Greta Gerwig leveraged her “Barbie” star power to convince Netflix to give her the big, wide theatrical release she wanted for “Narnia,” her adaptation of the CS Lewis fantasy series.
After months of negotiations, Imax announced that “Narnia” would be released exclusively on its screens around the world two weeks before the film’s release on Netflix. “Narnia” is currently scheduled to be released in Imax on Thanksgiving Day 2026. It will premiere on Netflix on Christmas of the same year.
The Imax launch is a rarity for the streamer, which grants limited, Oscar-qualifying theatrical releases to its hopefuls like “Emilia Perez” and “Maria” but mostly prefers that its films, especially the more broadly commercial ones, make their debut. on its platform. There have been exceptions. In 2022, for example, Netflix licensed: “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” to stream exclusively for one week in more than 600 theaters, its widest theatrical release ever. Other streamers have taken a more flexible approach to theatrical distribution, with companies like Amazon and Apple releasing films into theaters and allowing them to play there for weeks or even months before appearing on their streaming services. This has prevented Netflix from landing some hot projects that want to be shown in theaters first.
In 2018, Netflix announced that it would develop new series and film projects based on Lewis’ “The Chronicles of Narnia” series. In 2020, he tapped Gerwig, who was nominated for an Oscar for directing “Lady Bird” and also oversaw an acclaimed adaptation of “Little Women.” His star only rose in the following years. In 2023, Gerwig directed “Barbie,” which was the highest-grossing film of the year, earning nearly $1.5 billion worldwide and becoming a hot pink phenomenon.
In total, the seven Narnia books have sold more than 115 million copies and have been translated into 57 languages worldwide. Netflix hopes these films will become its next major franchise.
Puck first reported that a deal with Imax had been reached.
