Netflix has fired film chief Dan Lin, and new chief content officer Peter Rice will lead the search for his replacement. Co-CEO Ted Sarandos told Lin at the start of the weekend, and Lin addressed his teams Monday, according to Variety. His exit closes out a tenure of about two and a half years atop Netflix’s movie division.
Rice will decide who runs Netflix‘s film division next, The Hollywood Reporter reported.
What happened with Dan Lin’s removal
Lin’s ouster capped a rough week at the streamer. Last week, Netflix said it would lay off roughly 1,000 employees, about 6% of its workforce, with product, tech, legal and human resources teams taking the biggest hit, according to a staff memo from Sarandos and co-CEO Greg Peters. A day later, Netflix announced the shock exit of chief content officer Bela Bajaria, the executive who recruited Lin in the first place.
The cuts had already reached Lin’s inner circle. His second-in-command, Doug Belgrad, and Sheroum Kim, who ran the film group’s independent division, were both let go before Lin was, Variety reported. Deadline said Lin’s firing had been rumored for weeks, even as Netflix insiders insisted neither he nor Bajaria was on the chopping block.
Lin took over from Scott Stuber in April 2024. Before that, he built his own production company, Rideback, whose credits include the animated “Lego Movie” franchise, Stephen King’s “It” films and the “Sherlock Holmes” movies. The New York Times reported in June that Lin had greenlit 88 movies in his first two years. His slate includes “Apex,” “Here Comes the Flood” and “The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth,” plus the Cannes pickup “Emilia Pérez.”
What the Netflix film chief search means for fans
Lin’s greenlit titles remain on Netflix’s release schedule, and several are going to theaters first. “La Bola Negra” opened in U.S. theaters Oct. 16 with a 47-day exclusive window, Netflix’s longest ever, before it streams Dec. 2. David Fincher’s “The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth” gets a two-week exclusive IMAX run starting Nov. 25 and lands on Netflix Dec. 23. Greta Gerwig’s “Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew” opens wide Feb. 12, 2027, and streams April 2.
In the staff memo announcing Rice’s hire, Sarandos said he sees a chance to take Netflix’s slate “to the next level,” especially in the U.S. and Canada, where the company has an outsize impact in “creating big, buzzy hits.” That suggests the next film chief will be judged on splashy, broadly appealing titles rather than cost control alone.
Context: From Stuber’s big swings to Lin’s cost discipline
Bajaria hired Lin to rein in spending while raising quality across the entire slate, not just films from marquee directors, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Under Lin, Netflix backed away from $200 million-plus streaming spectacles like “Red Notice,” “The Irishman” and “The Electric State,” Deadline reported.
Lin reorganized the film division by genre shortly after he arrived. In that 2024 setup, Ori Marmur took action, fantasy, horror and sci-fi; Kira Goldberg took drama, thrillers and family films; Niija Kuykendall took young adult, holiday and faith-based titles; and Jason Young took comedy and rom-coms.
Netflix also leaned into mid-budget movies, including book adaptations like “Remarkably Bright Creatures” and “People We Meet on Vacation.” On the action side, “Apex” and “The Rip” both drew strong subscriber numbers under Marmur’s genre unit, TheWrap reported.
That cost discipline strained some filmmaker relationships. Page Six Hollywood reported that Fincher chose not to renew his Netflix deal after clashing with Lin over money for “Cliff Booth,” and that Ben Affleck has privately vented about him. Variety reported tension between Lin and Gerwig over “Narnia.” One creator told Deadline that Netflix is “all about the process, the algorithm and breaking the code,” and that Lin fit right in because he’s process-driven too.
Stuber’s tenure brought Netflix regular best picture nominations, but never a win. Rideback, the company Lin left to join Netflix, produced the $1 billion-grossing “Aladdin” and landed another billion-dollar hit with 2025’s live-action “Lilo & Stitch.”
What’s next
Rice starts as Netflix’s chief content officer Oct. 26. Deadline reports that no successor will be named until he arrives and that no interview process has started yet.
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