Greta Gerwig leveraged her star power in “Barbie” to convince Netflix to give her the big, wide theatrical release she wanted for “Narnia,” an adaptation of the C.S. Lewis fantasy series.
After months of negotiations, Imax announced that “Narnia” would be shown exclusively on its screens around the world for two weeks before the film debuts on Netflix. “Narnia” is currently scheduled to open in Imax on Thanksgiving 2026. It will premiere on Netflix on Christmas of the same year.
An Imax release is a rarity for the streamer, which gives limited, Oscar-qualifying theatrical releases to its awards nominees like “Emilia Perez” and “Maria,” but often prefers to debut its films, especially more commercial ones. On its platform. There were exceptions. In 2022, for example, Netflix allowed “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” to run exclusively for one week in more than 600 venues, its widest theatrical release ever. Other streaming companies have taken a more flexible approach to theatrical distribution, with the likes of Amazon and Apple premiering films in cinemas, letting them play there for weeks, even months, before appearing on their own streaming services. This led to Netflix failing to get some buzzy projects it wanted to hit 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, it brought on Gerwig, who was nominated for an Oscar for directing “Lady Bird” and also oversaw a popular adaptation of “Little Women.” Her star only continued to rise in the following years. In 2023, Gerwig directed “Barbie,” which was the highest-grossing film of the year, grossing nearly $1.5 billion worldwide and becoming a bright pink phenomenon.
In total, the seven Narnia books have sold more than 115 million copies and have been translated into 57 languages around the world. Netflix hopes the movies will become its next major franchise.
Book first reported that a deal had been reached with Imax.