Netflix Delays Narnia Almost Two Months for Theaters — SkimNews
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- Netflix rented New York’s biggest AMC for an October 2026 Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew trailer premiere, where Greta Gerwig was interviewed in front of an IMAX screen; the film opens in theaters next February and reaches Netflix after an almost two-month run.
- Ted Sarandos said in April 2025 that Netflix was “saving Hollywood” and described the model of giant screens, two-month theatrical runs and sold-out shows as outdated.
- Netflix entered straight-to-streaming film with Beasts of No Nation in 2015 and bought historic theaters while pursuing subscriptions as a replacement for selling movie tickets.
- Netflix used theatrical runs to qualify films for awards and retain talent, resisting filmmakers’ requests for longer windows despite clear public demand around 2022’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.
- Ava DuVernay could screen A Wrinkle in Time in her theater-less hometown of Compton only after Disney built a pop-up cinema in a community center, an access problem the source places in tension with Netflix’s push to close theaters.
- Warner Bros. released Dune, The Suicide Squad and 15 other major titles directly to HBO Max during the pandemic, helping streaming rivals gain ground as multiplexes shuttered and legacy studios undercut theatrical distribution.
- U.S. domestic box office is on track to reach $10 billion in 2026, nearly matching 2019, while 2023’s Barbenheimer had required months of hyping to reach critical mass.
Why it matters: Netflix’s February launch of Narnia gives cinemas an almost two-month exclusive run while the 2026 U.S. box office tracks toward $10 billion. For theaters and filmmakers, the company’s flagship title now receives a substantial theatrical window instead of treating release mainly as a brief awards-and-talent tactic.
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