When the idea of Netflix acquiring Warner Bros. first made its way into headlines, a lot of cinemagoers feared that one of the biggest studios out there would be jumping to streaming-only. Now, we know that Paramount is buying WB, not Netflix, and it seems the streaming giant is going to go back to what it does best. There were plans, back when the deal was on the cards, for Netflix to adopt more of a traditional approach to theatrical releases, according to CEO Ted Sarandos, yet it looks like plans have changed on that front.
Netflix's chief content officer Bela Bajaria made a clear divide between how it handles releases versus Warner Bros. In a conversation with Deadline, she said: "There is Warner Bros theatrical distribution, and then there's Netflix, which we've been in a different business. I don't want you to conflate the two. Ted [Sarandos] was talking about Warner Bros being in a different business than what Netflix is in."
Netflix film chair Dan Lin added that the streamer has been incredibly busy these last few months, and needs a bit of time to settle back to normal. "The Warner Bros deal just ended as far as our participations and we had the Academy Awards," he said. "We are a streaming-first company. The strategy works really well for us. You can see our members watch seven movies a month. You can see through the Warner process, we built a closer relationship with theatre owners, we had a lot of discussions — just give us some time."
Lin did say that for some special releases, Netflix will return to theatres. At the beginning of the year, it allowed audiences to witness the Stranger Things finale in theatres, and this year we'll see Greta Gerwig's Narnia on the big screen. However, for other releases it seems we're sticking with our TVs for now.