Here’s Why Netflix Split This Season Of “Stranger Things”

“Stranger Things 4 – Vol. two” arrives at Netflix this weekend, and the kids of Hawkins, Indiana, are back just in time for the streaming giant.

It was a terrible 2022 for Netflix. Its shares are down 70% this year. In April, the company said it lost subscribers for the first time in more than a decade. Last week, Netflix laid off 300 employees. Its earnings report later this month is projected to show a loss of another two million subscribers.

But there is one thing that has been great for Netflix: “Stranger Things” .

The first part of the fourth season of the sci-fi horror series premiered in May to record numbers, becoming Netflix’s most popular English-language TV show. It’s been No. 1 on Netflix’s English Top 10 list all four weeks since its debut, and it’s also helped make a 1985 song a smash hit again.

So why would a company that revolutionized the TV viewing experience—literally taught everyone how to binge-watch a series—split its biggest franchise into two parts? The answer is not strange at all.

Splitting upside down

The two debuts take place in two different quarters for the company. “Stranger Things 4 – Vol. 1″ was released on May 27, which is in Netflix’s Q2, and “Vol. 2” arrives on July 1, which kicks off the company’s third.

Fans of the show are unlikely to cancel their subscription before watching the entire season. With new episodes spanning two different quarters on holiday weekends, the company is more likely to retain subscribers, which it takes to keep Wall Street happy.

The other non-monetary reason “Stranger Things” is split: the show is huge this season.

“With nine scripts, over eight hundred pages, nearly two years of filming, thousands of VFX shots, and nearly twice the length of any previous season, ‘Stranger Things 4’ was the most challenging season yet, but also the most challenging season. more rewarding,” the Duffer brothers, the show’s creators, wrote in a note released in February.

“Given the unprecedented length, and to get to you as quickly as possible, season four will be released in two volumes.”

The Duffers weren’t exaggerating.

“Stranger Things 4 – Vol. 1” is approximately nine hours long. The final two episodes that make up “Vol. 2” have run times that match the movies, with episode eight at one hour and 25 minutes and episode nine coming in at two hours and 30 minutes.

So there’s a commercial and creative reason to split the season. But there’s also another reason: it keeps the show in the public’s consciousness.

“They changed things a little bit by splitting the release of ‘Stranger Things’ into two parts,” said Zak Shaikh, vice president of programming at research-based media firm Magid.

“But in general, they can delay the launch of some of their major franchises, so those shows continue to be successful longer.”

By having episodes of “Stranger Things” separated by a month or more, Netflix takes two bites of the apple, markets the same season twice, and keeps the show in the minds of its viewers.

This isn’t the first time Netflix has separated a series. The final season of “Ozark,” another hit on the platform, was split into two quarters when it premiered episodes of its final season in January and April earlier this year.

There has been a lot of debate over whether streamers should release episodes weekly or all at once. Netflix – which mainly stuck to the second model – may have found a middle ground.

“The compulsion worked as a strategy to revolutionize the market,” Shaikh said. “But it doesn’t maximize the value of warm properties.”