Animated Films, Girls IP Highlighted in Netflix Kids Report

Emily Horgan has released a new edition of her Netflix Kids Content Performance Report, expanded to include analysis of the performance of animated movies on the platform and featuring intelligence on its approach to building girl-skewing IPs.

“As streaming shifts from ‘subscriber obsession’ to ‘engagement obsession,’ we’re excited to expand our analysis into animated movies, which represent a mind-blowing portion of children’s viewing on Netflix,” said Horgan, creator of the report and a former Disney executive. “For example, the Universal animated output deal, covering movies from DreamWorks and Illumination, drove nearly 3 billion hours of engagement on Netflix in 2024.”

In addition to animated movie analysis, the new edition of the report includes detailed tracking of the progression of series, charting how they have performed over time. The report, which explores Netflix’s kids’ content strategy across preschool, comedy animation, action animation and fantasy animation, also includes year-on-year comparisons.

“The response from the industry has exceeded our expectations,” Horgan noted. “By delivering data-backed insights in an accessible format, we’re helping companies make more informed decisions about content development, acquisition and licensing strategies.”

Future editions will explore other genres, including anime and YA, “two rapidly growing segments with distinct audience dynamics and performance patterns,” said Horgan. “We’re also developing a strategic playbook for series launches that will help content producers and distributors optimize their release strategies.”