Netflix Willing to Premiere Its Original Movies in Theaters

04/24/2017 12:52 pm EDT

It's safe to say that this Netflix has changed the entertainment industry, forever. After first catering to viewers' desire to have their movie/TV viewing experiences (literally) delivered to their doorstep, Netflix has broken the doors of digital streaming wide open. After that, the company has steadily grown its own lineup of acclaimed original programming - to the point that Netflix is now popular enough to rival any other network on cable or TV.

All of this success has been unprecedented - and it seems that Netflix is committed to fully flipping the game on its head, by reversing the usual order of things, and taking their original movies from the small screen to the big screen.

In a letter to shareholders, Netflix stated an open commitment to getting more of its original films into theaters. As the company sees it, doing so would only help theater chains, the very business model that has, ironically, been the most affected by Netflix's growth. As stated in the press release:

"Since our members are funding these films, they should be the first to see them. But we are also open to supporting the large theater chains, such as AMC and Regal in the US, if they want to offer our films, such as our upcoming Will Smith film Bright , in theatres simultaneous to Netflix. Let consumers choose."

The beautiful things about that letter, is that it serves at once as a friendly offer, and a backhanded threat. "Let consumers choose," is a nice touch, as you can almost hear the iron confidence the company has. Will viewers choose a theater, with gross sanitary conditions, rude patrons (on phones), outrageous princes and possibly fatal tragedy (theater shootings) as opposed to seeing the same movie, at the exact same time, in their home, for a subscription price they've already paid? Hmmm let's let them decide...

In any event, audiences who don't have Netflix would now have an option that could help them stay "in the know" when it comes to one of the most common pop-culture fixations of our time.

The aforementioned Will Smith Netflix movie Bright (directed by Suicide Squad's David Ayer) will be released in December.

Disclosure: ComicBook is owned by CBS Interactive, a division of Paramount. Sign up for Paramount+ by clicking here.

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