Netflix’s New Movie Strategy: Fewer, Better Films

When Dan Lin, the chairman of Netflix’s film division, read the script for a survival thriller set in the remote wilderness of Australia, he thought it was obvious who should play the lead role: Charlize Theron. “Charlize is one of one,” Mr. Lin said. The movie, “Apex,” would feature white-water rafting, venomous snakes, characters plummeting to their deaths from cliffs. “We wanted to make it in a way that the action actually felt real — that you actually felt like you were in the Australian outback,” Mr. Lin said. “She was the only one that could do it.”

Mr. Lin and I were sitting in a sleek conference room at Netflix’s Sunset Boulevard headquarters, where he oversees the industry’s most prolific film studio. We were talking about his approach to making movies, and he had volunteered this story.

For “Apex,” Mr. Lin consulted with Kira Goldberg, one of his deputies. “Kira and I strategized about how do we get Charlize to do it,” he said. “How do we know that the actor that we have is game to make that kind of movie? And so, unlike a traditional Hollywood process where you take someone to The Grill, some fancy restaurant, we took Charlize to the cafeteria here at Netflix.”

“That was the strategy,” I said, a little confused. “Why?”

“The strategy is: Is she game?” Mr. Lin said. “Is she willing to roll up her sleeves and get into it with us?”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/04/business/media/dan-lin-netflix-hollywood.html