Ted Sarandos Denies ‘Narnia’ Imax Release Is Change To Netflix’s Theatrical Strategy

Greta Gerwig’s Narnia film is getting a two-week, global run in Imax theaters next year.

However, don’t get too happy that this is a change to Netflix’s stance on theatrical runs for its original movies.

Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos said that there is “no change at all to our theatrical strategy”.

“Our core strategy is to give our members exclusive first round movies on Netflix. The Narnia Imax release is a release tactic. We routinely release movies and theaters a couple of weeks before to qualify for awards, to meet festival requirements and to prime the publicity pump a bit. In the case of Narnia, it’s a two-week special event, I think it’s very differentiated from other runs, because I doubt anyone has a screen as big as an Imax screen at home,” he said on the company’s fourth quarter financial call.

Narnia will release in Imax on Thanksgiving Day 2026 and debut on Netflix on Christmas Day 2026. The film, which is based on C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia series, has been long in the works after the streamer announced it would develop projects in this universe in 2018 and brought Gerwig on board in 2020.

Sarandos added that by doing it with Imax, it “greatly simplifies our release process”.

“Mostly, I want to say I’m incredibly excited to be working with Greta on this movie. We’re super excited to get it into production so we can talk about how great this movie is, more so than which screens it’s on. She’s an incredible director, and this is a really exciting project,” he added.