Netflix's Narnia Gets a Two-Month Theatrical Run — SkimNews
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- Netflix rented New York's biggest AMC in October 2026 to stage a trailer premiere for 'Narnia: The Magician's Nephew,' with director Greta Gerwig interviewed by Stephen Colbert in front of a massive IMAX screen.
- Narnia: The Magician's Nephew opens in theaters next February and plays exclusively there for almost two months before it is available to watch on Netflix — the long theatrical window Netflix spent years resisting.
- Ted Sarandos told Time in April 2025 that Netflix was 'saving Hollywood' and called the theatrical model — giant screens, strangers, two-month runs, sold-out shows — 'an outdated concept.'
- Netflix entered straight-to-streaming film with 'Beasts of No Nation' in 2015 and set out to eliminate movie theaters, becoming the first content delivery service to transform into a major Hollywood studio; it bought a few historic theaters along the way.
- Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery in 2022 marked clear public demand for longer theatrical windows, which Netflix declined, keeping millions in potential ticket sales on the table to protect billions tied to obsoleting movie tickets.
- Joe Russo, promoting 'The Gray Man' in 2022, called the idea that the theater is a sacred space 'bullshit' and decried the theatrical experience's elitism; Ava DuVernay could screen 'A Wrinkle in Time' in her theater-less hometown of Compton only after Disney built a pop-up cinema inside a local community center.
- Domestic box office is on track to reach $10 billion this year, nearly matching 2019, after multiplexes spent months or years shuttered in the pandemic and 'Barbenheimer' needed months of hype in 2023; by fall 2026 a three-hour Elizabeth Holmes documentary sold out nationally with less than five weeks of lead time.
Why it matters: Netflix now enforces the exclusive theatrical run it spent years refusing, after 'Glass Onion' in 2022 made audience demand for longer windows plain. Theater operators get a near-two-month exclusive 'Narnia' in a domestic box office tracking toward $10 billion, while subscribers wait — and Sarandos's 'saving Hollywood' line reads differently.
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