If you’re a person who fell in love with movies at an early age, it’s probably not just seeing a film that you love, but also the experience of going to the theater.
From the smell of freshly popped popcorn to finding your way to your seat and the feeling of excitement as the lights go down, experiencing a movie on the big screen in surround sound is truly unlike anything else.
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Going to the movies was a beloved activity right up to the 1970s, when a new trend in media made its debut: home videos, and with them, the advent of the home video store. VHS battled it out against Beta (and VHS won, as those of us who lived through it will remember), Blockbuster opened its doors, and those of us who loved movies had a whole new way to experience them — at home.
Netflix (NFLX) was next to impact and remold the movie industry when it started mailing out DVDs to customers in the late ’90s, eventually making the full transition to digital streaming as the technology started to take hold.
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Covid dealt a major blow to the media industry in 2020, but streaming platforms benefited tremendously as people could safely stay home and still see new movies. And while people did go back to theaters once it was safe to do so, it was in lesser numbers than before, leading many to speculate that the movie theater could be dying.
Now Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos has publicly shared some comments about the state of streaming and movie theaters, and longtime fans of going to the movies are probably not going to like what he had to say.
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos has a bold take on the movie theater industry.
Image source: Jemal Countess/Getty Images
Netflix’s CEO dismissed movie theaters
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos made an appearance at the Time100 Summit in New York this week, and he had some fiery comments at the ready during an interview with Time Magazine’s editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs.
When Jacobs asked Sarandos if filmmakers wanting to make films for movie theaters is an “outmoded idea,” Sarandos was quick to agree.
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“I think it is — for most people, not for everybody,” he said. “If you’re fortunate enough to live in Manhattan, and you can walk to a multiplex and see a movie, that’s fantastic. Most of the country cannot.”
Sarandos also pointed to consumer behavior as proof that streaming is now where trends lie.
“What is the consumer trying to tell us? That they’d like to watch movies at home, thank you,” he said. “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.”
Sarandos also had words of warning for Hollywood, saying it should not get “trapped” into assuming audiences want to see movies in theaters because that’s what the film industry wants.
Sarandos instead argued that Hollywood should adapt to the way in which audiences want to watch movies.
Struggles at the box office
While many people still enjoy going to the theater, the box office has never regained pre-pandemic numbers, when annual revenue was $11 billion and counting. In 2024, the box office took in roughly $8.75 billion, which is not only far shy of prior averages, but also a 3% drop from 2023.
The writer and actor strikes of 2024 also halted a lot of big films in their tracks, throwing off the flow of the industry.
Movie theater companies have found inventive ways to pivot and get customers coming back. An example is AMC’s viral novelty popcorn bucket push, which saw such popularity that AMC earned $54 million from it in 2023 alone. Now many theaters offer them for big releases, and it’s easy to see why.
