Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos Claims Company Is "Saving Hollywood" By Not Embracing Theatrical Releases
Ted Sarandos, the CEO of Netflix, recently shared that his company is “saving Hollywood” by not releasing films into theaters.
Deadline’s Tom Tapp reports that Sarandos made this claim during an appearance at the Time100 Summit.
When asked if Netflix has destroyed Hollywood, Sarandos shared, “No, we’re saving Hollywood.”
He explained that the company is “a very consumer-focused company. We deliver the program to you in a way you want to watch it.”
Specifically referring to lower box office grosses, Sarandos said, “What is the consumer trying to tell us? That they’d like to watch movies at home.”
Furthermore, he claimed watching movies in theaters is outdated, “I believe it is an outmoded idea, for most people — not for everybody.”
Box office grosses peaked in 2018 with a total of $11.9 billion at the domestic box office and 1.3 billion tickets sold. However, ticket sales and grosses had been pretty flat for the entire decade up to that point. And if you factor in inflation, the grosses were clearly down.
For example, the $10.6 billion gross in 2009 would have been $12.6 billion in 2019 dollars. That’s a 11% decline in grosses. Even worse is that tickets sold had decline by over 13%.
2009: $10,639,257,284 and 1,418,567,388 tickets sold.
2010: $10,484,135,922 and 1,328,787,540 tickets sold.
2011: $10,173,523,046 and 1,282,915,590 tickets sold.
2012: $11,007,413,639 and 1,382,840,535 tickets sold.
2013: $10,887,424,599 and 1,339,166,251 tickets sold.
2014: $10,272,368,746 and 1,257,327,489 tickets sold.
2015: $11,268,754,656 and 1,336,743,967 tickets sold.
2016: $11,267,587,337 and 1,302,610,878 tickets sold.
2017: $10,995,091,460 and 1,225,762,392 tickets sold.
2018: $11,948,302,425 and 1,311,558,716 tickets sold.
2019: $11,226,168,620 and 1,225,563,974 tickets sold.
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The theater business cratered in 2020 with many theaters shutting down due to the Covid panic and it has not recovered since. In 2020 domestic theaters only grossed a total of $2 billion and only sold 219.9 million tickets. In fact, after rallying to nearly $9 billion in grosses and 819 million tickets sold in 2023, the industry shrunk in 2024 to just $8.6 billion and 762 million tickets sold.
2020: $2,019,481,070 and 219,986,842 tickets sold.
2021: $4,518,029,580 and 444,250,543 tickets sold.
2022: $7,395,994,572 and 702,373,460 tickets sold.
2023: $8,963,217,610 and 819,306,691 tickets sold.
2024: $8,620,046,749 and 762,161,238 tickets sold.
2025: $2,079,579,617 and 183,870,865 tickets sold.
If the industry maintains the current pace it is on now, it’s likely to only gross around $6.5 billion. However, it’s likely that number could be higher given summer months usually overperform at the box office.
For example, in 2009 grosses hit $4.3 billion. In 2023, the summer months grossed just over $4 billion nearly half of the entire year’s gross.
What do you make of Sarandos’ comments?
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Netflix is where IPs go to die. They are not saving anything.
No, I think a lot more people would be willing to go to a theater and watch a movie on the big screen if what was on offer wasn't complete and total garbage. Even what Netflix has to offer is mostly garbage. If they didn't have ads and some of the live sporting events like WWE, I don't think they'd survive.