It’s a weird moment for the megadeal, those massive, nine-figure production exclusives that streamers used to hand out like Tic Tacs: Ryan Murphy, Shonda Rhimes, Kenya Barris, David Benioff & D.B.
Weiss headed to Netflix, while Warner Bros.
and HBO Max locked up JJ Abrams and Greg Berlanti, and Amazon Prime Video landed Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan.Now, cost-cutting is all the rage.
When Netflix lost subscribers in Q1 and again in Q2, it became clear that streaming was as mortal as any business; the argument for 300 million deals, like Murphy’s, became a symbol of optimistic folly.
And then: “Dahmer.”Murphy’s limited series, “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” premiered September 21; over the next 28 days, it became Netflix’s second-most-watched English-language TV series ever, behind only “Stranger Things 4.” Murphy finally had a huge Netflix hit — and then he did it again.
“The Watcher” premiered October 13 and while it would not replicate “Dahmer” numbers,
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