Bloomberg: Netflix’s ‘Narnia’ Adaptation to Exceed $200 Million Under New Film Strategy
As Netflix reshapes its film strategy under the leadership of Dan Lin, The Chronicles of Narnia adaptations are set to be one of the streaming giant’s most ambitious projects.
According to Bloomberg, one of the standout elements of this shift is the reported budget for Greta Gerwig’s upcoming Narnia films, which is expected to “almost certainly” exceed $200 million — the movies will be among Netflix’s most expensive projects under its new strategy.
Read the full article here.
The new Netflix movie strategy: Less is more
Known for his previous work at Warner Bros. and productions like The Lego Movie, Lin is tasked with improving the quality of Netflix’s film slate while controlling costs. The core of Lin’s strategy is simple: make fewer films but focus on developing higher-quality projects in-house.
This move represents a sharp departure from Netflix’s previous approach under former film chief Scott Stuber, who frequently acquired films from other studios and overspent to lure big stars and produce a high volume of movies, many of which struggled to leave a lasting cultural impact.
Netflix will still release 25 to 30 films per year, but Lin plans to prioritize specific genres and lower the budgets of most projects while reserving larger investments for select high-profile films — such as Narnia.
How will Narnia be impacted?
For fans, the key question is how Dan Lin’s new strategy will shape the upcoming Narnia adaptations. While Netflix has yet to confirm the specific release plans for the films, all signs point toward a streaming-first approach — even as Greta Gerwig reportedly pushes for a theatrical release.
Despite Gerwig’s concerns, Netflix’s leadership seems firmly committed to keeping its flagship projects on its platform. Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s co-CEO, reaffirmed last week during the company’s earnings call that streaming remains the core of Netflix’s business model.
“I’m just going to reiterate: We are in the subscription entertainment business, and you can see in our results, it’s a pretty good business. It appeals to a very large segment of consumers and fans,” Sarandos said. “Our top 10 films that premiere on Netflix all have over 100 million views, among the most watched films in the world. It’s our desire to keep adding value to our consumers for their subscription dollar. We believe that not making them wait for months to watch the movie that everyone’s talking about adds that value.”
Netflix added 5.1 million paid subscribers to reach 282.72 million globally in the third quarter of 2024. That marks year-over-year growth of more than 14%, per Variety.
With a budget that will likely surpass $200 million, Narnia is set to be one of Netflix’s most significant gamble in its “tentpole” strategy. However, even with this scale of investment, the question of whether the series can achieve the lasting cultural resonance that Gerwig and Netflix hope for will ultimately depend on more than just the size of their budget.
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I know some were speculating that the news about Gerwig pushing for a theatrical release was laying the groundwork for her backing out. Does this proposed budget make that less likely to be true?
I honestly don’t think she’s backing out since she made a pitch to Netflix that she wanted it.
$200 million, which is on top of what they paid for the rights to the series, is a mind-blowing amount of money.
Hard to see why Netflix wouldn’t want to recoup some of that cost with a theatrical release.
@col klink
Netflix would do everything in its power to keep Gerwig happy. Given she’s been involved with Narnia since 2020, there’s no way she’s oblivious to Netflix’s reputation regarding theatres so I doubt she’d make them an ultimatum over it.
Doesn’t mean she’s not disappointed in their decision though!
Nice that they have a high budget for Narnia. Especially then, a release in theatres would be desirable. I wonder how many people would actually get a Netflix subscription just because of Narnia? As that seems to be their idea(?) Or do they think that they will also get in the Gerwig fans by doing that?
It’s nice to see Narnia being treated as a high-profile movie. With Greta Gerwig attached, I’m not surprised, but when Netflix first purchased the rights, I feared their adaptation would be a low budget movie, quietly dropped onto Netflix, and quickly forgotten about.
@Impending Doom, yeah, I think it’d be weird if Gerwig quit after what we’ve heard about her thinking about a Narnia adaptation for some time and making this pitch that got Netflix really excited. But I read speculation to that effect and after what happened with David Magee and Matthew Aldrich, well, it would be pretty typical for Narnia lately.
It is very good to hear the news about the Narnia property being given money and attention. From the comments about creativity from Gerwig in past reports, highlighting her passion for the books, I doubt she wants to leave the project. It does mean she would be saying no to other projects, given the success of Barbie last year.
It still surprises me that Narnia as a property is being given so much attention, given the lacklustre box office performance of the last 2 Narnia films, and the poor quality of the Dawn Treader movie. I guess the number of books sold and the success of the first film tell a positive story to producers.
She won’t back out. If she did, then who would turn our beloved Narnia into a woke feminist propaganda machine?
@Jake, why don’t you try citing specific parts of Greta Gerwig’s philosophy and explain how they’re incompatible with the values of Narnia? Then those reading the comments might be more likely to take your concerns seriously.
I really feel whoever is involved should read Michael Ward’s Planet Narnia for in-depth analysis.
Good to hear! After all, catering for centaurs is going to be expensive…
Studios have uniformly done such an appalling job with beloved IPs recently that it’s hard not to feel cynical about this budget. Audiences are not going to recoup these expenses simply because of cutting-edge effects and the Narnia branding.
Does Netflix actually have the capacity to tell an authentically Lewisian story? If not, new fans won’t be made, and old ones won’t be won over. There’s a reason the Disney franchise failed.
I strongly disagree with Sarandos on his statement that not making people wait months to see a movie adds value. I believe the opposite is true. If you have to wait, it adds value because you have to wait to access it. It still feels weird to see videos on movies very shortly after the film’s release. When the Walden Narnia films were released, because I couldn’t own the DVD right away, it made me want it more and increase its value in my mind. Sometimes having to wait creates the demand needed.
I also find that mindset disturbing on a matter of principal. If waiting for the Walden Narnia films to be released on DVD taught me anything, it was the value of patience. Today we are losing patience as a society and this instant gratification from platforms like Netflix I don’t believe is helping. I also still don’t understand how they’re going to recoup these high costs. They’ll never get a subscription out of me but I’m willing to spend money on a theater ticket or physical media of movies I like.
It is ironic that the suspected proposed budget for this new film (as the article makes it clear it’s just speculation based on other tentpole projects from the company) is slightly more than the budgets for LWW and VDT, but slightly less than the budget for PC. However, when adjusted for inflation, this is still a lot less than what those films cost.
It’s encouraging to hear Netflix is trying to clean up its slate with better movies. Simply put, most Netflix movies are just not good. My fingers remain crossed.
Only thing that matters is a good movie, no matter the budget!