Netflix breaks streaming-only rule for Greta Gerwig’s Narnia in theaters

Netflix is making its clearest break yet from streaming-first orthodoxy by sending Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew into IMAX and wide global theaters before it reaches subscribers. The move turns a long-guarded release strategy into a test case for whether a streamer can still claim prestige, awards gravity and box-office legitimacy without fully becoming a studio.

The film will open in IMAX and wide globally on February 12, 2027, with IMAX sneak previews beginning February 10, 2027, and it will debut on Netflix on April 2, 2027. That is a sharp change from the earlier plan for a Thanksgiving 2026 theatrical launch and a Christmas Day 2026 streaming debut. Netflix called the project a rare event that “spans generations and geographies,” and said it will be the first ever adaptation of C. S. Lewis’s The Magician’s Nephew, first published on May 2, 1955.

Gerwig wrote and directed the film and is producing it with Mark Gordon, Amy Pascal, Vincent Sieber-Smith and Gerwig. Patricia Whitcher, Douglas Gresham and Melvin Adams are executive producers for the C. S. Lewis Estate. The cast includes newcomers David McKenna and Beatrice Campbell, along with Emma Mackey, Carey Mulligan, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Daniel Craig and Meryl Streep. Gerwig said working with Netflix and IMAX on the project has been extraordinary, and she said the book’s “cosmic lion” image and its themes of magic and hidden worlds stayed with her since childhood.

The release also lands in the middle of a wider industry argument over how much theatrical life streaming-era films should get. Netflix co-chief executive Ted Sarandos has repeatedly described theatrical runs as tools to create buzz and drive demand on Netflix rather than as the basis of a traditional movie business. That view framed Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, which played in about 600 North American theaters for one week and grossed about $15 million before moving to streaming. Netflix had resisted pressure to expand that run, but Narnia is a different move: a full wide theatrical release for a major franchise title with a recognizable director, premium-format IMAX play, and a long runway before it lands online.

That shift matters beyond one film. If Netflix can use a big IP title to pull audiences into theaters and still feed its subscription model afterward, other streamers may feel pressure to loosen their own release strategies. Theater chains, meanwhile, may see a new kind of power player: one that has spent years competing with cinemas now using them as a launchpad for prestige and scale.