Citing a lack of growth, streaming giant Netflix is to cut 1,000 jobs with film chief Dan Lin among the latest to go. Update: Among the huge 1,000-worker staff cut Netflix announced last week, we can now add film chief Dan Lin. A somewhat controversial figure, Lin replaced Scott Stuber in early 2024, and immediately ... Netflix film chief Dan Lin among company’s huge staff cut
Citing a lack of growth, streaming giant Netflix is to cut 1,000 jobs with film chief Dan Lin among the latest to go.
Update: Among the huge 1,000-worker staff cut Netflix announced last week, we can now add film chief Dan Lin. A somewhat controversial figure, Lin replaced Scott Stuber in early 2024, and immediately set about reducing budgets on its movies, and earlier this year, told the New York Times, “There is a group of filmmakers who still want theatrical. Those are filmmakers that we’ve accepted we just won’t work with.
More recently, there were rumours of a falling out between Lin and David Fincher, with the latter opting not to renew his contract with Netflix in the new year – thus ending a decade-long relationship that brought forth the likes of House Of Cards, Mindhunter, The Killer and the forthcoming The Further Mis-Adventures Of Cliff Booth.
Netflix’s subscriber numbers have slowed of late, however, triggering a huge round of layoffs both among staff and the streaming firm’s executives. Before Lin, vice president of film Doug Belgrad (see below) and chief content officer Bela Bajaria were let go. Bajaria was the exec who hired Lin in the first place.
Of his departure, Lin said, in a statement published by The Hollywood Reporter, “It’s been a great privilege to lead this incredible team and work with amazing filmmakers and talent to bring their movies to the world. Thank you to Ted, Greg [Peters] and Bela for the opportunity.”
Our original story follows…
15th October 2026: Netflix is, of course, massive, its business currently worth about $300bn on the stock market. But it’s not growing more massive quickly enough for its shareholders, and so now the streaming firm is undergoing a drastic restructure.
That restructure means the loss of hundreds of jobs – around 1,000 workers are to go according to Netflix itself, as it cites slowing growth as a reason for the cuts.
“Overall, we’re not growing as fast as I want us to,” Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos said last month, “and we’re working on making that move faster.”
The cutting of 1,000 staff represents roughly six percent of Netflix’s workforce, and is perhaps the largest bout of losses in the company’s history. According to The AV Club, around 450 to 500 people lost their jobs in the last major round of redundancies in 2022. Those losses will be particularly felt in the streamer’s “product, tech, legal, and HR teams” per The Hollywood Reporter.
A couple of executives have also been swept up in the restructure. Sheroum Kim, who’s been director of independent films since 2019, is to go, as is features manager Sebastian Hernandez, according to Deadline.
Film division vice president Doug Belgrad is one surprise departure; an executive at Sony (he was president of Columbia Pictures for a while), he joined Netflix in 2024 and worked closely with its film division chairman Dan Lin.
Netflix’s share prices have tumbled over recent months, which is perhaps a reaction to the company’s failure to acquire Warner Bros (Skydance elbowed its way in at the eleventh hour with a vast offer to Warner’s shareholders) and growing competition from YouTube.
“We know changes like this are tough, but let’s stay focused,” a memo to staff from Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters, quoted by THR, read. “This is one of the most dynamic times in the history of entertainment – and it’s a moment perfectly suited to a company like ours that’s built at the intersection of technology and entertainment. Now it’s on us to step up and meet the moment, together, like we always do.”
It’s said that management will be informing affected workers of their fate “soon” according to the BBC.
