Netflix chief, about the decline of cinemas: “People prefer to see movies at home, thank you beautiful”

Ted Sarandos's latest interview, the general director of Netflix responsible for films and serials, started with a “heating” question: “Have you destroyed the Hollywood?”, Reports Variety magazine.

“No, we save him,” said a Sarandos smile, the Netflix CEO in charge of managing the productions and the content catalog. The other CEO of Netflix, Greg Peters, is responsible for the financial and marketing side.

Sarandos had a brief discussion in New York with the editor-in-chief of Time magazine, Sam Jacobs, at the Time100 summit. The two talked about the problems that affect the Hollywood and the reasons why Netflix is ​​successful despite reducing the number of productions, decreased box office receipts and an industry under contraction.

Giving as an example the sales of tickets for the cinema rooms, decreasing globally in recent years, Sarandos asked rhetorically: “What does this tell us? What is the public trying to convey?”.

“That he prefers to see the movies at home, thank you nice. Studios and cinemas are fighting to keep this window for 45 days [de rulare în cinematografe]which is completely broken by the experience of the consumer who simply loves a movie, ”he replied in front of the present audience.

Netflix chief explained why some platform films are released in theaters

Variety magazine recalls that Netflix as a company is not completely foreign to the cinemas business, because it owns the “Bay” gala cinemas in Los Angeles and “Paris” in New York. Sarandos said, however, that Netflix “saved them” from the closing for a very specific reason. “I did not save them to save the cinemas industry. We saved them to save the cinematic experience,” he told the chief editor of Time magazine.

Netflix is ​​also forced to offer limited launches in cinemas for movies that wants to be eligible for prizes, as was the case of the 2022 Sequel Knives Out: Glass Onion or the movie of 2024 Emilia Pérezlocated at the center of a huge controversy because of its main actress.

“We have these specific launches … We have to meet certain criteria for Oscars,” said Sarandos. “It has to run for a short time, it helps a little in the promotion cycle. But I encouraged all the directors we work with to focus on the public, to make a movie to love, and they will reward,” he said.

Sarandos also mentioned that the film industry is in a “transition period”, considering that “people have grown up with the thought that I want to make movies for a huge screen and see them strangers [și să ruleze] Two months in cinemas, with people who cry and full rooms … '”.” It is an outdated concept “, expressed his opinion Ted Sarandos.

Netflix CEO believes that Hollywood would have a bigger problem than the decline of cinemas

Asked directly if the desire of some directors like James Cameron and actors like Tom Cruise to make “for cinemas, for common experience” is “a outdated idea”, Sarandos said: “I think it is, for most people, not for all.

“If you are lucky enough to live in Manhattan and you can walk to a multiplex to watch a movie, it's great. Most of the country can't do that,” he explained.

Sarandos insisted that he loves cinemas, but that their decline does not “bother” it. Instead, he said he would disturb him if “people stop making good movies.”

He warned Hollywood not to be deceived that the public's desire is to see movies in the cinemas, just because the film industry wants to be watched.

The Netflix CEO has instead argued that it is in the interest of the entertainment industry as a whole for Hollywood to adapt to how the public wants to consume the movies.