Netflix’s Ted Sarandos Is Wrong, Going to the Movies is Not an Outdated Experience

Hollywood woke to entertainment world rattling news on Friday when it was announced that, after a heated bidding war involving just about every power player in the industry, Netflix had emerged victorious and had entered into exclusive negotiations to purchase Warner Bros. for just shy of $83 billion. The deal, which has a number of regulatory hurdles to clear, has been met with a wide range of reactions both within the entertainment industry and from consumers as well. Many of the unions representing industry professionals have expressed concern about the merger, with the Writers Guild of America in particular calling for the deal to be blocked, while others have big questions about what Netflix controlling Warner Bros. means for movies — particularly for theatrical release.

It’s those questions and concerns about movies and theaters that has seen the recirculation of quotes from Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, that are sparking concern throughout the industry as well as among fans of movies and the moviegoing experience. Back in April, Sarandos was asked at the Time100 Summit if Netflix had destroyed Hollywood. He went on to explain that they were saving Hollywood — but then went on to claim that going to the movies is “an outdated concept” and an “outmoded idea”. He further suggested that the struggling box office is proof people would prefer to watch movies at home

With Netflix being in the business of streaming, it may make business sense for Sarandos to think that way, but it doesn’t make the sentiment true. Sarandos is wrong about going to the movies being outdated — and it’s a lesson Netflix hopefully will learn before they are in charge of the studio behind some of the biggest films in cinematic history.

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Sarandos’ Idea of “Going to the Movies” Has Never Been Universal

One of the things that jumps out about Sarandos’ comments about the moviegoing experience being outdated and outmoded is that his idea of how it works is one that is very specific — and even at that, not particularly accurate. When Sarandos was asked if he felt that filmmakers wanting to make movies specifically for theaters was an “outmoded idea”, he said he thinks it is and then gave reasoning based on the idea of being able to walk to the theater to see the movie.

“I think it is — for most people, not everybody,” he said. “If you’re fortunate to live enough in Manhattan and you can walk to a multiplex and see a movie, that’s fantastic. Most of the country cannot.”

The comment suggests that only people able to walk to their local theater enjoy going to the movies. That’s a concept that has never been how most people access movie theaters. Even back in the day of the one-screen movie houses on town squares, most people had to drive or use other forms of transportation to come into town to see the picture show. The dawn of the multiplex made going to the movies a much larger social experience, with multiplexes often connected to shopping malls or other retail centers, meaning that audiences could turn a trip to the movies into a full-on experience. Even in Manhattan, people still take transit to get to their movie theaters. Dismissing going to the movies as being outdated because you just can’t walk to something nearby belies a grave misunderstanding of how it functionally works.

But let’s give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe what he’s trying to say is that people don’t want to go out of their way to see movies in theaters, but that isn’t true either. The summer 2023 phenomenon that was “Barbenheimer” is proof of that. In case you somehow forgot, moviegoers turned the release of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie (the latter of which was a Warner Bros. movie, by the way) into a cultural event. Audiences went out of their way to watch the films back-to-back in a strange sort of double feature (hence “Barbenheimer”). That’s not something that happened by strolling up to a theater.

Sarandos Is Wrong About What the Box Office is Saying, Too

One of the other comments that Sarandos made in that sit-down was that the struggling box office is proof that going to the movies is an outdated concept. He said, “What does that say? What is the consumer trying to tell us? That they’d like to watch movies at home, thank you. 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.”

But that isn’t exactly reflective of consumer concerns, either. If you glance at social media, when people talk about the reasons they don’t go to the movies or air their complaints about the moviegoing experience, the frequently come down not to having a preference for watching movies at home, but to the cost of going to the theater. You frequently see people talking about how expensive it can be to go to the movies — particularly for families and especially if you buy drinks and snacks as part of the experience.

Of course, that’s not quite a gotcha against movies, either. Consumers also regularly have concerns about the ever-rising costs of streaming services as well. All of the streamers, Netflix included, have increased their subscription prices a few times in recent years while also tightening access restrictions and users haven’t been happy about it. There has been plenty of complaining on social media about that expense, too, with people even talking about dropping various services over cost. By Sarandos’ own logic, a drop in Netflix subscribers would be proof that streaming was an outdated concept, would it not? Correlation, as they say, does not always imply causation so it’s probably smart to not just assume that a struggling box office means movie theaters are out of style. There’s more to it.

Streaming and Theaters Both Have a Place (And Netflix Has a Real Chance to Find the Balance With Warner Bros)

The reality is this: the way we watch movies has changed over the years and it will continue to change. Before streaming, cable offered consumers a way to watch movies at home. Before that, there was home video. Eventually, something will come along that will challenge streaming and the entire system will evolve again. For now, both streaming and theaters have a place and where Netflix has a real chance to set themselves apart — from Paramount, from Disney, from any other competitor in the ever-crowded yet shrinking entertainment world — to find the balance. With the purchase of Warner Bros. and potentially leaning into that studios’ theatrical arm, Netflix could become a real powerhouse unlike anything we’ve ever seen. And isn’t that the real goal of any merger such as this?

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