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The decline of the movie industry has not been entirely driven by Netflix. It has been a multi-pronged attack on the favorite American pastime including the rise of the entire streaming industry (led by Netflix), various studio-driven strikes causing disruptions, the pandemic, and the general passage of time. 2024 box office revenue was down a whopping 23.5% from 2019 and a 38% drop in the past 10 years.
On the one hand, you could say that Netflix is killing the movie theater industry but if you ask Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos he would tell you that Netflix is saving Hollywood.
Speaking at the Time100 summit this week, the Netflix CEO (est. net worth $317+ million) was asked if Netflix has destroyed Hollywood and his response was “no, we’re saving Hollywood.” He then dove into a long response which sheds light on current Netflix strategy and I do genuinely believe that he thinks Netflix is saving Hollywood even if there’s a stronger case to be made they’re killing it.
Speaking about declining ticket sales at the box office, Sarandos remarked “what does that say? What is the consumer trying to tell us? That they’d like to watch movies at home, thank you. The studios and the theaters are duking it out over trying to preserve this 45-day window that is completely out of step with the consumer experience of just loving a movie.”
He also pointed out that Netflix itself owns two movie theaters, the Paris Theater in New York and Bay Theater in Los Angeles, saying “we didn’t save it to save the theater business. We saved it to save the theater experience.” He claimed they saved the Paris Theater in NY from becoming a Walgreens…
Netflix CEO’s Explains Why He Thinks Netflix Is Saving Hollywood
His argument that Netflix is saving Hollywood and not destroying it can be best understood through his next comments, which were first reported in Variety. CEO Ted Sarandos said “we’re in a period of transition. Folks grew up thinking, ‘I want to make movies on a gigantic screen and have strangers watch them (and to have them) play in the theater for two months and people cry and sold-out shows… It’s an outdated concept.”
He conveniently skips past the part where Netflix pioneered the streaming industry and was the largest driver of keeping people at home, on the couch, instead of heading to movie theaters…. ‘Things have changed’ sounds convenient when you omit ‘we are the ones that changed the industry.’
WHen asked about film makers producing movies for a ‘theater experience’ the Netflix CEO called it “an outmoded idea.” Adding “I think it is, for most people, not for everybody. If you’re fortunate to live enough in Manhattan, and you can walk to a multiplex and see a movie, that’s fantastic. Most of the country cannot.”
Do we need to walk to movie theaters? Is that really a necessary component of the movie theater experience? Is Netflix saving Hollywood by preventing me from getting in my car and driving 10 minutes to one of the struggling theaters in the area?
…Ultimately, this overall topic turns to ‘how could the movie theater industry be fixed?’ which is a discussion that could span weeks….
Ticket prices have ballooned to price out a ton of customers. Concessions are outlandishly expensive these days. Comedies are impossible to find on the silver screen. Movies made specifically for kids either go straight to streaming or they hit streaming networks within a short period of time so there really is no incentive for parents to take their kids to the movies aside from it being a distraction for a few hours. And all of the innovation in the theater industry is gimmicky.
I took my 6yo to see Nightmare Before Christmas in a 4D theater and the seat punched me in the back of the head while I got blasted with some fart gun. What fun is that?