A new report suggests American cinema chains aren’t happy with Netflix and IMAX teaming up for Greta Gerwig’s Narnia film. More on that below.
Greta Gerwig is busy working on her The Chronicles Of Narnia films for Netflix, the first of which is set to debut in late 2026. It’s been known for a while that Gerwig is keen to see the film have a theatrical release and Netflix has made a deal with IMAX, ensuring a two-week exclusive release window for the film.
Just last week, an IMAX boss said the company was not in a hurry to make a similar deal with Netflix any time soon. Our very own Simon Brew concluded that such comments from IMAX might indicate that the deal was a more complex one than publicly said, and that other exhibitors might not be happy about the deal that would push out any other films from IMAX screens.
It seems Simon was right. Puck has published a report about the amount of resistance Netflix and IMAX are facing from studios and cinema chains themselves. Disney is said to be particularly against the deal as the studio often releases their films in IMAX.
“Rich [Gelfond, IMAX CEO] did this on his own without consulting any of his [studio] partners,” an insider told Puck. “They gave Netflix a two-week exclusive even though the other studios provide movies to them 52 weeks a year.”
The report also claims that several American cinema chains are considering simply not playing the film in their IMAX screens, effectively boycotting it. IMAX licences their technology out to the cinemas, but the specific films booked in are still in the hands of the cinemas themselves. Netflix rarely gives its original films theatrical releases, so one of their films taking up all the IMAX screens for two weeks has proven to be a controversial move.
If that were to happen, IMAX apparently has a “nuclear option” that would essentially force the cinemas to show Narnia. Anything with the term “nuclear” doesn’t exactly sound good, though, does it?
Puck asked IMAX directly about it and the company provided the following statement: “Under our theater agreements, IMAX requires exhibitors to play the films we format and program. Our ability to curate our programming is what makes us valuable to exhibitors, filmmakers, and studios, and delivers a return on investment with our theaters worldwide.”
Narnia’s IMAX run seems to be secured, but how it will go in reality is anyone’s guess at this point. The film’s release is still a while away and anything can change at this point.
We’ll bring you more on The Chronicles Of Narnia and its IMAX release as we hear it.
