More Netflix Titles Planning To Go Theatrical?

Yesterday came the news that IMAX and Netflix had officially struck a deal to distribute Gerwig’s new “The Chronicles of Narnia” film adaptation.

The title will be available exclusively on at least 1,000 IMAX screens worldwide (not including China where there’s potential for more) on Thanksgiving 2026, one month ahead of a streaming release on Christmas Day 2026.

Subsequently it has been revealed that Netflix also has the option to put the film in regular cinemas after a 2-3 week IMAX window. Now, IndieWire has followed up the report with a feature piece on how the deal went down – the product of months of negotiations.

They indicate though Netflix film chief Dan Lin was in charge of working through the issues, it was Netflix’s CCO Bela Bajaria who was the one really keen to do the theatrical run.

While Netflix films like “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Story” and “The Irishman” did manage short theatrical releases, this is a lot more screens (and IMAX too), has a dedicated marketing campaign, landed a guaranteed theatrical window and even might get a potential China opening (Netflix doesn’t operate in China).

The big reveal of the piece though is that Netflix has “already called IMAX about similar talks with other films” – suggesting that Gerwig’s film could open the floodgates to other Netflix titles scoring the same or similar treatment.

The most obvious upcoming titles that could logically make the jump would be Rian Johnson’s “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” and Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein” both of which are due out this year. However Netflix has not made any indication if they’ll go beyond the ‘Narnia’ experiment for now.

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