Netflix’s Gray Man demonstrates the problem with trying to create a franchise

The streamer’s criticial and commercial hits have come from some surprising places. It needs to give its creators space and take risks but, James Moore asks, will Wall Street allow it to do this?

Ryan Gosling arriving at the special screening of ‘The Gray Man’ at BFI Southbank in London (PA)

The critics’ verdicts on Netflix’s The Gray Man are in and… oof.

A 50 per cent Rotten Tomatoes rating and a similar 51 from Metacritic could have been worse. But festering in what the latter describes as “mixed or average” territory is not what the troubled streamer will have been hoping for, given the film’s budget and its all-star cast led by Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans.

True, it is the verdict of the audience that counts. Movie critics’ views are often wildly out of step with those of everyday viewers. Netflix’s top tens quite often feature films adjudged to be turkeys by professional critics. The Underworld series – now available to subscribers – might be a two-star franchise, but that hasn’t stopped it from producing a string of reliably profitable outings.