Netflix pays actor to live inside billboard for The Last House promotion

Netflix paid an actor to spend three days inside a furnished billboard above Sunset Boulevard near Selma Avenue in West Hollywood, turning the Sunset Strip into a live promotion for The Last House. The stunt ran from Thursday through Saturday and put a man in plain view over one of Los Angeles’ most prized ad corridors.

From inside the enclosed space, the performer waved to people below and used a whiteboard to communicate, making the billboard itself part of the show. The film behind the campaign is The Last House, a sci-fi thriller starring Greta Lee and Wagner Moura and directed by Louis Leterrier. Netflix scheduled the movie for release Friday, and the promotion was timed to its Netflix debut.

The placement fits a wider push by Netflix to own more of Sunset Boulevard’s advertising space. The streamer has been buying up prime billboards along the Strip, a stretch long coveted by studios and other entertainment companies because of the traffic, visibility and built-in Hollywood symbolism that come with a sign on that road.

The campaign shows how aggressively Netflix is willing to stage a movie event around a streaming title, especially when attention is scarce and original films have to fight for space against a crowded release calendar. Instead of relying on a theatrical rollout to build momentum, Netflix has turned a billboard into a temporary attraction, using location and spectacle to give The Last House a public face before the title reaches viewers at home.