Information on exactly how profit is calculated from series and films in streaming companies is not publicly available. The Strima Association, which represents sector companies in Brazil, informed the publication Super that it does not disclose details of the calculation methodology, as each company uses its own approach.
The streaming business model differs from traditional cinema and television broadcasting. When a studio releases a film in cinemas, revenue comes from box office receipts, and then from digital rentals and sales of screening rights (for streaming services, TV channels, airlines). It is considered that investments have paid off if the film generates two to three times more than its budget. In addition to production costs, studios must account for marketing expenses, as well as the percentage of the ticket price retained by cinemas and distributors.
In the case of television, money is generated through advertising, subscriptions (for cable TV), and the sale of content to other broadcasters. During prime time, when series with the largest audience are shown, the cost of an advertisement is higher.
Although some streaming platforms have started implementing advertising in recent years, most of the revenue still comes from subscriptions. Therefore, the creation of an attractive catalog for customers is more important than the individual success of one production.
However, a hit like 'Stranger Things' attracts significantly more subscribers than an obscure series. This raises the question: how to measure its contribution to the platform's revenue? Most data on streaming service audiences is confidential. Netflix, being the market leader, publishes such information most openly. The company releases semi-annual reports (which will become annual starting in 2027) on productions that have garnered at least 100 thousand views.
The number of views is determined by dividing the total hours of viewing by the duration of the film or series. For example, in the report for January-June 2026, the fifth season of 'Stranger Things', released in 2025 and lasting 10 hours and 24 minutes, accumulated 578.4 million viewing hours. Thus, 55.6 million views were registered in the first half of this year.
Nevertheless, these figures do not allow one to understand what net profit the Netflix series itself brought. To do this, one must consider the full company efficiency assessment methodology, which remains secret. Nevertheless, there are some clues. In 2021, a Bloomberg report gained access to internal Netflix documents and discovered a metric called AVS (adjusted view share), which assesses not only the absolute number of views but also their quality. New customers or those who use streaming less frequently are considered more valuable because it indicates that certain programs motivate them not to cancel their subscription.
For instance, the first season of 'Squid Game' reached an AVS of 353—which, according to the document, brought the company an amount 42 times greater than its budget ($21.4 million compared to $900 million). The report states: 'An AVS above 9 or 10 is already considered high.' However, it is unknown what specific data is taken into account in such a calculation. AVS continues to be used as an internal metric at Netflix, and each streaming service has its own way of assessing the return on a production.
