Netflix is preparing for a small revolution

Ted Sarandos (Netflix) spoke with Bloomberg this weekend for his first interview since Netflix's failed attempt to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. When the journalist pointed out that, in this deal, his company had to deal with "another unusual buyer," Sarandos replied, "Unusual, yes… unusual, irrational, whatever words you want to use to describe it." But it was when the topic of theatrical distribution came up that the interview took a more interesting turn. Now that the deal with Warner Bros. has fallen through, Sarandos was asked about his potential intention to release more Netflix films in theaters… Netflix: An Open Dialogue with Exhibitors; While traditional 45-day release windows no longer seem relevant, Netflix's recent experiments in theaters could continue and even expand. He responds: "Everything I mentioned about 45-day windows would have required us to acquire that theatrical distribution entity. But one of the very positive aspects of this operation is that we got to know exhibitors and established an open dialogue with them. Frankly, I didn't really have a reason to do that before. We've found some really creative approaches together, as you saw with Stranger Things and K-pop Demon Hunters (see K-pop Demon Hunters without Netflix: a fiasco?). We have One Piece in theaters next week in the US and Japan." I think we're going to find a lot of interesting things to do together in the future. I can imagine us trying some new things." In search of alternative formulas. Listening to Ted Sarandos extol the virtues of dialogue with American exhibitors, one is almost tempted to quote a line from "Le Père Noël est une ordure" (Santa Claus is a Bastard): "That's it, yessss." Because behind this sudden opening to the big screen, Netflix continues above all to search for alternative formulas, far from the traditional theatrical model. Sarandos also revisited the abandonment of the Warner deal. In essence, Netflix had set a price ceiling and stuck to it. Once Paramount's offer exceeded that threshold, the deal was practically done. With the acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount, and Skydance also inherit such a high level of debt that some are already speculating about a possible future resale of content to… Netflix. Clearly, in Hollywood, nothing is ever truly certain.