How Netflix keeps viewers engaged with its films, Matt Damon explains

While promoting his upcoming film The Rip, Matt Damon has reignited a long-simmering debate about how streaming platforms, particularly Netflix, are reshaping the way movies are written and consumed. Speaking candidly during recent promotional interviews, the actor offered a blunt, insider view of how audience behaviour in the streaming era is influencing storytelling itself.

According to Damon, films made for platforms like Netflix are increasingly shaped by the assumption that viewers are distracted. Watching on phones, tablets, or TVs while multitasking has become the norm, and that, he said, has led to a noticeable shift in narrative design. “People are often on their phones while watching,” Damon noted, explaining that this has prompted streamers to push filmmakers to restate plot points within dialogue so audiences don’t lose track of the story.

He contrasted this with the traditional theatrical model, where filmmakers could rely on sustained attention. Classic cinema structure, Damon pointed out, builds gradually, saving its biggest emotional or action payoffs for later acts. Streaming platforms, however, want to hook viewers immediately. That often means introducing major plot beats early and repeating them, sometimes multiple times, to ensure clarity for distracted viewers.

The comments, which Damon made alongside longtime collaborator Ben Affleck, quickly sparked conversation online. While Affleck suggested that not all Netflix content follows this approach, Damon’s remarks struck a chord with filmmakers and audiences who worry that cinema is being flattened into something more functional than immersive.

What makes Damon’s critique particularly striking is that it doesn’t come from a place of resistance to streaming. He acknowledged that platforms like Netflix have expanded access and opportunity, but questioned what is being lost in the process. When stories are designed to accommodate half-attention viewing, subtlety, silence, and slow-building tension often become casualties.