\n\tThe profile of what a Hollywood executive is \u2014 the role, the methods, the priorities \u2014 is now in the midst of a transformation. The old definition of a successful studio executive was someone who\u2019s commercially victorious, with a track record of great movies. But what we once called a movie executive might now be called a content officer, and there\u2019s a larger change as well. Where film executives used to have to follow the numbers, now they follow the algorithms. And here\u2019s the difference: Numbers are something you\u2019re in charge of, while algorithms have a way of taking charge of you.<\/p>\n
\n\tPeter Rice<\/a>, the former president of 21st Century Fox and former chairman of Walt Disney Television who was just hired to be the chief content officer of Netflix<\/a> (replacing Bela Bajaria, who was ousted in a dramatic shake-up<\/a>), has worked in Hollywood C-suites for 15 years. But his roots are in the world of old-school movie-executive passion. In his new position, he\u2019ll oversee both movies and television, which is a perfect role for him, since he has worked on the small-screen side ever since he was promoted to chairman and CEO of the Fox Networks Group back in 2012. But when he was president of Fox Searchlight, from 2000 to 2009, Rice was one of the most revered movie executives of his time, overseeing titles like \u201cSlumdog Millionaire,\u201d \u201cJuno,\u201d \u201cLittle Miss Sunshine\u201d and \u201cSideways,\u201d to name just a few. His only competition as the consummate movie-executive maven might be Tom Rothman, the original head of Fox Searchlight. These two sustained the single best model for how to expand the independent film revolution as a mainstream movement beyond the Harvey Weinstein model.<\/p>\n \n\tIn recent years, Rice, born in the U.K. and now 60, has been semi-retired, or maybe just in a holding pattern. But Ted Sarandos<\/a>, the Netflix co-CEO, having now given the ax to Bela Bajaria (there\u2019s speculation that she was let go as a scapegoat for the company\u2019s current growth squeeze), made an incredibly smart move in hiring Rice to be his chief content officer. Recently, there had been rumors that Rice was going to be offered a major position within Skydance. His ascension into the Netflix brain trust is every bit as significant, and given his historical tendency to rise in a company (without, somehow, making enemies), one could see that happening over the next five years at Netflix. Being the chief content officer at Netflix is like being in charge of hamburgers and fries at McDonald\u2019s. In his new role, Rice will help to shape the company\u2019s spirit and aesthetic. The question is, how?<\/p>\n \n\tSarandos is a hands-on CEO \u2014 a visionary, if you will \u2014 who likes to have things his way. (Apologies for the switched-up burger-chain metaphor.) He must have a good idea of what he wants from Rice. Right now, that could be: more of what Netflix has been doing. Except that Netflix is now flirting with what may be the biggest change in its business plan since the company stopped mailing physical media to consumers.<\/p>\n \n\tGreta Gerwig\u2019s \u201cNarnia: The Magician\u2019s Nephew\u201d is\u00a0the \u201cForget \u2018Harry Potter,\u2019 \u2018Lord of the Rings,\u2019 and \u2018Dune!\u2019 This is your new global-conquest fantasy franchise!\u201d adaptation of C.S. Lewis\u2019s sixth \u201cNarnia\u201d book. The movie\u00a0has been conceived from minute one to be a game-changer. It cost $280 million (hello, budget that makes \u201cDigger\u2019s\u201d look like chump change!). And Gerwig, operating off the uber-A-list power she acquired after the megasuccess of \u201cBarbie,\u201d insisted that the film receive a full-scale theatrical release. (It will open on the world\u2019s Imax screens, and many other screens as well, on Feb. 10, 2027.) Even after that agreement was made, Gerwig had to fight battles to ensure it would happen.<\/p>\n \n\tBut she prevailed, and Netflix, with \u201cNarnia,\u201d will now be in the movies-released-in-actual-theaters business in a way that is hasn\u2019t been \u2026 ever. (I\u2019ve written about how a token Netflix theatrical release inevitably gets covered by the media as if it were bigger than it is, because critics and entertainment reporters tend to live near the few theaters<\/a> in New York and L.A. where Netflix movies are playing.) As if in acknowledgment of what a profound change all this represents, Netflix recently announced<\/a> that it would be taking greater general strides into the theatrical realm. (\u201cLa Bola Negra,\u201d its big 2026 Oscar hopeful<\/a>, will receive the longest theatrical rollout Netflix has given any film to date.) The company will also now report box-office numbers, a major change for the transparency-shy Sarandos.<\/p>\n