September 16, 2025
WRITTEN BY: BODE
One of the hottest acquisition titles to come out of the festival circuit in 2023 was Richard Linklater’s Hit Man, whose journey started at Venice and continued through the Toronto and New York Film Festivals. I went to a screening during TIFF’s second week, and I remember just how fun it was — especially with a packed audience that ate up every twisty, funny, and downright sexy moment. Although it had pre-sold to a bevy of international distributors, it had yet to land a U.S. distributor, often the first domino to fall. I came out of that screening, not necessarily hoping it would land a good distributor, but feeling that it would, and that it would get the kind of theatrical release a crowd-pleasing flick like it deserved. When it was reported that Netflix picked up the rights for most continents, my heart sank because theatrical isn’t in their business.
Streamers have maintained a healthy proliferation when it comes to original movies, with a good amount of their offerings staking claim as awards titles to watch every year. I can still remember when Netflix brought Beasts of No Nation to the fall festivals in 2015, and the level of controversy it generated within the industry due to its planned day-and-date release. It goes without saying that things have changed a lot since then. Just this year, Netflix, Amazon, and Apple all have several big titles from major filmmakers doing the festival rounds. Having seen some of these films already, I can certainly say that the theater should be your first engagement with them, not at home with a ton of distractions around you. However, since some of their theatrical release windows are either too short or too geographically limited, the only chance you may have to check them out on a big screen is if you’re at a major festival. That’s not entirely fair for film fans, and most importantly, it doesn’t give these movies the kind of shelf life they deserve.
With all that in mind, I want to make the case for why streamers need to get their tech-brained heads out of the algorithm and FULLY embrace the theatrical experience.
(MORE) MONEY
If there is one thing Silicon Valley loves, it’s money. Much like Hollywood, it makes their world go round. So, it’s puzzling to me that they wouldn’t want more of it.
Moviegoing obviously hasn’t been the same post-COVID. It’s not a weekly habit for the average person like it used to be, and it doesn’t help that fewer movies are being made by the major studios. That last point is important, because the likes of Netflix and Amazon have smartly built their original libraries by making the type of movies Hollywood used to make before they became obsessed with franchises and shared universes. That being said, there is more upside value (if more risk) to a theatrical release than there is for a straight-to-streaming title, which is typically less risky, but yields less profit.
Apple is learning this lesson as we speak with the success of F1, which has made over $600 million worldwide. Given that it has been such a financial hit, it’s all the more bizarre that Apple wouldn’t give Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest a similar theatrical run, especially since it reunites the filmmaker with Denzel Washington, still a reliable box office draw. The same could be said for Amazon, which despite its renewed commitment to theatrical after having purchased MGM, dropped films like You’re Cordially Invited and Heads of State (both odd couple comedies with big names) directly on their service. Had they been theatrical, they could’ve boosted the margins on weekend box offices that needed more product. Most importantly, the general public would’ve known these movies actually exist, which leads to my next point…
CULTURAL CACHE
Ted Sarandos, the co-CEO of Netflix, is known for saying a lot of nonsense regarding the theatrical experience. One of his more notable comments is stating that “Barbenheimer” would’ve been as big a cultural phenomenon had it been streaming-only. That simply isn’t true. In terms of cultural significance and awareness, theatrical releases still hold a cache that streaming-only releases struggle to grasp.
You can see those results on a weekly streaming chart, which typically features a few theatrical releases, many of which weren't box office hits at the time of release. Kevin Costner’s costly endeavour, Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1, was a box office flop last year. At the time, any hope of seeing the other chapters seemingly died. But when it hit Netflix in its second window after previously streaming on HBO Max, it became an out-of-nowhere streaming hit because its status as a theatrical release most likely generated more awareness and excitement than it would have received otherwise. Meanwhile, Zack Snyder’s also costly but direct-to-streaming Rebel Moon just kinda came and went since it didn’t have that theatrical clout.
Even though Netflix has millions upon millions of subscribers, that doesn’t inherently mean every big movie released directly on their service will have as big a cultural footprint as a genuine box office hit (or even a box office flop). Need more evidence? Netflix released Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F after acquiring it from Paramount in 2019. That is a major legacy sequel that probably could’ve been Eddie Murphy’s Top Gun: Maverick (and Lord knows we need more studio comedies in theatres where they belong). While people certainly watched the film over the July 4th weekend last year when it hit the streaming service, it felt as if no one talked about it afterwards. Similarly, Murphy — a bonafide comedy icon people seem to be clamoring for a comeback from — has had a string of straight-to-streaming movies for both Netflix and Prime Video since 2019, and other than Dolemite is My Name, I can’t recall anyone talking about those either.
STREAMING ISN’T A REPLACEMENT
From the moment Netflix bulldozed their way into entertainment with their own original content, setting the sea of change that’s still in effect today, it has always resisted the traditional approach. They popularized the binge method for TV. They made day-and-date releases bigger than they ever had been. They helped propagate the end of physical media, the very thing it built its empire on, by shuttering that part of its service in 2023.
While streaming services are an extremely convenient tool, that’s mostly all they are: a convenience. Like most technology, we shouldn’t treat them as a replacement for the tried-and-true traditional methods. Netflix sees things differently, though. Unlike Amazon and Apple, their occasional about-faces notwithstanding, it’s clear that Netflix sees theatrical as a threat to their business model. It’s one thing to state that it simply isn’t their approach — Sarandos has been very consistent about that over the years — but it is hard for me to not put on my conspiracy hat when I think about the moment he was quoted as saying the theatrical model is “an outdated concept.”
It doesn’t help that when they seemed open to the idea of a proper theatrical release, even partnering with the major chains, they quickly went back to their stubborn ways. I’m referring, of course, to their handling of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. Despite its success on fewer than 1,000 screens over the Thanksgiving holiday and popular demand to extend its run before it hit the site in December, Netflix stuck to their original plan. Not only did that arguably leave tons of money on the table, but it made the sequel to one of 2019’s most successful movies feel like less of an event. Had director Rian Johnson stuck with Lionsgate, who released the original film, we all know things would have gone down a lot differently.
Look, I remember rolling my eyes at all the worry within the industry at the time, especially since simultaneous releases had existed for almost a decade at that point without threatening the business whatsoever. But that was 2015, when moviegoing was still at its peak, regardless of the size or genre of the film. It’s 2025 now. Netflix’s resistance to movie theaters may not have been alarming then, but there is an argument to be made that the alarm bells are ringing now given that they’ve released plenty of movies that likely would have done well in theaters. In the next few months, Netflix has Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein and Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, not to mention Noah Baumbach’s star-studded dramedy Jay Kelly and Kathryn Bigelow’s latest thriller, A House of Dynamite. These are showy titles worthy for a proper theatrical release, but, of course, they won’t get one. Given their limited screens and the number of days they’re in the cinema (the latter of which is why major theatre chains like AMC and Cineplex refuse to show Netflix films), their quick-hitter theatrical releases are nothing more but press for their eventual streaming releases and an attempt to qualify for awards season.
It’s truly a shame, too, because there’s still no better way to watch a movie than in a theatre. It’s not just about quality or community. It’s also about choice and accessibility. It’s about ensuring that there’s still a future for the big screen, no matter how much things change.