Breaking Bad Movie El Camino Earns Rave Reviews; Will it Boost Netflix (NFLX) Stock?
Aaron Paul-starring 'El Camino', a continuation of events after Breaking Bad's finale, is proving a resounding success. | Source: Ben Rothstein/Netflix via AP
Early reviews of Netflix’s (NYSE: NFLX) Breaking Bad movie, El Camino, indicate that the Vince Gilligan flick is a hit.
On the Amazon-owned Internet Movie Database (IMDb) the Breaking Bad spinoff movie received a near-perfect score of 9.3 out of 10. Out of the nearly 4,000 reviewers, 74% gave it the maximum score.
El Camino: The verdict is in
On social media, the reaction was largely glowing.
Some fans credited the creator of the Breaking Bad TV show Vince Gilligan for writing an ‘incredible story’. Aaron Paul, who stars as Jesse Pinkman in El Camino, was also applauded for his performances.
Not everyone was thrilled though with some criticizing the screenplay.
Will the Breaking Bad movie help Netflix?
In pre-market hours Netflix stock had appreciated by 1.61% . This was after rising by nearly 5% in Thursday’s trading.
Netflix’s stock price is highly correlated to the streaming giant’s subscriber growth. In the most recent quarter, the stock lost over 10 percentage points after subscriber numbers in the US declined by more than 100,000.
Previously, Netflix has credited subscriber growth to original content including movies. For instance, Netflix indicated that the addition of nearly 9 million new members in the last quarter of 2018 was partly driven by the Bird Box movie and other shows. With Breaking Bad already having cultivated a loyal fan base, the spinoff movie could similarly work the magic.
Has Wall Street given up Netflix?
This year the stock has only appreciated by less than a percentage point. As evidence of investor disappointment, CNBC’s Jim Cramer recently called for the deletion of Netflix from the FAANG basket of tech stocks.
Despite the entrance of new competitors such as Disney+ and Apple TV+, Wall Street is surprisingly bullish. Ahead of Netflix ahead of the 3rd quarter earnings report on October 16th, Goldman Sachs has maintained a buy rating. However, the Wall Street firm reduced Netflix’s price target from $420 to $360. That would mark an upside of nearly 30% from the current prices. UBS also maintained a buy rating on the stock. And like its bigger Wall Street rival, it also slashed the price target from $420 to $370.
A more ambitious price target was put out by Piper Jaffray. The firm has cited a ‘more engaging content slate’ for its $440 price target in the long-term. If user reviews of El Camino are anything to go by, Netflix is already succeeding on this front.sa
