Dan Lin, chairman for Netflix Films, said that company will avoid directors looking for theatrical releases for their films.
Lin bluntly said that Netflix “just won’t work with” filmmakers holding on to theatrical releases in a recent interview with The New York Times.
“There is a group of filmmakers who still want theatrical. Those are filmmakers that we’ve accepted we just won’t work with,” he said.
Lin did clarify that the upcoming theatrical release of Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew will be a lone exception.
“Because I have such a huge slate, my job is very different from other studio chairmen’s jobs,” Lin said. “I can’t impose my taste on the slate. But I can impose a way of making movies. I can impose a way of how we want to work with filmmakers. I think people on the outside are pretty clear on what I’m going for: making someone’s favorite movie in a specific genre, focusing on variety and quality and making Netflix the best place for filmmakers to work.”
Netflix’s opposition to the theatrical release prompted industry opposition as the streaming giant sought to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery before the deal ultimately went to Paramount-Skydance. Sean Gamble, the CEO of Cinemark, expressed optimism at Paramount winning, saying it could be great for movie theaters.
Gamble shared his views on the bidding war fallout when during a session with the Morgan Stanley Investors Conference.
“Both Paramount and Warner Bros. have been longstanding supporters of theatrical exhibition and great partners for Cinemark,” Gamble said. “Based on their actions over many, many years, that’s a real positive. There clearly has been a lean of those organizations to ramp up more into the space.”
Gamble said the movie theater business would also improve if the studios consolidated around increasing the number of theatrical releases while widening their market window.
“We’re hearing all the right things. There’s still a lot of details to work through,” Gamble said.