By Mallory Mattingly
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos believes his company is “saving Hollywood,” a claim he made in a recent interview with Time magazine’s editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs.
“Have you destroyed Hollywood?” Jacobs asked.
“No, we’re saving Hollywood,” Sarandos replied.
“Netflix is a very consumer-focused company,” he continued. “We really do care that we deliver the program to you in a way you want to watch it.”
He thinks the industry should take note of the struggling box office.
“What does that say? What is the consumer trying to tell us? That they’d like to watch movies at home, thank you,” Sarandos explained. “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.”
Sarando’s isn’t wrong. According to the Los Angeles Times, compared to this time last year, box office revenue is down 11%. The box office struggled last year, too.
“The 2024 box office was healthy for six months, and unhealthy for the other half.,” David A. Gross, CEO of movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research, told Variety. “During the summer and year-end, big franchise series worked, and records were broken. But the first four-and-a-half months of the year and the autumn were weak. Dead periods in 2024 left some deep bruises.”
Netflix isn’t completely against movie theaters, though. The giant streaming company owns the Los Angeles Bay Theater and New York’s Paris Theater, two theaters Sarandos “saved” from becoming another CVS.
Related: As Box Office Flounders, Hollywood Studios Hide Box Office Grosses
“We didn’t save it to save the theater business. We saved it to save the theater experience,” he said.
“We have these bespoke releases…we have to do some qualification for the Oscars,” the CEO explained of the theater’s purposes. “They have to run for a little bit, it helps with the press cycle a little bit. But I’ve tried to encourage every director we work with to focus on the consumer, focus on the fans. Make a movie that they love, and they will reward you.”
Ultimately, the movie theater business is 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strangers watch them [and to have them] play in the theater for two months and people cry and sold-out shows…It’s an outdated concept,” Sarandos said.
“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,” he added.
With the steady decline in moviegoers, Netflix and Ted Sarandos are on a mission to bring TV and movies to viewers in a way that they want to watch.
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