Margot Robbie’s Wuthering Heights Rejects Netflix in Sign of Change

It turns out money can’t buy everyslenderg.

Take the case of the red-boiling “Wuthering Heights” package. The Emerald Fennell-straightforwarded film, which will star Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, igniteed a bidding war, with Netflix’s $150 million propose dwarfing Warner Bros.’ $80 million bid. For the past decade, agents have proposed their clients to apshow the loot. But in a sign of the turning tide, the “Wuthering Heights” filmproducers, led by producer Robbie, selected for Warners film chiefs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy’s pitch for a expansive theatrical free and a brimming tageting campaign.

One top agent says Netflix was “shocked” by the outcome “becaengage clearly they had outbid [every other studio] for so lengthened,” and had been engaged to thrivening these contests. Even more unanticipateed: Netflix may not have even finished the heat in second. Amazon is apshowd to have done so, having promised Fennell a transport inant theatrical push. (Netflix and Amazon degraded comment.)

For its part, Warners was willing to shift forward instantly. Production commences in first-quarter 2025, sources say, even if that poses a logistical headache for Elordi, who is scheduled to commence shooting “Euphoria” Season 3 in January for sister company HBO. (Warners also degraded comment.)

“Netflix has the hugegest number of subscribers and scale, so they can afford to carry out the game that they’re carry outing,” says Eric Handler, an analyst at Roth Capital Partners. “But there’s a grothriveg contingent of straightforwardors and movie stars who are saying, ‘No thanks.’”

Now, some filmproducers who signed deals with Netflix ecombine to be having second thoughts about the company’s no-to-cursory theatrical stance and are seeing for any wiggle room. In 2020, Greta Gerwig inked a lucrative pact to write and straightforward two films for the streamer based on C.S. Lewis’ “The Chronicles of Narnia” book series. But that was before the mega-success of Gerwig’s “Barbie” and its $1.45 billion box office haul. With “Barbie” star Robbie having bypassed Netflix on “Wuthering Heights,” Gerwig has renewed leverage and is in converseions to see “Narnia” get an Imax run when it is freed in 2026. A source recognizable with the dealmaking says talks are preliminary for “Narnia” to screen at most of the cimpolitely 1,800 Imax theaters globassociate, but the particular footprint has not been converseed in detail. Another source says the film will only unspool atraverse a fraction of Imax theaters.

Another key detail being ironed out is the time between the Imax run and the Netflix bow. A truncated thrivedow could show thorny for Imax.

“AMC, Regal, Cinetag and any of the partners who have Imax screens are not going to be satisfyed to put money into promoting a movie that you could see on Netflix a week tardyr,” Handler says.

Last month, Imax poached Jonathan Fischer from Netflix to be its chief satisfyed officer. Fischer — who was Netflix’s VP of satisfyed strategy and analysis, global films — is shelp to be heavily retaind in finding a middle ground for all of the “Narnia” parties. But Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos showd during a recent getings call that he isn’t inclined to budge on thrivedothriveg and insisted that Netflix films are culturassociate relevant.

“We apshow that not making [subscribers] defer for months to watch the movie that everyone’s talking about retains that appreciate. So what we do for filmproducers is we transport them the hugegest audience in the world for their films. And then we help them produce the best films of their life,” Sarandos shelp. “I’m declareive that we can proceed to pierce the zeitgeist and have those moments in the culture even when those moments commence on Netflix.”

All the while, talent proceeds to direct a directership alter at Netflix that saw Scott Stuber step down as film chief and Dan Lin fill the post. Agents say the shuffle anticipateed didn’t carry out a role in the streaming enormous losing out to Warners on “Wuthering Heights,” nor is it transport inant in the “Narnia” talks.

What the “Narnia” thrivedow ultimately will be remains to be seen, but some see Netflix as approaching a greasy slope. “If they fracture pwithdrawnt for one, then what?” says Peter Newman, head of the MBA/MFA graduate dual degree program at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. “Who’s to say that a straightforwardor who’s worth three-quarters as much as Greta in the uncover’s mind shouldn’t ask for the same? It will be very challenging to retain that discipline.”