Looking at the trailer for a film like Netflix’s Triple Frontier, you might think that the film would play best with a more male demographic. The action/drama hybrid has a lot of kinetic action that people would more typically associate with a movie suited for a guy’s night out. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth, as one of Triple Frontier’s producers, Alex Gartner, clued us into the fact that the film was a surprise hit with its female viewers as well.
During a recent chat with CinemaBlend, Gartner and his Atlas Entertainment colleagues/fellow Triple Frontier producers Charles Roven and Andy Horwitz touched on the film’s reception. And while the film’s impressive reach to women isn’t a total surprise, Alex Gartner further explained why he felt the film did so well with that side of the aisle:
[Triple Frontier] also played incredibly well with women. I mean, it always tested well with women. … I think that the great cast we managed to assemble drew them in, but then they really responded to the movie. I think that’s another positive of having Netflix as our partner and our platform, because I think it reached a lot of people, and maybe people who, based on the genre, might not have been reached as quickly. I found it really personally satisfying.
So not only did the absolute mountain of handsome co-stars like Oscar Isaac and Ben Affleck draw female viewers into Triple Frontier, but according to Gartner, the easy access of the film to Netflix subscribers also helped. That definitely checks out, as the numbers from the film’s first month of release showed that 52 million households took the plunge into money-snatching madness that co-writer/director J.C. Chandor had provided them.
It’s not hard to see why either, as it’s the basic model that makes Netflix originals so successful in the first place. If you already have a subscription to the service and you randomly spot a brand new movie that shows Oscar Isaac leading a group of fellow war vets into a jungle heist of epic proportions, you’re already hearing the platform’s trademark “badump” before you even know you’ve clicked on Triple Frontier’s thumbnail.
That sort of expedience isn’t lost on the Atlas Entertainment gang, as Alex Gartner also expressed as much during this same conversation. In addition to his remarks about having an overwhelmingly positive female audience for Triple Frontier, Gartner also praised Netflix for allowing this sort of lightning fast audience feedback as follows:
It’s really interesting having a movie of scale really supported by Netflix premiere on their service, and I think [producers Charles Roven and Andy Horowitz] also got so much feedback, so quickly. So many people saw it so fast, and that was really really sort of satisfying to get that kind of feedback that quickly, and to have it be like Andy said, really positive feedback.
So while the filmmaking process for a Netflix Original film may not be different from that of a traditional studio release, the response time is certainly accelerated once a film such as this launches. Whether your film is a flop or a hit on Netflix, the word travels fast and the internet never forgets, which is even better in the case of Triple Frontier.
As the public response was quite enthusiastic to the film, particularly in the female demographic, one has to wonder what sort of projects will be inspired by such a surprising scenario. That’s left for the future to decide, but it wouldn’t be surprising to find out that more of the same could be on our way in the near future.
For now, you can catch Triple Frontier, if you haven’t already, by streaming it on Netflix.
