Dan Lin is out as film boss at Netflix in what has been largely speculated for weeks. Insiders at the streamer have denied that Dan Lin and even Bela Bajaria were on the chopping block, but here we are.
Lin’s firing comes in the wake of Netflix making 1,000 pink-slips given their recent slow growth, and minimal overall viewership spike. Many were shocked when the ax swung last week and it missed Lin’s head, landing on his lieutenant co-head of film, Doug Belgrad. It was seen that Belgrad was an extra layer at the top of Netflix’s film brass that could easily be let go, dollar wise. Lin was expected to be safe until Bajaria’s replacement arrived on Oct. 26, Peter Rice. It was at that point in time that the exec was going to assess the situation.
At Saturday night’s Academy Museum Gala cocktails, we caught up with Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos and asked if more cuts were coming. In what seemed like a polite dodge, he just winked and stepped away. Interpret that as you may.
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All of this boils down to: Netflix, what is it you exactly want? All of streaming has turned into basic cable as we get farther away from Covid. They looked to Lin in April 2024 post Scott Stuber in order to ratchet down the quantity of features and at a lower cost. Lin did exactly what they asked, steering away from overpriced $200M-plus, non downstream features like Red Notice, The Irishman and The Electric State. However, he had a no-nonsense approach to filmmakers. He had no problem reportedly pushing back on prestige content creators like Greta Gerwig and Ben Affleck. During the Lin regime, one source told us that relationships with filmmakers were fraying. Recently, The Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth filmmaker David Fincher opted not to renew his longtime exclusive contract with the streamer.
During Lin’s run Netflix saw their most viewed movie of all-time, Sony’s Kpop Demon Hunters (325.1M global views). However, that was greenlit under the previous Stuber administration. Lin and Belgrad’s bragging rights include War Machine ($80M production cost, 147M views), animated movie Swapped (144.9M views, which broke into the streamer’s top 10 of all-time), The Rip ($100M production cost, 136M views), Happy Gilmore 2 (135.1M), Apex (129M), Thrash (100M views) and People We Meet on Vacation ($14M production cost, 77.1M). Still there wasn’t a consistent reseeding of the Top 10 Most Popular list like there was during the Stuber era.
The Mike and Pam Of It All
After being passed over by Skydance for top jobs at the new Paramount Warner Bros. post-merger, we hear that former WB Motion Picture Bosses Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy are in the home stretch this week of finalizing the payout of their WB contracts by David Ellison. Until they’re closed, they can’t entertain any job offers. Those close to De Luca tell us he’d have no problems reporting into Rice if offered the job, however, Netflix would need to make a fire-breathing commitment to theatrical. The notion of a 45-day theatrical window to streaming isn’t a prospect that De Luca (and Abdy) could make to the filmmakers they’ve worked with, i.e. Ryan Coogler, Paul Thomas Anderson, Ridley Scott. The notion that the duo are bound to raise capital for their own feature operation seems like the more practical future for them.
If Sarandos and Rice bring the filmmaker-friendly duo in, the question is whether they’ll put any guardrails on them. When it came to De Luca and Abdy justifying the lofty costs for Anderson’s One Battle After Another, Coogler’s Sinners, Tom Cruise’s Digger and so on, David Zaslav didn’t blink an eye. Will Sarandos allow them the same greenlight independence he granted Stuber? Or will he expect them to count coins like Lin? Riddle us that, Mr. Sarandos.
“Netflix isn’t a place where they talk about film,” says one creator who has worked with them, “They’re all about the process, the algorithm and breaking the code, which still makes Lin a good workhorse for them as he’s also about process.”
There’s a rumor out there, and that is despite the notion that De Luca and Abdy are always joined at the hip, historically they haven’t been. Some believe there’s a world that Abdy could entertain an offer sans De Luca from Netflix once her WB contract is paid out. “Sure, there is a world where that could happen,” says one source with knowledge of the situation.
But still, no matter how the greenlight process is improved at Netflix, there’s a new sign of the times for the streamer.
“If you want to know where the young crowd is looking, Meta just introduced Muse. People are heading back to cinemas, and streaming has become basic cable,” said one Netflix vet, “They can change shuffle as many executives as they want, and it still won’t make a difference.”
Sources in the know have confirmed Lin’s firing to us.
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