Netflix and Greta Gerwig’s Narnia film is getting two weeks on IMAX screens next year – but there are fresh hints it was a complex deal.
Greta Gerwig now seems to be firmly on board the planned new take on CS Lewis’s The Chronicles Of Narnia. She’s going to direct the movie, which Netflix is intending to spend a lot of money on, and have ready for release in December 2026.
Gerwig signed on to direct the Narnia adaptation – possibly two of them – before she’d hit big with Barbie. The rumour mill then suggested that Netflix’s refusal to give the film a theatrical release would lead to her departing. Then there was talk of an IMAX outing too, which is fresh territory for the cinema-averse Netflix. But it looked like everything we sorted, and Narnia will get a two-week exclusive run on IMAX screens.
Yet in an earnings call, IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond told investors that “I’ve talked to Netflix about this, and I think in general they are excited as we are to do it”, before lining up the sting: “we are not in a rush to do another one tomorrow. I think the factors have to come into place that work for everyone.”
The IMAX/Netflix deal, he also admitted, was one that took “a pretty long time” to finally get together. “Obviously there’s a lot of different constituencies with different agendas that go in there.”
He explained that the deal ended up being a fairly complex one, adding that they needed to come up with something that “would work for the exhibitors, that would work for Greta, that would work for Netflix, that would work for a lot of people”.
It’s easy to read too much into statements like that, but it does mirror the murmurings of unrest from other distributors who more loyally support theatrical releases. Have they been squeezed out for two weeks, as part of a fairly token gesture from Netflix towards big screen releasing?
Netflix boss Ted Sarandos has hardly suggested it isn’t, calling the plan to give Narnia a cinema outing “a release tactic” designed to make the film eligible for awards, and to give the movie a bit more of a publicity push. It’s hard to imagine similar words out of, say, Christopher Nolan’s mouth on one of his films.
IMAX and Netflix currently have no plans for an exclusivity window for the upcoming Adam Sandler comedy Happy Gilmore 2, incidentally.
