Netflix Co-CEO Thinks Phone Screens Are Just As Good As Theater Screens

By: Dominic La-Viola

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos says BARBIE and

OPPENHEIMER would have been just as big on Netflix.

“There’s no reason to believe that the movie itself is better in any size of screen for all people. My son’s an editor, he watched ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ on his phone.”

via @nytimes

This is one of the many posts I’ve seen since the news broke that WB accepted the mostly cash offer from Netflix. 

To which, honestly at first I was excited for, before seeing this, that is.

I for sure thought that if Netflix bought out WB, it was going to be to leverage its marketing and distribution departments to help Netflix in the next steps of getting into the theatrical release aspect of the business.

For in the past few years Netflix has been releasing some of its films into theaters, even the ones in which aren’t Oscar contenders. 

“Wake Up Dead: A Knives Out Mystery” isn’t by any means an Oscar contender. Now “Frankenstein”, “Left Handed Girl”, or “House of Dynamite” could very well be Oscar contenders. So them having been released in theaters to meet the quota for competing in the awards made sense. 

Although, after hearing this, that not only doesn’t seem to be their plan. Yet the opposite, doubling down on their streaming-only efforts. 

Of course, personally, I think anyone who believes what Co-CEO Ted Sarandos says or something along those lines doesn’t belong working in the film industry. 

The merger is set for late 2026, of course it still needs to get approval to go through. As many in LA are fighting it and pushing for the merger to be shut down. 

The Disney/ Fox merger went through, so I don’t see this being stopped.  Of course unless after this news and statement from the Co-CEO there was a mass cancellation of Netflix subscriptions, bringing down their stock value and ability to acquire said funds to back its offer.