April has been a record-breaking month for box offices, with A Minecraft Movie currently on track to be the first film this year to reach $1 billion, and the R-rated Sinners notching the biggest opening weekend for an original film since 2019’s Us. It has been a busy time at the multiplex as movie fans of all ages have seemingly found something to watch, with healthy ticket sales helping to boost not only theaters but the film industry as a whole.
However, if you ask Ted Sarandos, the co-CEO ofNetflix, the real magic of the movies is nowhere near a theater.
The executive, who spoke recently at a Time 100 event (perThe Guardian), implied that the very concept of seeing films in cinemas is obsolete, saying “I believe it is an outmoded idea, for most people.” He then added that Netflix is “saving Hollywood” by securing an audience for films at home because that’s the only place people really want to watch movies.
I think anyone whowatched The Electric Statewould disagree that Netflix is “saving” anything.
Snark aside, Sarandos choosing now to say this seems especially strange, as strong box office performance helps Netflix in the long run. When movies are successful in theaters, folks naturally want to revisit them at home. 2024’s Moana 2 is a perfect example of this. After scoring the biggest theatrical opening in Walt Disney Animation Studios’ history, the film was released four months later on Disney+, and notched a colossal 27.3 million views globally on the streamerin its first five days, making it the third-largest animated theatrical premiere of all time on Disney+ (perDisney)
I don’t understand Sarandos' logic here in trying to create a narrative about the future viability of the theater experience, especially when box office numbers are so healthy and data shows that big theatrical blockbusters almost always turn into surefire streaming hits.
Granted, this is just the latest in a string ofweird statements from Netflix executives, so maybe Netflix is just trying to keep themselves in the news cycle. I’m here typing about it, so in that way, perhaps this latest, clearly untrue statement was actually effective at achieving what it was actually designed to do.
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Andor returns to Disney+ for a binge-able final season
Get ready for three hours of Star Wars every Tuesday.
One of my most-anticipated shows of the year is the final season of Andor, and after a long three years Disney+ finally dropped the first three episodes this past week. As expected, the series has made a major jump forward in time, and is dealing with some heavy subjects that have seldom been explored in the Star Wars galaxy.
However, as with the first season, the series is following a bit of an unconventional release schedule, with three episodes dropping at a time. This means next week, episodes 4–6 will drop on April 29, Episodes 7–9 will then hit the service on May 6, and the final three episodes will debut May 13. It’s an interesting mix between Netflix’s erstwhile binge-all-at-once strategy and Disney+’s weekly releases, but it seems to be keeping this show’s momentum moving in a very positive way, and I for one, can’t wait to see what surprises are in store as we head full steam ahead towards the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
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The Last of Us finally goes there
If you made it to last week’s episode without spoilers, congratulations
The Last Of Us
When The Last of Us was surprisingly renewed for a third season a few weeks ago, I was worried that this meant that HBO would be padding out the beginning of The Last of Us 2 game to give fans more time with star Pedro Pascal’s grizzled version of Joel. However, I was more than happy to be wrong as this week’s episode saw Joel meet his fate in pretty graphic fashion.
Though a lot was changed in terms of the structure of how this iconic game moment went down, I was happy to see that the folks behind this show weren’t afraid to go for broke during this scene, and the performances by not only Pascal but also Bella Ramsey and Kaitlyn Dever were truly top-notch this week. I was definitely a little skeptical going into this season that this show would be able to maintain the quality of season 1, but thus far it seems my fears were unfounded, and I’m happy to report that The Last of Us season 2 remains one of the best shows on TV.
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