Netflix CEO: Going to Theaters Outdated, Saving Hollywood

Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos has boldly claimed that the streaming giant is "saving Hollywood," asserting that the traditional theater-going experience is becoming outdated for the majority of viewers. Speaking at the Time100 Summit, Sarandos argued that despite the exodus of film production from Los Angeles, the shrinking theatrical window, and the declining quality of the cinema experience, Netflix remains the savior of the industry. "No, we're saving Hollywood," he confidently told the audience, emphasizing Netflix's consumer-centric approach. "We deliver the program to you in a way you want to watch it."

Addressing the slump in box office sales, Sarandos posed a rhetorical question: "What is the consumer trying to tell us? That they'd like to watch movies at home." While he expressed personal affection for movie theaters, he suggested that for most people, the idea of going to the cinema is outdated. "I believe it is an outmoded idea, for most people," he clarified, "not for everybody."

Given his role at Netflix, Sarandos's stance on favoring streaming over traditional cinema is unsurprising. Hollywood's challenges are well-known, with family films like "Inside Out 2" and video game adaptations like "A Minecraft Movie" sustaining the industry, while even Marvel's once-reliable blockbusters face inconsistent success.

The question of whether cinema attendance is becoming a relic of the past is a contentious one. Last year, acclaimed actor Willem Dafoe remarked on the shift towards home viewing, lamenting the closure of theaters. "Which is tragic, because the kind of attention that people give at home isn't the same," Dafoe noted. He expressed concern that more challenging films suffer when audiences are not fully engaged, missing the communal aspect of cinema-going. "More difficult movies, more challenging movies can not do as well, when you don’t have an audience that’s really paying attention. That’s a big thing. I miss the social thing of where movies fit in the world. You go see a movie, you go out to dinner, you talk about it later, and that spreads out. People now go home, they say, ‘Hey, honey, let’s watch something stupid tonight,’ and they flip through and they watch five minutes of 10 movies, and they say, forget it, let’s go to bed. Where’s that discourse found?”

In 2022, renowned filmmaker Steven Soderbergh offered his perspective on the future of movie theaters in the streaming era. He acknowledged the enduring appeal of the cinematic experience but stressed the importance of engaging younger audiences as they age. "I think people still want to go out," Soderbergh stated, recognizing the allure of the theater. "There's still an appeal to seeing a movie in a movie theater. It's still a great destination. And it really depends, I think, on our ability to attract, to convince the older audiences to continue to come out [...] It has nothing to do with windowing [the term for the amount of time left between theater and home releases]." He highlighted programming and engagement as crucial elements for sustaining the cinema-going tradition.