20 Things You Somehow Missed In Napoleon Dynamite
3. The Napoleon Dynamite Problem
Napoleon Dynamite is often credited with breaking early Netflix. The movie lent its name to a problem encountered by distributors. The Napoleon Dynamite Problem describes an issue faced by algorithms in accurately targeting quirky movies to the appropriate audience.
As Napoleon Dynamite's popularity grew, Netflix's algorithm just couldn't figure out exactly what kind of person was responding positively to the indie comedy.
Other movies that caused a similar algorithm issue were Sideways, Lost in Translation, I Heart Huckabees, and Kill Bill: Volume 1.
Semi-retired computer scientist Len Bertoni discussed the problem:
"[The movie] is very weird and very polarizing. It contains a lot of arch, ironic humor, including a famously kooky dance performed by the titular teenage character [...] It's the type of quirky entertainment that tends to be either loved or despised."
The Napoleon Dynamite Problem was a key factor in Netflix launching the Netflix Prize. The streaming giant offered $1,000,000 to anybody who could improve the algorithm accuracy by ten percent. BellKor Pragmatic Chaos won the competition by a tiebreaker on 18th September 2009.