Netflix’s First Live Geeked Week Event Set the Stage for Bigger In-Person Business: It Was a Test to ‘See How Big We Could Go’

Jennifer Maas
·3-min read

Netflix used its fourth annual Geeked Week, a previously virtual five-day event during which the streamer rains down news about its new and returning YA, sci-fi and fantasy TV shows, games and movies, as its latest evolution in the live events business following more than 50 experiences in 25 cities worldwide.

With more than 1,000 screaming attendees at Atlanta’s Dairies event space for the in-person experience on Sept. 19, 40 titles with announcements and first looks that garnered nearly 640 million impressions on Geeked Week content across platforms, 19 celebs making in-person appearances, including on-stage host Joe Manganiello and “Twilight of the Gods” filmmaker Zack Snyder, and multiple fans who left with freshly inked tattoos featuring the company’s IP, Netflix’s vice president of U.S. and Canada series marketing Shelly Gillyard would call it a win.

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“Going live with fans in real life was a test for us and to see how big we could go,” Gillyard told Variety. “We picked a location called in Atlanta that had a great outdoor space and a theater, and we’re excited that we were able to fill the theater to capacity. There were over 1,000 fans there. And when we look at the results of that week, for us, it’s really about the engagement and the conversation with the activities and the events, and then the actual live show, having over 639 million impressions feels very successful.”

A younger cousin to Netflix’s Tudum fan event, which debuted in 2020 amid the pandemic as a virtual-only multi-day experience that includes announcements about all of Netflix’s splashy titles, including the non-geeky ones (relatively speaking) like “Bridgerton,” Geeked Week started as a five-day taped event without an audience in 2021.

In 2023, the format remained the same, but Netflix began to organize its slew of genre announcements into days devoted to series, films, animation and games. Last year, the event featured three days of virtual showcases, a “Rebel Moon” Day, and a few pop-up “Geeked Ink” locations offering tattoos during the online event.

This year, Netflix decided to host a live event in Atlanta on the final day of the convention that ran Sept. 16-19, admitting more than 1,000 attendees for that experience, and an in-person screening of Snyder’s “Twilight of the Gods.” That Geeked Ink tattoo parlor also made an appearance, and Geeked Trivia took place at the Atlanta Dairies venue.

While not nearly as big as Netflix’s first in-person component for Tudum, which debuted with 11,000 attendees last year in Brazil, it’s another important piece in the streamer’s to get fans’ time and devotion year-round with live experiences, from its “Stranger Things: The First Shadow” stage play (coming to Broadway in 2025) to its “Bridgerton” balls to its upcoming Netflix House permanent entertainment venue.

And that’s just the start, as Gillyard and her team regroup to break down how the first in-person Geeked Week experience went and what they decide to do in 2025, which could involve combining the experience with Tudum.

“Tudum we’re excited to have come back again next year. We’re in the early planning stages of that,” Gillyard said. “And ‘Geeked’ titles are really critical to our fandom. So how do we look at both of those events? Are there ways in which we could potentially combine the events? So we’re still talking about that early days, but this genre and ‘Geeked’ titles and the ‘Geeked’ fandom is something we will always find ways to celebrate.”

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