Barbie and Oppenheimer would have enjoyed just as big as an audience on Netflix: Ted Sarandos

Currently, a question that has occupied the minds of producers is whether their film is more suitable for a theatrical release as opposed to a release on an O.T.T (Over-the-Top) platform. A recent example to elucidate the difference between the reception among different platforms was the case of Kiran Rao-directorial ‘Laapata Ladies.’ The film collected Rs 23.29 crore at the box office. However, it surpassed the Ranbir Kapoor-starrer Animal on Netflix in terms of number of views. Animal had collected Rs 917.82 crore at the box office. Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos ws however of the opinion that the difference may be overstated. “Something may work really well for Netflix but just hasn’t worked to date. There’s some obvious ones, like we don’t do breaking news and that kind of thing, because I think there’s a lot of other outlets for it. People aren’t looking to us for that,” he said in an interview with the New York Times.  

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Ted was of the opinion that Barbie and Oppenheimer which were the first and third highest grossers at the box office in 2023 would have been just as successful had they been released on Netflix instead of a theatrical release. Both of those movies would be great for Netflix. “They definitely would have enjoyed just as big an audience on Netflix. And so I don’t think there’s any reason to believe that certain kinds of movies do or don’t work. There’s no reason to believe that the movie itself is better in any size of screen for all people. My son’s an editor. He is 28 years old, and he watched Lawrence of Arabia on his phone,” Ted added.