Ted Sarandos, the co-chief executive of Netflix, sent shock waves through the entertainment world last month when his company announced a $83 billion deal to buy Warner Bros Discovery’s movie and TV business. The deal elicited a strong – and largely negative – reaction within Hollywood. It also upset the plans of Paramount, which had been aggressively pursuing a deal for all of Warner Bros. Paramount is still aiming to buy the company, launching a hostile bid and threatening a board fight.

Netflix wants to “win the box office,” Ted said, adding that Warner Bros films will retain the existing 45-day theatrical window.

In an interview to The New York Times, Ted explained that they had held a lot of assumptions that weren’t necessarily true and shared, “The general economics of the theatrical business were more positive than we had seen and (what) we had modelled for ourselves. I think we’ve got to take ownership of the idea that when people are excited to go out and see something, they go. You’ve seen some really nice upside at the box office this year. They saw it in our Stranger Things finale experience. You give people a reason to leave the house, they will gladly leave the house.”

Discussing the harsh reaction to the deal in Hollywood, Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s co-chief executive said, “A lot of it was folks who questioned, rightfully so, our intent with theatrical because we hadn’t said anything about it. A lot of it was the emotions around that more than anything else. We had a lot of assumptions that weren’t necessarily true. We weren’t in the theatrical business not because we hated it. We weren’t in that business because our business was doing so well. I understand that folks are emotional about it because they love it and they don’t want it to go away. And they think that we’ve been doing things to make it go away. We haven’t.”

In 2022, Ted stated, “We make our movies for our members, and we really want them to watch them on Netflix.”

The remark, made at a New York summit, drew headlines for its dismissal of the traditional theatrical model as outdated. Addressing if he regrets calling the theatrical model ‘outmoded,’ Ted said, “I said 'outmoded for some'. I mean, like the town that Sinners is supposed to be set in does not have a movie theatre there. For those folks, it’s certainly outmoded. You’re not going to get in the car and go to the next town to go see a movie. But my daughter lives in Manhattan. She could walk to six multiplexes, and she’s in the theatres twice a week. Not outmoded for her at all.”

Speaking about the belief that streaming has reduced cinema attendance, Ted said, “I would say one of the other myths about all this is that we thought of going to the theatres as competition for Netflix. It absolutely is not. When you go out to see a movie in the theater, if it was a good movie, when you come home, the first thing you want to do is watch another movie. If anything, I think it helps, you know, encourage the love of films. I did not get in this business to hurt the theatrical business. I got into this business to help consumers, to help movie fans.”