Netflix’s hostility to cinematic releases has long chilled its relationships with theater owners. But Ted Sarandos, the streaming giant’s co-chief executive, appears to be trying to thaw them.
Mr. Sarandos showed up on Sunday at Cinemacon, the annual Las Vegas convention for theater owners, for the first time, according to four people with knowledge of the meetings. He held two separate meetings with the top domestic and international theater owners, the people said.
The meetings were more about building good will than deal making, two of the people said. They were scheduled when Netflix was still pursuing its $83 billion deal to buy a large portion of Warner Bros. Discovery’s business, including HBO and the Warner Bros. movie studio. At the time Netflix was openly courting cinema owners with promises to show the studio’s films in theaters, before it backed out of the bid in February.
Mr. Sarandos’s decision to keep the meetings raises questions about how movie theaters fit into Netflix’s plans for the future. Until its bid for Warner Bros., the company had repeatedly shown that it would not commit to the business of releasing films in cinemas.
Netflix declined to comment on Monday.
In each conversation at Cinemacon, Mr. Sarandos made remarks and then engaged in an informal Q&A with theater owners, two people said. The parties talked about what worked in the past year, primarily two “stunts” that Netflix and many theater chains across the country orchestrated in 2025 that brought in extra revenue for cinemas.
One was releasing “KPop Demon Hunters” as a singalong experience over two separate weekends. The other was a special New Year’s Eve release of the two-hour “Stranger Things” finale in over 500 theaters, a deal that gave theater owners a $25 million boost in concession sales.
One participant said Mr. Sarandos questioned the validity of giving any exclusivity to movie theaters. Another said the meeting was more about Netflix’s plans for the future, should the streaming giant choose to acquire another traditional studio.
The groups also discussed the upcoming release of Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of “Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew.” The film is set to debut in IMAX theaters on Thanksgiving for two weeks ahead of its Christmas release on Netflix.
The deal upset many theater owners, who felt that the two-week exclusivity period was not long enough. But they did not get the chance to weigh in: IMAX negotiated the terms directly with Netflix, and the theater chains that lease or buy the IMAX equipment are contractually obligated to uphold them.
Tim Richards, the chief executive of VUE, Europe’s largest privately owned cinema operator, last year publicly called the deal a “restrictive model” that “risks undermining the very ecosystem that makes theatrical success possible.”
According to one person in the room on Sunday, Mr. Sarandos said that he couldn’t give theater owners the movie earlier than Thanksgiving because it wouldn’t be ready in time.
Also in attendance at the meetings was Netflix’s head of theatrical distribution, Spencer Klein, the four people said. He has been with the company since 2019 and oversees theatrical movie strategy.
Mr. Klein, who has spent his career working for movie theaters and traditional studios, has become something of a punching bag for theater owners frustrated by Mr. Sarandos’s unwillingness to play by their rules.
That acrimony came to a head in 2022, when the top three theater circuits, AMC, Regal and Cinemark, agreed to a plan to play “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” in 600 theaters for one week before the movie began streaming on Netflix a month later. Cineworld’s chief executive at the time, Mooky Greidinger, called it a “breakthrough.”
The move was an experiment to prove to Mr. Sarandos that theatrical distribution would help his movies perform better on Netflix and also make them a bigger part of the cultural conversation. But days after the agreements were signed, Mr. Sarandos said on a Netflix earnings call that the company wouldn’t change its distribution plans.
Soon after, Mr. Klein attended the theater confab ShowEast. According to two people who were there, he endured a slew of tirades from theater owners who felt undercut by Mr. Sarandos’s remarks.
Whether Mr. Sarandos’s appearance at Cinemacon will make Mr. Klein’s job easier remains to be seen, but one theater owner compared Mr. Klein to St. Jude, the patron saint of lost causes.
Nicole Sperling covers Hollywood and the streaming industry. She has been a reporter for more than two decades.
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