Netflix has made a rare concession to cinema with Greta Gerwig’s Narnia film, but its film chief has been blunt about what that means for directors who want the same treatment: they simply won’t be getting a call.
Dan Lin, who took over as chairman of Netflix film in April 2024, told The New York Times in a new profile that the Narnia theatrical release is very much an exception rather than a shift in strategy.
And in addressing the broader question of filmmakers who prioritise cinema releases, he was unusually candid.
“There is a group of filmmakers who still want theatrical,” Lin said. “Those are filmmakers that we’ve accepted we just won’t work with.”
The Barbie director’s adaptation of C.S. Lewis’s classic fantasy novels was originally planned as an IMAX release on Thanksgiving, followed by a Netflix debut on Christmas Day.
That plan was revised in May, with the film now set for a traditional theatrical release on 12 February 2027, before arriving on Netflix on 2 April 2027.
It marks the first time the streamer has committed to a conventional theatrical window for one of its films.
The only other near-term exception is The Adventures of Cliff Booth, David Fincher’s film based on Quentin Tarantino’s script and Brad Pitt’s stuntman character from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which will receive a two-week global IMAX run from 25 November before landing on Netflix on 23 December.
Lin’s comments come against a broader backdrop of Netflix’s complicated relationship with cinema.
When the streamer was briefly in contention to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, co-CEO Ted Sarandos indicated that Warner Bros. films would have the standard 45-day theatrical window, a concession that underlined just how much the theatrical question matters in the industry.
Netflix ultimately dropped out of the bidding, with Paramount emerging as the winner.
Beyond the theatrical debate, Lin outlined a broader creative vision for the streamer’s film slate, spending less money on fewer, better films, and developing more comedies, romantic comedies and book adaptations.
The streamer’s recent adaptation People We Meet on Vacation was cited as a model for the kind of success he is aiming for.
The message to filmmakers who dream of the big screen is clear enough, though. Netflix knows what it is, and is no longer pretending otherwise.
