Previously confined to film festivals and the screens of film fanatics only, independent movies have gone through a revitalization due to the surge of online movie outlets like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon.
Movie outlets have introduced new movie genres such as independent or “indie” movies to teen movie watchers who otherwise would watch only “in” movies as opposed to lesser-known movies.
“I watch most of my indie movies on On Demand because it has almost every movie in its database. Sometimes I watch popular movies I’ve been wanting to see for a while, but usually I’ll try a new unseen movie, which are usually indie movies,” Film student Maria Caccamo said.
Netflix’s global subscriber amount is at 53.1 million and it has been a large factor in the rise of indie movies. They have 9,796 movies available for viewing. At any given moment, thousands of movies are being watched by consumers online or on their TV’s. Not only are teens watching their movies on Netflix, but HBO Go and Amazon Instant are also contenders in the movie streaming industry. HBO Go, with 9 million registered users, does not have an “indie” category but has many others like drama, romance, family and comedy.
“If I want to watch an indie movie, I’ll always go on Netflix.” junior Susana Hernandez said. “Without having access to indie films online, I would never watch them, so I’m really glad I have Netflix. It has totally changed my movie watching habits and interests.”