Netflix Fires Film Chief Dan Lin Days Before Q3 Earnings
Summary
Lin, who has run Netflix Film since April 2024, is out a week after the streamer cut roughly 1,000 jobs and replaced content chief Bela Bajaria with Peter Rice.
"Netflix has dismissed film chief Dan Lin, TheWrap reported on the morning of Monday, October 19, following a first report from Puck's Matthew Belloni, who wrote that Lin was ""fired this weekend, per sources."" Netflix declined to comment, and no successor has been named. Belloni reported that ""new leadership will be named later by new content chief Peter Rice,"" according to The Playlist. Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter also reported the exit.
The move completes a sweeping reshuffle of Netflix's content leadership. Chief content officer Bela Bajaria exited the previous week, shortly after the company laid off about 6% of its staff, and former Disney and Fox executive Peter Rice was named to replace her and oversee content strategy, TheWrap reported. Netflix Film vice president Doug Belgrad, described by TheWrap as Lin's right-hand man, was let go in the companywide layoffs. Netflix is scheduled to report third-quarter earnings on Tuesday, October 20.
Lin, who founded Rideback in 2008 and produced the It and LEGO Movie franchises, replaced Scott Stuber in April 2024 with a mandate to make fewer, better films. He reorganized the division by genre and leaned into comedies, romantic comedies and book adaptations; Netflix greenlit roughly 88 films in his first two years, according to The New York Times as cited by TheWrap. He also held a hard line on theatrical releases, telling the Times in June that Netflix would not work with filmmakers who insist on theatrical-first releases, while making exceptions for Greta Gerwig's Narnia: The Magician's Nephew and a two-week IMAX run for David Fincher's The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth before its December 23 streaming debut. The Playlist noted earlier reports that Fincher chose not to renew his Netflix deal after clashing with Lin over that film. An unnamed talent agent told TheWrap that Lin ran into the same quality problem as Stuber, arguing that Netflix's volume makes consistently high-quality films difficult."
