A new kind of Hollywood executive
The job description of a Hollywood executive is being rewritten. Where success once meant commercial victories and a record of great movies, the role is increasingly framed as a content officer, and the shift runs deeper than a title. Film executives once answered to the numbers; now they answer to the algorithms. The distinction matters because numbers are something an executive controls, while algorithms tend to take control of the person following them.[S1]
Peter Rice brings 15 years of C-suite experience to the new role. He was president of 21st Century Fox and chairman of Walt Disney Television, and his reputation rests on the older, passion-driven model of movie leadership. From 2000 to 2009 he ran Fox Searchlight, where he oversaw titles including Slumdog Millionaire, Juno, Little Miss Sunshine and Sideways. The only comparable figure, in this account, is Tom Rothman, the studio's original head; together they sustained the strongest model for turning independent film into a mainstream movement beyond the Harvey Weinstein approach.[S1]
Rice, born in the U.K. and now 60, had been semi-retired or in a holding pattern in recent years. Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos hired him after removing Bela Bajaria, a decision accompanied by speculation that she served as a scapegoat for the company's current growth squeeze. Rumors had also placed Rice in line for a major position at Skydance. His move into Netflix's leadership is described as equally significant, and his habit of rising within companies without making enemies suggests further advancement over the next five years.[S1]
What the content chief will shape
Running content at Netflix is compared to running hamburgers and fries at McDonald's: the role sits at the core of the business. Rice will help define the company's spirit and aesthetic, and the open question is how he will do it. Sarandos is a hands-on, visionary CEO who likes things his way, so he presumably has a clear idea of what he wants from Rice. For now that could mean more of what Netflix has already been doing, except that the company is flirting with what may be the biggest change to its business plan since it stopped mailing physical media to consumers.[S1]
Narnia and the theatrical gamble
Greta Gerwig's Narnia: The Magician's Nephew, adapted from C.S. Lewis's sixth Narnia book, was conceived as a game-changer from the start. It cost $280 million, and Gerwig, drawing on the power she gained from Barbie's success, insisted on a full-scale theatrical release. The film is set to open on the world's Imax screens and many others on Feb. 10, 2027. Even after that agreement, she had to fight to make it happen. With Narnia, Netflix enters the business of releasing movies in actual theaters in a way it never has before.[S1]
Netflix appears to be moving toward a bigger presence in cinemas. La Bola Negra, the film the company is counting on most for the 2026 Oscars, is set to get the widest big-screen release Netflix has ever arranged, and the streamer will start disclosing ticket-sales figures — a notable reversal for Sarandos, who has long kept such data private. The piece's writer, who has often criticized what he saw as Netflix's effort to reduce films to at-home viewing, applauds these steps and hopes they help bring audiences back to theaters in 2026. Rice's arrival now may be tied to that change.[S1]
At his core, Rice is devoted to cinema, and no volume of approved TV projects can erase that film-first instinct. Should Netflix's revised movie strategy work, the writer suggests it could speed Rice's advancement within the company. Yet if Narnia — which this week faced talk of a weak test screening — proves to be a costly misfire at the box office, the theatrical expansion might be put at risk. Much would hinge on Sarandos's preferences, and he could readily retreat. If Rice turns into the company's internal champion of theatrical releases, the outcome could be a serious corporate power struggle, or he might persuade Sarandos to change course.[S1]
