Netflix CCO On “Oppenheimer” & Cultural Impact

Netflix CCO Bela Bajaria says that Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” would’ve had the same cultural impact had it been released direct-to-streaming on Netflix as opposed to the actual release which was exclusive to cinemas via Universal Pictures.

In a wide-ranging interview with Puck News creator Matt Belloni for his podcast The Town, the pair repeatedly discuss theatrical vs. streaming, with Bajaria defending the streamers’ defiance toward releasing their titles theatrically.

First up, the topic of Greta Gerwig’s Narnia movie comes up. That film is getting an IMAX exclusive theatrical run at Thanksgiving ahead of a streaming debut at Christmas. Bajaria says that isn’t a shift in strategy:

“First of all, it’s a two-week window on Imax […] I think you want to extrapolate more out of this than it is, but that’s fine. For lots of other filmmakers, we always do bespoke qualifying runs. Everybody wants to feel like this changed something that it didn’t […] I think that having the option for audiences to go watch Narnia in IMAX for those two weeks is great. For that movie, for Greta, this totally makes sense.”

Then, the topic turns to cultural relevance and the extent to which a film can make a cultural footprint in cinemas rather than going straight to streaming. While Netflix has had a major cultural impact with its original series, such as “Stranger Things” and “Wednesday,” it’s rarely had that kind of success in film.

Bajaria says “Oppenheimer,” which grossed $975 million at the box office in part due to the Barbenheimer phenomenon, would’ve been as big a sensation had it been on Netflix. She says:

“We would have done an amazing qualifying run. So many people obviously would have watched it. It was a great movie. And I think it would have had that […] We’re going to totally disagree about this. And here’s the thing: There’s a lot of people who love going to the movies. I love going to the movies. It’s just, we want to make great movies on Netflix. This idea of, everything theatrical is bigger and lasting, you have to think about all those other movies except for the four or five we just talked about.”

Belloni points out that half of Netflix’s Top 10 recently were regular Warner Bros. Pictures theatrical releases with cinema runs boosting those films on streaming. He also points to “Carry-On,” the Netflix streaming exclusive as an example of a film that’s a viewership hit but not a franchise launcher – something Netflix isn’t good at. Bajaria responds:

“So ‘Red One’ [released by Amazon], that had a big theatrical campaign and then had 50 million viewers in the first four days [on Prime Video, according to Amazon]. We don’t exactly know the definition of ‘viewers’ on Amazon because I’m not sure they’ve told us. But ‘Red Notice’ [a 2021 Netflix film] in four days got 90 million viewers. [Both had] The Rock. Theatrical versus streaming… I think it’s more nuanced than, This equals this, this makes it more relevant. If it’s theatrical, then it’s this.”

The debate is expected to continue for years to come as cinema vs. streaming is a topic that’s not going away anytime soon.

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