Prima Narcos, then One hundred years of solitude. Two TV series completely different but both very successful and with a common denominator: the country in which they are set, that is, the Colombia. The series about the legendary drug trafficker Pablo Escobar, broadcast by Netflix between 2015 and 2017 and masterfully interpreted by the Brazilian actor Wagner Moura, had already thrilled audiences and critics: it had been watched by users in 52 different countries, thus entering fully into the top 60 of the most-streamed series of the last decade. The cult series has even triggered a “narco-tourism” in the Colombian city of Medellin, which has since recorded a visitor boom on the trail of the exploits of Escobar, the cocaine king who died in 1993.
One Hundred Years of Solitude: Netflix's Most Expensive TV Series in Latin America
A month ago, the video adaptation of the writer's bestseller was released on Netflix. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Nobel Prize for Literature and also born in the country that takes its name from the Genoese navigator Christopher Columbus. The streaming platform, while not providing precise figures, was keen to let it be known that “One Hundred Years of Solitude" and the most expensive tv series never realized by it in Latin america: a gamble that has paid off so far, given that in the first week since its release, subscribers around the world have spent 31 million hours watching the series that tells the story of the Buendia family, inspired by the novel published in 1967. The secret of this success, according to the The Economist,, is the production company of both series that have put Colombia at the center of attention of the international public: the Dynamo, founded in Bogota in 2006.
The secret is the Colombian production house Dynamo
Over the past four years, according to Parrot Analytics, this company capable of combining attention to the budget with the exaltation of authenticity and Latin American talent, has yielded 600 million dollars in receipts a Netflix e $20 million to Amazon Prime Video. To date, Dynamo has produced 49 films and 26 TV series, shot strictly between Colombia, Mexico and Spain. In 2024 alone, the Colombian production company released three Spanish-language titles that entered the top 20 most viewed of the year, among those set in Latin America: “Wild District","Border Green"and "The theft of the century”, which tells the story of the historic 33 million dollar robbery of the Central Bank of Bogota, which took place in 1994. Not only that: last November, the most expensive film ever produced in Colombia was released on Amazon Prime Video, “Pimpinero: Blood and Oil”, on gasoline smugglers on the border with Venezuela.
The Financial Strategy That Revolutionized Colombian Cinema
Dynamo, he still points out The Economist,, is also distinguished by an unusual business model. Its co-founders, Andres Calderon e Diego Ramirez Schrempp, came from the world of finance and not entertainment, and so instead of chasing revenue project by project, they created a private equity fund in 2006 to encourage theinvestments in the emerging film industry of Colombia. In doing so, they raised funding to produce a first dozen films, with a low-cost budget, set between half a million and a million dollars. As they grew, they ended up spending 80 million dollars in 2022, a figure for big names in the industry. From the very beginning, the production company focused on local talents: with “Rage” launched the Ecuadorian director in 2009 Sebastian Cordero, while the Mexican set designer Eugenio Caballero, Oscar winner in 2007 and collaborator of big names such as Alfonso Cuaròn e Alejandro González Iñárritu, worked on the project of the series “One Hundred Years of Solitude”.
Dynamo and the Narcos Turnaround: Colombia Conquers Hollywood
The turning point was however Narcos, which Andrés Calderón wanted to shoot in Colombia at all costs: “I wanted people to see the real Colombia,” he revealed to The Economist,, explaining that only local actors were chosen (apart from the protagonist Wagner Moura, evidently) and who collaborated on the subject even Caesar Gaviria, the former president of Colombia in office when Escobar was arrested. The success of that production has significantly increased the consideration of Hollywood for Colombia, to the point that the detective series “Falcon” won an Emmy in 2019. And the future looks even brighter, as demand for Spanish-language content has more than doubled in the last four years. “We’re ready to do Game of Thrones,” Calderón said ambitiously.
