On Monday, when Netflix announced that Scott Stuber, their longtime film boss, was leaving to start his own production company, we wondered what the backstory was.
Now we have the answer. Or, more accurately, one version of the answer: Stuber, who Netflix brought in to ramp up its movie business in 2017, was sick of making so many movies. He wanted to make fewer, better movies.
He also wanted to get those movies into movie theaters, with wide distribution, before they came to Netflix. And his bosses — Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos and content boss Bela Bajaria — disagreed.
"That's the narrative emerging via two reports from well-sourced Hollywood pros — Kim Masters at The Hollywood Reporter and Matt Belloni at Puck. Neither story quotes Stuber and cites anonymous insiders, agents, and Netflix rivals. But both have very similar conclusions. Here's Belloni:
Reminder: There are a lot of people in Hollywood who have no love for Netflix and/or have incentive to portray Netflix as the Big Bad Company that doesn't make Good Things anymore. On the other hand, Masters and Belloni know their stuff. So, at a minimum, they're telling you what people in their business are saying.
Netflix declined to comment. But it is worth noting that on this week's earnings call, when asked if Netflix needed to change the way it made and acquired movies, Sarandos insisted that Netflix was going to stay the course — and pointed out that the company had just received 18 Oscar nominations.
"We do not plan to change our strategy," he said.
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