If you’ve been to a mall lately—and yes, they still exist—you know that it can be kind of depressing. Particularly if you remember what they used to be like. But there are some signs of life therein and from an unlikely source: Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX). The video streamer is bringing life back to shopping malls through what it calls the “Netflix House,” which it plans to open at two locations next year: one in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, and one in Dallas, Texas. As a result, it’s up modestly in Tuesday afternoon’s trading.
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The Netflix House is almost like a kind of theme park. Each one will feature shopping, places to eat, and “experiential activities” around some of Netflix’s biggest properties, like “Stranger Things” and “Squid Game.” Both locations will be going into anchor store locations that were otherwise empty. Netflix looks to use these as marketing vehicles to connect viewers—and potential viewers—with content that already exists on the site.
It’s not the first time Netflix has tried something like this; about a year ago, it came out with “Netflix Bites,” a pop-up restaurant offering food inspired by those same shows. Now, its physical locations may land a bigger part in Netflix’s operations, especially if they catch on.
Backing Up the Content
If Netflix hopes to keep those propositions going long-term, it will need a regular influx of new content. And it’s already working on that, too; it just brought in Hannah Minghella, formerly of Bad Robot, to serve as head of feature animation and live-action family film. She’ll be taking over for two departing execs who decided to pack up. Meanwhile, reports suggest that Netflix is putting quite a price tag on advertising for its NFL games: $5 million a spot. Given that the 2024 Super Bowl was asking $7 million a slot, this may prove overly ambitious. But only time will tell how the response goes.
Is Netflix a Buy or Sell?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on NFLX stock based on 23 Buys, 12 Holds, and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 57.7% rally in its share price over the past year, the average NFLX price target of $657.98 per share implies 3.99% downside risk.
