Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos believes there is “no reason to believe” Barbie and Oppenheimer couldn’t do just as well on the streaming service.
There’s no doubt that Barbie and Oppenheimer are two of the biggest movies of 2023. Barbie grossed nearly $1.5 billion worldwide, making it the year’s highest-grossing film, with Oppenheimer just $500 million behind in third place—not to mention all the awards it’s won. The two films also clearly promoted each other, as they came out on the same day, leading to the Barbenheimer meme. It’s been a big summer for movie theaters, and people are making a big deal of watching both movies back-to-back, a feat that’s impossible to replicate but clearly done for the joy of going to the theater. For some reason, Sarandos still thinks they’ll do just as well on Netflix.
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Netflix CEO recently gave an interview to the New York Times, where he talked about all things streaming, including Barbie and Oppenheimer. Sarandos said in the interview: “Both of those movies would be great for Netflix. They would have the same audience on Netflix. So I don’t think there’s any reason to believe that certain types of movies will succeed or fail. There’s no reason to believe that movies themselves are better for everyone on any size screen. My son is an editor. He’s 28 years old, and he watched Lawrence of Arabia on his phone. But it’s a funny thing. Every new technology development brings benefits to the audience.”
Now, the question is, is Teddy — is Teddy okay? That can’t be true. Event movies like Barbie and Oppenheimer wouldn’t be as popular on streaming and wouldn’t be as enduring at the box office, culturally speaking. Netflix has made little to no impact during awards season so far, and while I know awards aren’t everything and there are issues surrounding the rules around them, it does go to show you the cultural influence Netflix has.
Teddy, you can fool yourself all you want, but people sometimes like to go to the cinema, especially to see a movie like Barbie.
