Netflix is pushing Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew from November of this year to February 2027 in a move that honours an exclusive Imax slot but crucially will make the fantasy feature available to exhibitors for a 49-day exclusive theatrical window before it debuts on the streamer.
The C. S. Lewis adaptation will now open for one day exclusively on Imax on February 10 2027 before opening globally in participating cinemas on February 12 and debuting on the platform on April 2. AMC and Cinema United were aming the first to respond positively to Friday’s news.
Netflix said in a statement, “From the outset, we got involved with Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew to support Greta Gerwig and see her vision realised to the fullest in Imax. The film’s delay until 2027 creates an opportunity to give Narnia an expanded, wide release with a full theatrical window; we support Greta and Netflix in pursuing that opportunity and are pleased Imax could help facilitate.”
Narnia was originally scheduled to open on November 26 of this year in a controversial plan that drew public opprobrium from Vue head Tim Richards and would have seen the film play two weeks exclusively in Imax before going “dark” for two weeks and debuting on Netflix on December 25.
The postponement is understood to stem from a weeks-long production delay due to a health issue that befell a cast member on set. Sources told Screen the matter has been safely resolved. Screen understands that the date change does not indicate a theatrical release strategy shift at Netflix although the streamer remains open to opportunities.
AMC CEO Adam Aron posted on X: ”Both AMC in the U.S. and Odeon across Europe will throw everything we have into the mix to support Netflix on this effort. We are in their corner fully. We are and will be all in.” Aron called the news a “massive development” and concluded: “It should not be lost on anyone the significance of Netflix trying a real global release of a major film title.” AMC has 225 Imax auditoriums.
In a statement, Cinema United said: “This is welcome news, and we applaud Ted [Sarandos, co-CEO] and the whole team at Netflix for bringing this film to movie fans around the world. Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew is a movie audiences will want to see on the big screen. Now they’ll have that opportunity.”
Screen has reached out to the two other ’Big Three’ North American cinema chains Cinemark and Regal to confirm whether they will screen the film.
Gerwig adaptation of The Magician’s Nephew marks the first cinematic treatment of the novel, which despite being the sixth in Lewis’s series explains the origins of Narnia. The adaptation stars newcomers David McKenna and Beatrice Campbell alongside Emma Mackey, Carey Mulligan, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Daniel Craig and Meryl Streep.
“I was a child when I first read The Magician’s Nephew, and I fell in love with the gorgeously improbable but completely brilliant concept of a cosmic lion singing the world of Narnia to life,” Gerwig said.
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