Understandably by Bill Murphy Jr.

Understandably by Bill Murphy Jr.

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Understandably by Bill Murphy Jr.
Understandably by Bill Murphy Jr.
Right next to the Papa Murphy’s
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Right next to the Papa Murphy’s

Netflix and the Last Blockbuster. Also: 7 other things worth a click.

Bill Murphy Jr.'s avatar
Bill Murphy Jr.
Feb 11, 2020
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Understandably by Bill Murphy Jr.
Understandably by Bill Murphy Jr.
Right next to the Papa Murphy’s
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I usually write Understandably the night before you read it. Then, I take a quick look in the morning just to make sure we didn’t like, go to war or something overnight—and to be sure that I still agree with whatever I wrote the night before.

Once last week I went to bed thinking I’d check on the winner of the Iowa caucuses in the morning. (I’m still not sure who won.)

Then on Sunday night, I kind of gave up after a long weekend, exhausted. I figured I’d fill in whatever movie won the Academy Award for best picture in the morning.

Big event. It was the first foreign-language film to win the Oscar for Best Picture (along with a bunch of other awards, too).

Since I was doing this in a hurry in the morning, however, I didn’t have a chance to think about who the big loser was as a result.

The answer, it’s pretty clear, is Netflix, which had two films up for best picture, and reportedly spent $70 million—roughly what Disney paid for the rights to Hamilton—on a marketing campaign to attrac…

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