The Hiring of Peter Rice at Netflix Could Set the Stage for a Corporate Culture Clash About the Future of Movies

The profile of what a Hollywood executive is– the function, the techniques, the concerns– is now in the middle of an improvement. The old meaning of an effective studio executive was somebody who’s commercially triumphant, with a performance history of excellent motion pictures. What we when called a film executive may now be called a content officer, and there’s a bigger modification. Where movie executives utilized to need to follow the numbers, now they follow the algorithms. And here’s the distinction: Numbers are something you’re in charge of, while algorithms have a method of organizing you

Peter Rice, the previous president of 21st Century Fox and previous chairman of Walt Disney Television who was simply employed to be the primary material officer of Netflix (changing Bela Bajaria, who was ousted in a significant shake-up), has actually operated in Hollywood C-suites for 15 years. His roots are in the world of old-school movie-executive enthusiasm. In his brand-new position, he’ll manage both motion pictures and tv, which is an ideal function for him, given that he has actually dealt with the small-screen side since he was promoted to chairman and CEO of the Fox Networks Group back in 2012. When he was president of Fox Searchlight, from 2000 to 2009, Rice was one of the most revered motion picture executives of his time, supervising titles like “Slumdog Millionaire,” “Juno,” “Little Miss Sunshine” and “Sideways,” to call simply a couple of. His only competitors as the skilled movie-executive maven may be Tom Rothman, the initial head of Fox Searchlight. These 2 sustained the single finest design for how to broaden the independent movie transformation as a mainstream motion beyond the Harvey Weinstein design.

Recently, Rice, born in the U.K. and now 60, has actually been semi-retired, or perhaps simply in a holding pattern. Ted Sarandos, the Netflix co-CEO, having actually now offered the ax to Bela Bajaria (there’s speculation that she was let go as a scapegoat for the business’s existing development capture), made an exceptionally clever relocation in employing Rice to be his primary content officer. Just recently, there had actually been reports that Rice was going to be provided a significant position within Skydance. His ascension into the Netflix brain trust is every bit as substantial, and provided his historic propensity to increase in a business (without, in some way, making opponents), one might see that taking place over the next 5 years at Netflix. Being the primary material officer at Netflix resembles supervising of hamburgers and french fries at McDonald’s. In his brand-new function, Rice will assist to form the business’s spirit and visual. The concern is, how?

Sarandos is a hands-on CEO– a visionary, if you will– who likes to have things his method. (Apologies for the switched-up burger-chain metaphor.) He needs to have a great concept of what he desires from Rice. Now, that might be: more of what Netflix has actually been doing. Other than that Netflix is now flirting with what might be the greatest modification in its service strategy because the business stopped sending by mail physical media to customers.

Greta Gerwig’s “Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew” is the “Forget ‘Harry Potter,’ ‘Lord of the Rings,’ and ‘Dune’– this is your brand-new global-conquest dream franchise!” adjustment of C.S. Lewis’s 6th “Narnia” book. The motion picture has actually been developed from minute one to be a game-changer. It cost $280 million (hi, budget plan that makes “Digger’s” appear like small potatoes!). And Gerwig, running off the uber-A-list power she got after the megasuccess of “Barbie,” firmly insisted that the movie get a full-blown theatrical release. (It will open on large all over the world, consisting of IMAX screens, on Feb. 12, 2027.) Even after that arrangement was made, Gerwig needed to combat battles to guarantee it would take place.

She dominated, and Netflix, with “Narnia,” will now be in the movies-released-in-actual-theaters organization in a method that it hasn’t been … ever. (I’ve discussed how a token Netflix theatrical release undoubtedly gets covered by the media as if it were larger than it is, since critics and home entertainment press reporters tend to live near the couple of theaters in New York and L.A. where Netflix motion pictures are playing.) As if in recommendation of what an extensive modification all this represents, Netflix just recently revealed that it would be taking higher basic strides into the theatrical world. (“La Bola Negra,” its huge 2026 Oscar hopeful, will get the longest theatrical rollout Netflix has actually offered any movie to date.) The business will likewise now report box-office numbers, a significant modification for the transparency-shy Sarandos.

As somebody who’s been extremely vital of what I’ve identified as Netflix’s master strategy to transform the world of films into glorified home watching, I praise these advancements. I hope they enter into the bigger “resurgence” of motion pictures that everybody, in 2026, is discussing. This is pure speculation on my part (I’m a critic, so I’m permitted to hypothesize), however Netflix’s hiring of Peter Rice, at this minutedoes not feel detached to any of this. Rice, in his heart, is a motion picture guy. I do not care just how much small-screen material one has actually greenlit– you can’t take that cinematic DNA out of somebody. If Netflix’s brand-new motion picture strategy achieves success, I might predict that speeding up Rice’s increase within the business.

What if the “Narnia” movie, which just this week has been subject to a report about underwhelming test screenings, turns out to be a problematic hit that does not cut the business mustard? (I desire the movie to be fantastic; I’m simply drifting the possibility. A Netflix expert states that reports of uninspired test screenings are completely incorrect. The business had no remark.) What then? Will Netflix’s strategy to broaden into theatrical circulation be threatened? That depends upon what Sarandos desires. And I might quickly see him buckling on that. If Rice ends up being the voice of theatrical motion picture enthusiasm within Netflix, then that might lead to a significant business clash. Or perhaps he’ll be the one to assist Sarandos see the light! Tuning into the offscreen drama of Netflix, it will be remarkable, and possibly a sign of where the future of motion pictures is going, to see who brings who into the stream of things.