Netflix Fires Film Chief Dan Lin Days After Bela Bajaria's Exit

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos fired film chief Dan Lin by phone on Friday, three sources told Variety, one day after chief content officer Bela Bajaria's exit became public. The dismissal caps a purge that cut 6% of the streamer's workforce last week.

"Everyone is collateral damage." That's how one top Netflix insider described the latest round of bloodletting. Lin kept working through the weekend regardless: he attended Saturday's Academy Gala, in the same room as Sarandos, and showed up at a Sunday tastemaker screening for the filmmakers of "La Bola Negra."

Veteran film and TV executive Peter Rice will now preside over and shake up the platform's content. The overhaul comes amid poor stock performance and declining user engagement, and it lands just before Netflix's quarterly earnings report on Tuesday.

Why did Lin lose the job?

Competing narratives are circulating, but they converge on one conclusion: it wasn't working. Some say Sarandos needs a growth story to sell to Wall Street. Others say Lin couldn't square the balance between sticky streaming titles and theatrical experiments — though, in fairness, he made it halfway through a five-year deal.

Then there are the leaks about tension with A-list filmmakers, including Greta Gerwig and Ben Affleck.

The Lin era was framed around austerity from the start. A June New York Times profile declared him done "coddling" Hollywood, bragging he did not "fawn over stars or write blank checks." The implication: his predecessor Scott Stuber had overpaid talent and overcommitted to a new movie every week in 2022. Lin arrived, the lore goes, with a red pen and a machete, emphasizing quality over quantity.

Some find it convenient that Stuber's legacy is still being kicked around. As one colorful studio source put it, the prevailing logic at Netflix for a long time was "we don't give a shit about theatrical." Stuber paid premiums for filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, Alfonso Cuarón and Rian Johnson, and laid the groundwork for what insiders now call inevitable: putting movies in theaters first.

Lin actually brought that logic to fruition. He convinced Sarandos that family-driven IP deserved robust, exclusive theatrical windows before streaming, individuals with knowledge of Lin said. The results arrive next year, when Gerwig's "Narnia: The Magician's Nephew" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" hit cineplexes.

What happened between Lin and Greta Gerwig?

Four sources with knowledge of the matter confirmed the core story. During a Zoom call earlier this year about "Narnia" — a $250 million theatrical-first gamble — populated by numerous Netflix executives, Lin was "dismissive" to Gerwig in discussions about the film's progress.

Lin is known in town as incredibly fair but, at times, obtuse in his frankness. Word of the meeting travelled fast inside Netflix. Sources said Bajaria then called Gerwig's producer Amy Pascal to smooth things over, and two sources said Gerwig's CAA agent Bryan Lourd went to Sarandos directly over the faux pas. Lin was subsequently removed from the film, all sources concurred, with Doug Belgrad stepping in as the primary executive overseeing the project — until Belgrad was laid off last week.

No source claimed the incident caused the firing. One Lin defender said he's never "afraid to talk about how to make a movie better." Another person familiar with the company noted that any number of filmmakers could say the same about his delivery.

What does this change for Netflix film?

Plenty, structurally. Lin had reorganized the film division, grouping executives by genre expertise instead of budget range. He moved fast to fill release windows left empty by Stuber's 2024 exit ("Nonnas," "Happy Gilmore 2," "The Thursday Murder Club"), spent one day a week with the animation team, and installed Hannah Minghella as its leader. He's credited with wooing Alan Ritchson ("War Machine"), Matthew McConaughey and Ben Stiller for upcoming projects.

Talk now turns to his replacement. Is it Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy? "Probably," said one high-placed source.

Don't shed too many tears for Lin, though. He came to Netflix from Rideback, his own successful production company.

"When I took this job, Bela gave me a simple piece of advice: Be yourself," Lin wrote in a Monday memo obtained by Variety. "You work here because it's personal. Because of that unspoken pact between your individual passion for movies and the audiences we serve. To them, movies aren't about business. They're about feeling something."

And for anyone reading trouble into the Gerwig clash: the industry doubted "Barbie" right up to opening weekend. That film grossed $1.44 billion worldwide and became Warner Bros. Pictures' highest-earning release ever. With Rice now in charge, the real test comes Tuesday, when Netflix reports earnings — and next year, when "Narnia" proves whether theatrical-first still has a champion inside the company.