least that would have been a use for the money that all subscribers would have appreciated. Now that is an overly optimistic idea!
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