Anyone looking for a sugar-coated opinion really knows not to turn to James Cameron. The Titanic and Avatar director has often been known for giving plenty of blunt comments in response to questions he finds tiresome, or simply when he feels that someone is talking bull. His latest candid appraisal has taken aim at 
Netflix and Ted Sarandos for their promises made to keep Warner Bros. movies theatrical if they made a winning bid in the sale of the studio.
Speaking to The Town’s Matt Belloni, Cameron shared his take on the idea of Netflix winning the Warner Bros. sale over Paramount, who are said to be current leaders in the race. For Cameron, he clearly favors a Paramount win. He said:
“Netflix would be a disaster. Sorry, Ted [Sarandos], but geez. Sarandos has gone on the record saying theatrical films are dead. ‘Theatrical is dead. Quote, unquote.’”
Cameron continued to mock Netflix’s promise of theatrical releases if a Warner Bros. purchase went through, laying into the streamer’s current strategy of giving movies micro-runs in theaters to be able to qualify for the Oscars.
“It’s sucker bait. ‘We’ll put the movie out for a week or 10 days. We’ll qualify for Oscar consideration.’ See, I think that’s fundamentally rotten to the core. A movie should be made as a movie for theatrical, and the Academy Awards mean nothing to me if they don’t mean theatrical. I think they’ve been co-opted, and I think it’s horrific.”
James Cameron Makes Movies for Cinemas…and Netflix Is Being Forced To
While James Cameron has courted controversy for some of his comments on the potential part AI has to play in the future of moviemaking, he cannot be knocked for his belief in the power of the cinema experience. His movies are made with a scale and scope that deserves to be seen on the biggest screen possible, whether it’s with Titanic, his Avatar movies or his old action blockbusters like Terminator 2 and Aliens. There is something about Cameron’s work that just demands to be seen in a cinema.
The billion-dollar director certainly doesn’t believe that Netflix should be allowed to compete in the Oscars without giving movies a clear run in cinemas first. He added:
“They should be allowed to compete if they put the movie out for a meaningful release in 2,000 theaters for a month.”
Netflix has recently been under pressure to give movies more time in theaters before they become “TV movies” on the streamer’s platform. Recently, fans have said that movies like Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, and the tense Rebecca Ferguson thriller House of Dynamite should have been given a much wider cinema release than they received. The new Knives Out movie, Wake Up Dead Man, is also getting the same treatment, much to the annoyance of star Daniel Craig and director Rian Johnson.
Cameron is certainly not the only one pushing back on Netflix’s strategy. The Duffer Brothers are getting their wish of seeing Stranger Things on the big screen, as the series finale will be shown in cinemas on New Year’s Eve at the same time as its streaming debut. Additionally, Greta Gerwig forced Netflix’s hand when it came to the release of her Narnia movie, which will get one of the biggest ever theatrical releases for a Netflix movie in November 2026.
- Birthname
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James Francis Cameron
- Birthdate
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August 16, 1954
- Birthplace
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Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada