The News
Sorry, cinephiles: The post-Covid rebound of live events is all the more evidence that movie theaters are never coming back, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos told me in an interview at the Paley Center for Media Friday.
“Nearly every live thing has come back screaming,” Sarandos said. “Broadway’s breaking records right now, sporting events, concerts, all those things that we couldn’t do during COVID are all back and bigger than ever. The theatrical box office is down 40 to 50% from pre-COVID, and this year is down 8% already, so the trend is not reversing. You’ve gotta look at that and say, ‘What is the consumer trying to tell you?’”
Ben’s view
The trades picked up Sarandos’ line on Amazon’s Melania Trump doc (“For $40 million, I hope it’s great!”) and his denial that the president has had a chilling effect on programming.
I was also struck by Sarandos’ view of YouTube as a place to “cut your teeth on or develop an idea on” before coming to Netflix for better monetization — a view YouTube, which shares revenue directly with creators, would dispute.
He says he’s keeping an eye on creators in the “pro-am category that are making really interesting, compelling programming to watch, and YouTube doesn’t give them any money up front to make it, so they’re doing it all, all at their own risk.” The pitch: Come to Netflix, get paid, and de-risk.