Netflix to invest $1bn on film and TV production in Mexico over next four years

Netflix will invest $1bn to produce series and films in Mexico over the next four years.

The investment, which runs from 2025-2028, was announced by Netflix’s co-CEO Ted Sarandos in a press conference today (February 20) with Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum.

Sarandos also said Netflix will invest $2m in Mexico’s Churubusco Studios to help upgrade its facilities.

Netflix first launched in Mexico in 2011. Its first series produced outside the US, 2015’s Club De Cuervos,  was made in the country.

The streamer opened an office in Mexico in 2019 and set up its Latin American headquarters there in 2020. Since 2019, its employee numbers in Mexico have risen from 30 to nearly 400. According to Netflix, it has shot productions in 25 of Mexico’s 31 states.

Netflix has backed Mexico-made films including Oscar winners Roma and Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio.

Sarandos also talked up Netflix’s recent film adaptation of Juan Rulfo’s revered Mexican novel Pedro Páramo, which was released last year.

“Pedro Páramo contributed over 375m Mexican pesos ($18.4m) to the country’s gross domestic product and employed thousands of local crew members, hundreds of technicians and artists, and dozens of traditional musicians,” Sarandos said, adding that the adaptation sparked a tripling of the book’s sales.

Other Netflix Mexico originals include House Of Flowers, Where The Track Ends and the recently announced Love Sick and The Dead Girls.

Last year, Netflix launched a $1m fund to help develop diverse and creative talents behind the camera called the Netflix Fund For Creative Equity in Mexico.

This story originally appeared on SGP's sister site Screen