Ted Sarandos states "Netflix is saving Hollywood" while theaters are "an outmoded idea" for some audiences (2025)

The great debate rages on as movie theaters struggle to compete with streaming content. While movie fans clamor for more original films and fewer tentpole franchises, movies like Mickey 17 and Horizon: An American Saga, which were non-sequel, non-franchise properties, ended up performing well below expectations at the box office. Even big-name films like Snow White are not reaching the heights that Disney can usually count on. On the flip side, A Minecraft Movie is doing gangbusters and the new original genre picture from Ryan Coogler, Sinners, is also performing well with a hard R rating that is usually seen as something that minimizes audiences. As things look bleak in Hollywood, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos recently spoke at the Time100 Summit, where he conveyed that the streamer is the saving grace for the film industry.

According to Deadline, the CEO was asked if Netflix was destroying Hollywood and he countered with, “No, we’re saving Hollywood.” He described the movie and TV streaming platform as “a very consumer-focused company. We deliver the program to you in a way you want to watch it.” Pointing to the slew of underperforming films as of late, Sarandos asks, “What is the consumer trying to tell us?” To which he answers, “That they’d like to watch movies at home.”

Sarandos says that he, like a lot of people, was a fan of the movie-going experience, but he also feels like the gears look to be shifting, “I believe it is an outmoded idea, for most people — not for everybody.”

He recently compared the watching habits of audiences while on Tom Papa and Fortune Feimster’s podcast,What a Joke with Tom and Fortune. The Netflix CEO would praise the unique experience that going to the cinema can bring – but couldn’t help himself from saying that it’s a good thing that’s not the only way to see a movie. As he noted,“Most people don’t live anywhere near a movie theater. So this idea, and an interesting fact is that the average American consumer sees two movies a year in a movie theater. The average Netflix member watches seven movies a month.”He added,“Behaviors evolve. Consumer behavior changes. I do think there’s something very special about it, but thank God it’s not the only way I can see a movie.”