Three years after their splashy relocation to Hollywood with the aim to make it big in the media business, the Wall Street Journal has declared Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's venture west a "flop."
"They arrived in Southern California three years ago with Duke and Duchess titles and plans to capitalize on a cash-rich streaming business desperate for star power to lure subscribers," the paper said Sunday. "The big-ticket deals that followed — $100 million at Netflix, more than $20 million at Spotify — have led to more cancellations and rejections than produced shows.
True, there have been some misses.
The "graveyard" of video projects (WSJ's word choice there) includes children's show Pearl, which was cancelled by Netlix, as well as several other shows that didn't get off the ground. Meanwhile, Spotify podcast Archetypes, which is focused on stereotypes that hold women back, didn't get renewed for season 2.
Spotify has already parted ways with the two royals, and Netflix won't likely renew the couple's overall deal when it expires at the end of 2025, the paper said.
But flop?
As the WSJ itself noted, Harry's memoir Spare became a New York Times best seller.
Meanwhile, the royal couple's Netflix limited series, Harry & Meghan, still ranks as the service's most watched documentary ever, streamed for more than 97.7 million hours worldwide from December12-18 last year.
Has Meghan and Harry's sojourn been as successful as its original billing? Probably not, but the end of 2025 is still two years away ... flop seems a little harsh to us.
