Netflix “Cuties” Documentary Boosts Subscription Cancellations

The French coming-of-age film, Cuties, has been critically condemned ever since its original promotional poster debuted in Aug. 2020.

Since the film premiered on Netflix in September, a global #CancelNetlfix campaign has taken off, becoming a top trending topic on Twitter, and subscription cancellations have skyrocketed by 800%.

The controversial documentary  “follows an 11-year-old Senegalese girl living in Paris who joins a ‘free-spirited dance crew’ (called “the Cuties”) to rebel against what she perceives as her Muslim family’s oppressive traditions,”  Variety wrote. “In the film, the conflicted protagonist, Amy, and the Cuties perform dance routines in which they simulate sex, and in the scenes, the camera shots focus on their crotch areas.”

Overall, the film is criticized for the sexualization of children. But, Netflix argues that the film is a “social commentary” “that makes the case about the dangers of sexualized imagery of young girls,” and even encourages those who doubt it to watch it.

At Netflix’s third-quarter earnings call, Spence Neumann failed to mention Cuties. Yet, within the third quarter, only 2.2 million subscribers were added, which is significantly lower than the previous quarters.

Antenna, a New York data analytics firm, “reported that Netflix lost five times as many subscribers in September’s first couple of weeks — a few days into the protest — than the company lost in all of August.”