STRANGER THINGS Just Proved Netflix’s Boss Is Totally Wrong About the Future of Theatrical Moviegoing
Anyone who’s followed the entertainment industry for more than a minute knows the relationship between Netflix and movie theaters has always been awkward.
With Netflix circling a potential acquisition of Warner Bros., those tensions are tighter than ever. A big reason for that anxiety comes straight from Ted Sarandos, CEO of Netflix, who has repeatedly framed theatrical moviegoing as a fading habit, even calling the idea of leaving the house to watch something on a big screen “outdated.” He’s pushed for shorter theatrical windows, arguing it’s what modern audiences want.
Sarandos has leaned on declining box office numbers to support that thinking. “What is the consumer trying to tell us? That they’d like to watch movies at home, thank you,” he said during an appearance at the Time100 summit last spring. That argument sounds logical. In practice, Netflix itself just delivered a pretty loud rebuttal.
Over the holidays, Netflix turned the series finale of Stranger Things into a full-on theatrical event. Instead of quietly dropping the episode on streaming, the company booked the feature-length finale into theaters for a two-day run on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.
The result was pretty wild. The screenings pulled in more than $25 million, with some estimates pushing that number closer to $30 million.
What makes that even more fascinating is how it was done. Because of cast contract stipulations around residuals, fans didn’t technically buy tickets. They purchased concession vouchers to reserve seats.
Prices varied by location, with some theaters charging $20 and others landing at $11. Even better for exhibitors, theaters didn’t have to split that revenue with Netflix at all.
During the same two-day window, Avatar: Fire and Ash earned $23.7 million domestically. That film, from James Cameron, was playing in roughly 3,800 theaters. Stranger Things, meanwhile, was only in about 620 locations. Despite that massive disparity, the Netflix series still came out on top. If the finale had been booked wider, the numbers likely would’ve been even bigger.
Here’s the part that really undercuts Sarandos’ argument. The theatrical screenings happened at the exact same time the finale was available to stream at home. Viewers didn’t have to leave their couch. They chose to.
That tells you plenty about how audiences actually feel. People still want the big-screen experience, especially when it’s attached to something that feels like a cultural event. If format truly didn’t matter anymore, the turnout wouldn’t have been anywhere near this strong.
Stranger Things isn’t a fluke either. Earlier in 2025, Netflix pulled off another theatrical win with KPop Demon Hunters. After months on streaming and record-breaking viewership, the film received a limited theatrical run and shocked everyone by landing at No. 1 at the box office with around $18 million.
It later added another $5.3 million during a Halloween weekend re-release. Once again, audiences chose to show up in person even though the movie was already sitting on Netflix.
All of this lands at a crucial moment. If the Netflix and Warner Bros. deal goes through, Netflix has said it’ll continue releasing Warner Bros. movies in theaters. The real question is how long those movies will actually stay there.
Historically, Netflix uses short theatrical runs mainly to qualify for awards before shifting everything to streaming. Films like Frankenstein, Jay Kelly, and Wake Up Dead Man barely had time to breathe in cinemas before heading home.
Recent reports suggest Netflix favors a 17-day theatrical window. For theaters, that’s rough. Multiplexes depend on major releases like Superman and A Minecraft Movie to survive. Shorter windows make it harder to build momentum, harder to turn a profit, and harder to justify the theatrical model at all. The pandemic already shortened windows across the industry, and that damage hasn’t fully healed.
What makes Netflix’s stance puzzling is that Warner Bros. just came off one of its strongest box office years in a long time. A diverse lineup including A Minecraft Movie, Superman, Sinners, Weapons, and F1 all connected with audiences.
Add in the theatrical success of Stranger Things and KPop Demon Hunters, and seems like the appetite for theaters didn’t disappear. It just became more selective.
Moviegoing has absolutely changed. With shorter windows, waiting for streaming is often the easiest option, and plenty of films thrive on home platforms in ways they wouldn’t have decades ago. But that doesn’t mean theaters are obsolete.
Premium formats offer experiences that simply can’t be recreated at home, fully immersing audiences in stories built for the biggest screens possible. Watching something anticipated with a hyped crowd still hits different, and that communal energy likely played a huge role in Stranger Things dominating its brief run.
Netflix could look at these numbers and decide two-day theatrical events are the model going forward, leaning into exclusivity rather than longevity. Or it could recognize what audiences are actually showing up for and give its biggest titles room to grow on the big screen.
Stranger Things accidentally made a strong case that the future of movies and TV isn’t as one-dimensional as Netflix’s leadership seems to think.