Theaters have not recovered from the impact of covid even though other live events have bounced back, which Netflix's CEO views as an indication that theaters are dying.
The comments from Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix, were made during an interview with the media outlet Semafo at the Paley Center conference last month.
- "Nearly every live thing has come back screaming," Sarandos said. "Broadway’s breaking records right now, sporting events, concerts, all those things that we couldn’t do during covid are all back and bigger than ever. The theatrical box office is down 40 to 50% from pre-covid, and this year is down 8% already, so the trend is not reversing. You’ve gotta look at that and say, ‘What is the consumer trying to tell you?’"
Narnia is an exception, but...
Netflix is, of course, contributing to the trend by not giving its big-budget projects a theatrical release. Netflix's typically movies cost the same to produce as big-budget blockbusters in theaters.
There are exceptions, such as Netflix's upcoming reboot of The Chronicles of Narnia, which will be shown in IMAX theaters for two weeks. However, the move is more about generating buzz and qualifying for awards, according to Sarandos.
- "Our core strategy is to give our members exclusive first round movies on Netflix. The Narnia Imax release is a release tactic. We routinely release movies and theaters a couple of weeks before to qualify for awards, to meet festival requirements and to prime the publicity pump a bit," Sarandos explained earlier this year. "In the case of Narnia, it’s a two-week special event, I think it’s very differentiated from other runs, because I doubt anyone has a screen as big as an Imax screen at home."
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Other Hollywood studios, most of which now have their own streaming platforms, still release movies exclusively in theaters. Disney and Warner experimented with streaming premieres and reduced theatrical windows during covid, but have since extended the theatrical window, although not to pre-pandemic levels.
Netflix will premiere its Narnia movie in theaters but it is not a strategic shift, says Sarandos. The picture does not show Netflix's version of Narnia
2025: A big year for movies?
With the pandemic and Hollywood strikes in the rear mirror, 2025 was forecasted as a comeback year for theaters. Big releases including Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning and Avatar 3: Fire and Ash.
In the US, however, the outlook for 2025 appears gloomy after the first quarter. This follows a 15.8% drop in ticket sales last year, according to industry association Digital Entertainment Group (DEG) and research firm Omdia.
Meanwhile, the home entertainment market continues its explosive growth and is now more than seven times larger than the theatrical market.
- Source: Semafor via MediaPlayNews
