As you may have noticed, Netflix has been breaking out into their own independent content as of late. With a slew of TV shows and movies set to be produced by and for Netflix, they’re projected to spend $40 to $80 million on Adam Sandler’s four-picture deal alone.

That’s the interesting part to Netflix’s model: they have to invest a lot of their own money in order to continue to gain traction in the realm of original content and they’re making a huge gamble. Here’s how:

In Hollywood, big name studios like Universal or Paramount give filmmakers and stars a big advance when they sign on to do movies, and then give them an extra bonus if the movie is a big success at the box office. That model has seemed to work, and it’s made a lot people a lot of money in both big-budget films and smaller indie films. With Netflix, however, they’re asking filmmakers and stars to take a big payday upfront, but no matter how much of a success it is on the streaming service, they won’t receive a bonus. “If five people or 5 million people watch the movie, it will be the same pay for the creators and stars of the movie,” wrote Dorothy Pomerantz, a contributor on Forbes.com.

Now you may be wondering why filmmakers and stars would take this deal, and the answer to that has two parts. First, financial security is always nice, and although Hollywood can provide that to big stars, the low-budget and up-and-coming filmmakers don’t have that luxury all the time. The second part is that in today’s movie market, marketing for big-studio remakes and superhero movies can easily overshadow mid-budget films. With Netflix, however, they offer a medium that can properly publicize those films — to a loyal audience, no less.

Netflix and fans are going to enjoy this model and its success for now, but in the long run, it seems like it could lose momentum. Netflix, as mentioned earlier, is spending massive sums of money in order to break out in this field, and they’re going to have to keep doing that to stay relevant. Sooner or later Netflix subscriptions will max out or they’ll run out of money. It’s an interesting and extremely lucrative model in this day and age of streaming and free access, but that may only be for a short time. It will be intriguing to see how, and if, Netflix succeeds with their original content and if they can continue to give Hollywood a run for its money.