Netflix has been releasing movies wrong for years and now we have proof

Netflix released its first original film, Beasts of No Nation, in 2015. Since then, major filmmakers have worked with the streaming service, including Martin Scorsese (The Irishman), David Fincher (The Killer), and Bong Joon Ho (Okja).

One thing all of these films have in common is that they received very limited releases in theaters, if they were released at all. That’s on purpose: if Netflix releases movies in theaters, it’s only for a very short time in a very limited number of venues. Generally, the company prefers that people stay in and watch movies at home. For years, they’ve been trying to force the industry to follow their lead, and their stance has rarely looked dumber than it does right about now.

Netflix’s anti-theater strategy

It’s been in place for years, and it’s not working

Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos is known for saying for some pretty outlandish things about the theatrical experience, like that going to movie theaters is an “outmoded idea” for anyone who doesn’t live within walking distance of one, or that allowing movies to stay in theaters too long isn’t “consumer friendly.”

Rhetoric like that always seemed very self-serving. Obviously Netflix thinks that movie theaters are an outmoded idea, because they don’t release movies in theaters. Obviously they don’t think theaters are consumer-friendly, because their consumers don’t go to them. If you can see it in a movie in a theater, why would you pay for a Netflix subscription to watch it at home?

It seems never to have occurred to Sarandos and his team that Netflix could have it both ways; that people will be more interested in watching movies on streaming, not less, if they have theatrical runs first. Take what happened when Christopher Nolan’s 2014 sci-fi film Interstellar was re-released in IMAX theaters in December 2024. When that movie landed on Netflix the month after, it was the third most-watched film on the platform in the U.S. The theatrical run seemed to help, not hurt, the movie’s performance on streaming. And that’s because being released in a theater gives a movie a cache and weight that it doesn’t have if it’s released straight to streaming.

Meanwhile, Netflix’s own original projects have trouble making an impact on the wider culture, even if they’re widely watched. Some of the most popular Netflix movies ever made include Carry-On, The Adam Project, Back in Action, and Swapped, but how many of them were talked about like hit 2026 releases like The Odyssey, Michael, and Toy Story 5? If they had theatrical releases, maybe they would have been.

The box office is booming

Much to Netflix’s chagrin

Credit: Sony Pictures

Speaking of hit 2026 releases, it’s been a fantastic year for movie theaters. There have been major franchise blockbusters (The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, The Devil Wears Prada 2), successful original stories (Project Hail Mary), and independent sleeper hits (Obsession, Backrooms). The theater industry is finally bouncing back from its post-COVID lull, defying Ted Sarandos’ prediction that they are becoming “outmoded.”

On the weekend of August 31, 2026, Sarandos’ argument was dealt a death blow. On that weekend, the American box office took in more money than at any other point in its 100-year history, thanks largely to The Odyssey and the arrival of Spider-Man: Brand New Day. That movie may end up being the biggest hit of the year, even if it’s only in the middle of the pack, quality-wise, when it comes to Spider-Man films released this century.

If theaters were dying, they wouldn’t be breaking records. It’s time for Netflix and its leadership to admit defeat and become part of the solution.

Netflix is finally coming around

Kicking and screaming, but coming

Netflix entered the entertainment industry as a disrupter, a newcomer that delivered TV and movies to people in a new way. Netflix became so big and made so many movies that its refusal to release those movies in theaters was actually threatening the bottom line of the movie theater industry itself. It seems like this disrupter was going to bend the establishment to its will.

But the more time has passed, the more it looks like the reverse is happening. Next year, Netflix will release Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew, its first-ever movie to get a traditional wide release. And it’s not just the major pictures that are moving the dial. The new Spanish-language prestige drama La Bola Negra will open in theaters on Oct. 16 and stay there for 47 days, the longest theatrical window in the history of the company.

One of us

Netflix is on the cusp of realizing that it can have things both ways: that it can release its original movies in theaters, make tons of money at the box office, and inspire lots of people to sign up for Netflix so they can watch that movie in the comfort of their own homes. Its insistence that people were losing interest in the theatrical experience was always silly; in the light of the new box office records, it looks ridiculous. Now is the perfect time for Netflix to change its tune.