Netflix says it invested $135 billion in films and TV over decade

Netflix used a new “Netflix Effect” website to put a hard number on the muscle it has built over the last decade: more than $135 billion invested in films and television series. The company said that spending helped contribute more than $325 billion to the global economy and supported more than 425,000 jobs on productions, figures that went far beyond corporate bragging and into the realm of market power.

The Los Gatos, California-based streamer also said it ended 2025 with more than 325 million paid memberships, underscoring how much leverage it retained even as rivals, social video and shifting viewing habits continued to pressure the streaming business. Netflix said its content reached over half a billion people in more than 190 countries and 50 languages, and that licensing deals with more than 3,000 companies accounted for roughly 75% of all titles on the platform. That mix of originals and licensed programming showed how deeply Netflix had tied itself to the rest of the industry, from new productions to older content libraries.

The company’s own U.S. figures suggested the investment spree had built a sprawling production footprint. Netflix said in 2024 that it had worked with more than 550 U.S. production companies, filmed more than 900 titles across all 50 states, employed 9,000 full-time workers in the United States and maintained 3.1 million square feet of studio space across 60 soundstages. Those numbers explained why state officials, local film commissions, labor groups and studio executives watched Netflix’s strategy so closely: each shift in spending could ripple through crews, vendors, soundstages and small businesses far beyond Los Gatos.

Netflix pointed to “The Lincoln Lawyer” as a case study in the economics it was touting. The company said the series’ four seasons contributed more than $425 million to the California economy, employed more than 4,300 cast and crew members and filmed at more than 50 Los Angeles locations, including Dodger Stadium and Grand Central Market. The example was meant to show local benefit, but it also raised a harder question: whether Netflix’s scale widened opportunity or simply pushed production costs higher for everyone else.

Netflix showed no sign of slowing down. In March 2025, chief financial officer Spencer Neumann said the company expected to spend about $18 billion in cash on content that year and was “not anywhere near a ceiling.” The message was clear: Netflix wanted its spending to be seen not just as a content budget, but as a force that had helped redraw the economics of modern entertainment.