[Excerpted from Letter to Shareholders]

Content

As seen in the weekly growth chart above, in early Q1, with the benefit of Bridgerton, Lupin and Cobra Kai, we were following a growth trajectory similar to recent years. As we've noted previously, the production delays from Covid-19 in 2020 will lead to a 2021 slate that is more heavily second half weighted with a large number of returning franchises. And while the roll out of vaccines is very uneven across the world, we are back up and producing safely in every major market, with the exception of Brazil and India. Assuming this continues, we'll spend over $17 billion in cash on content this year and we'll continue to deliver an amazing range of titles for our members with more originals this year than last.

There are several facets to our content strategy. First and foremost, we want to deliver a wide variety of best-in-class stories that our members love and watch in big numbers. Examples of this breadth in Q1 include season one of Firefly Lane (49m chose to watch this title in its first 28 days), season 3 of Cobra Kai (45m), Fate: The Winx Saga (57m), and Ginny & Georgia (52m). Our top movies in Q1 include I Care A Lot (56m), YES DAY (62m), Outside the Wire (66m) and the last installment of To All the Boys I've Loved Before trilogy (51m). We program across many genres because tastes are very diverse. Even for one person, what they desire will vary widely depending on their mood or who they are watching with.

Another goal is to create great, locally authentic stories in countries all around the world. It's why our priority for local language titles is to have a big impact in the home territory so we don't sacrifice local impact for "travelability." But we're increasingly seeing that these local titles find significant audiences around the world, which supports our thesis that great stories are universal: they can come from anywhere and be loved everywhere. Notable standouts this quarter include Below Zero from Spain (47m chose to watch in its first four weeks), Space Sweepers from Korea (26m), Squared Love from Poland (31m) and Who Killed Sara? from Mexico (an estimated 55m), which is also our most popular non-English title ever in the US in its first 28 days (with season 2 launching on May 19).

We want our titles to be talked about by audiences across the globe. Because of our broad distribution and highly engaged members, our titles not only generate high levels of viewing but also can pierce the cultural zeitgeist and transcend the film and TV industry. There were two recent standout examples of this: Lupin, our French language series about a daring gentleman burglar played by Omar Sy, was not only our most popular new title this quarter on Netflix (76m member households chose to watch in the first 28 days), but it also propelled book sales of the novel in France; Lupin: Part 2 will debut later in Q2'21. Similarly, driven by the late December launch of season one of Bridgerton, Julia Quinn's books hit The New York Times bestseller list for the first time in 18 years.

Netflix led all studios for recent award nominations including the Oscars, Golden Globes, SAG Awards, BAFTA and the NAACP Image Awards, among others. Heading into the Academy Awards this weekend, we have 36 nominations across 17 films including two nominees in each of the Best Picture (Mank, The Trial of the Chicago 7), Best Documentary Feature (Crip Camp, My Octopus Teacher), and Best Animated Feature (Over the Moon, A Shaun The Sheep Movie: Farmageddon) categories. Mank led all films with 10 nominations.