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Back in, say, 2019, if a filmmaker signed a deal with Netflix, it meant that he or she would be well paid and receive complete creative freedom. Theatrical release? Not so much. Still, the paycheck and the latitude \u2014 and the potential to reach the streaming service\u2019s huge subscriber base \u2014 helped compensate for the lack of hoopla that comes when a traditional studio opens a film in multiplexes around the world.<\/p>\n
But those days are a thing of the past.<\/p>\n
Dan Lin arrived as Netflix\u2019s new film chief on April 1, and he has already started making changes. He laid off around 15 people in the creative film executive group, including one vice president and two directors. (Netflix\u2019s entire film department is around 150 people.) He reorganized his film department by genre rather than budget level and has indicated that Netflix is no longer only the home of expensive action flicks featuring big movie stars, like \u201cThe Gray Man\u201d with Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans or \u201cRed Notice\u201d with Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot and Dwayne Johnson.<\/p>\n
Rather, Mr. Lin\u2019s mandate is to improve the quality of the movies and produce a wider spectrum of films \u2014 at different budget levels \u2014 the better to appeal to the varied interests of Netflix\u2019s 260 million subscribers. He will also be changing the formulas for how talent is paid, meaning no more enormous upfront deals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
In other words, Netflix\u2019s age of austerity is well underway. The company declined to comment for this article.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Now that Netflix has emerged as the dominant streaming platform, it no longer has to pay top dollar to lure auteur filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, Alfonso Cuar\u00f3n and Bradley Cooper. It also helps that some of the big studios are again allowing their films to be shown on Netflix not long after they appear in theaters, providing more content to attract subscribers. The latest list of the 10 most-watched English-language films on the service featured six produced outside Netflix.<\/p>\n
Mr. Lin\u2019s predecessor as Netflix\u2019s film chief, Scott Stuber, took the job in 2017, when the company had no track record as a place for original movies. To succeed, Mr. Stuber, who had once been the vice chairman of production at Universal Pictures, spent lavishly on talent, promising filmmakers near-complete creative freedom and hefty budgets. It worked \u2014 to an extent. The directors got to make their passion projects, and their films earned Oscar nominations (though few wins.)<\/p>\n
In 2021, the streamer hit its apex of production, declaring that it would release a new movie a week.<\/p>\n
Mr. Stuber, an affable friend to talent, pushed to get Netflix to embrace the idea of wide theatrical releases. And it was a big coup when he landed the sequels to the box office hit \u201cKnives Out,\u201d<\/a> in a $465 million deal, which some thought could nod toward a change in direction. It never came to be.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Under Mr. Lin, who once ran production at Warner Bros. and produced such hits as \u201cAladdin\u201d for Disney and the \u201cIt\u201d and \u201cLego\u201d movie franchises, the aim is to make Netflix\u2019s movies better, cheaper and less frequent. Mr. Lin, who declined to comment for this article, also wants his team to become more aggressive producers \u2014 developing their own material rather than waiting for projects from producers and agents to come to them, according to two people familiar with his thinking, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal communications. This approach, the thinking goes, should help them have more say over the quality of the films.<\/p>\n Netflix was reconsidering its pay structure before Mr. Lin\u2019s arrival. Since the company began sharing performance metrics last year, there have been discussions about basing pay for filmmakers and actors on a film\u2019s performance, similar to how the traditional studios reward them when movies perform well at the box office.<\/p>\n Yet a more economical approach to budgets, along with Netflix\u2019s continued aversion to releasing films in theaters, has some producers and agents in Hollywood griping that the streaming service is no longer a top choice when trying to find a distributor for their films.<\/p>\n Several high-profile filmmakers who made movies for Netflix moved on for their next projects. After making \u201cThe Irishman\u201d for Netflix, Mr. Scorsese jumped to AppleTV+ for \u201cKillers of the Flower Moon.\u201d Maggie Gyllenhaal is making \u201cThe Bride\u201d at Warner Bros. after directing her first film, 2021\u2019s \u201cThe Lost Daughter,\u201d for the streamer. And Scott Cooper, who directed \u201cThe Pale Blue Eye\u201d for Netflix in 2022, is taking his highly anticipated Bruce Springsteen biopic, starring Jeremy Allen White, to 20th Century. (New films by the Netflix loyalists Guillermo del Toro and Noah Baumbach are both in production for the service.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Netflix recently declined to bid on the rights to a short story that Millie Bobby Brown, a star of Netflix\u2019s \u201cStranger Things\u201d and the \u201cEnola Holmes\u201d films, was attached to, two people familiar with the matter said. It is also no longer moving forward with a film by Kathryn Bigelow<\/a> based on David Koepp\u2019s apocalyptic novel \u201cAurora\u201d; the director left the project a few months ago.<\/p>\n Edward Berger \u2014 who directed \u201cAll Quiet on the Western Front,\u201d which won four Oscars, for Netflix \u2014 has been complaining that the service is demanding budget cuts on a film he\u2019s trying to put together with Colin Farrell, according to three people with knowledge of the deal, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicate situation.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Mr. Berger declined to comment.<\/p>\n Shortly after Mr. Stuber left the company, Bela Bajaria, Netflix\u2019s chief content officer, gathered members of the film staff in a conference room and told them that the quality of their movies needed to improve, according to three people with knowledge of the meeting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal communications. She also indicated that if they weren\u2019t comfortable with moving in a different direction, they might want to consider leaving the company.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n One thing that does not appear to be changing anytime soon is Netflix\u2019s strategy regarding theatrical release, a bone of contention with some filmmakers and stars \u2014 not to mention theater owners.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe data from the pandemic is clear that movies released only to streaming don\u2019t get the awareness and pop of a movie that was first released theatrically,\u201d said John Fithian, the former president and chief executive of the National Association of Theatre Owners and founding partner of the Fithian Group, which advises clients on ways to support the cinema experience. \u201cAlmost all of the most-watched movies on streaming services are movies that were first released theatrically.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet many in the creative community are rooting for Mr. Lin. With the business consolidating, they are desperate for Netflix to continue buying movies. The hope is that with a renewed focus, Netflix may greenlight movies that the studios would say no to, and provide a home for more romantic comedies and midbudget character studies in Hollywood\u2019s shifting landscape.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n