James Cameron Rallies Against Netflix's Oscar Chances

It would be hard to find a superlative that didn't apply to James Cameron. The guy is talented, funny, interesting, innovative, and downright important to Hollywood and where we're going as an industry.

He's seen this town change through four decades of hard work, and he's made masterpiece movies in all of them.

So when James Cameron gives an interview, it's always worth reading.

Recently, he sat down with my favorite Hollywood publication, Puck, and its leader, Matt Belloni, to give a talk about Avatar, Hollywood, and the state of the industry.

In it, he had some choice words for Netflix.

Let's dive in.

James Cameron Wants Netflix to Release Theatrical Movies

As we've talked about in the last few weeks, Hollywood's theatrical business is under attack. As each new movie studio sells, you have streamers in on the bidding.

And those streamers have one goal: Keep you on the couch, andn ot in theaters.

Cameron is the king of theatrical. His Avatar movies and Titanic are among the highest-grossing of all time. He knows what it means to have a communal experience and to have people flock to see his spectacles.

So with WB for sale, Cameron is rooting for anyone but Netflix to buy the movie studio.

Cameron: I think Paramount’s the best choice. Netflix would be a disaster. Sorry, Ted, but geez. Sarandos has gone on the record saying theatrical films are dead. “Theatrical is dead. Quote, unquote.”
Belloni: He’s now promising theaters if he buys Warner Bros.
Cameron: [laughs] It’s sucker bait. “We’ll put the movie out for a week or 10 days. We’ll qualify for Oscar consideration.” See, I think that’s fundamentally rotten to the core. A movie should be made as a movie for theatrical, and the Academy Awards mean nothing to me if they don’t mean theatrical. I think they’ve been co-opted, and I think it’s horrific.

As you can see, Cameron is no fan of the streamer. And he doubled down on how Hollywood should respond to them. Unless Netflix alters its release strategy, Cameron believes their films have no place in the Oscar race.

Belloni: You don’t think they should be allowed to compete for Oscars?
Cameron: They should be allowed to compete if they put the movie out for a meaningful release in 2,000 theaters for a month.

Is Any Of What Cameron Said Feasible?

That new release strategy he proposed would be so helpful to theaters and actually force these streamers to take their awards swings and show them to the masses in accessible ways.

But in all of this, Cameron touches on a critical existential question for the industry.

Netflix essentially operates like a tech company. They finance prestige projects to gain legitimacy and drive subscriptions, but their business model actively deprioritizes the cinema experience. They aren't trying to sell tickets; they are trying to keep you on the couch.

If the Oscars—which ostensibly celebrate the pinnacle of cinematic achievement—allow films that bypass cinemas to dominate, does the definition of "cinema" change for all time?

That's a doozy.

Cameron suggests that filmmakers moving to Netflix are sending a signal, intentional or not, that the theater model isn't worth fighting for. When you look at the slate of recent Netflix contenders—films that receive a whisper of a theatrical run on less than 400 screens before getting sucked into the algorithm—it’s hard to argue that they are cultural events in the same way a theatrical hit is.

Maybe there's a happy medium where Netflix can get stuff out there for a month to keep all these dreams and the theaters alive?

Summing It All Up

James Cameron is one of the most revolutionary directors of all time. And I think we need to pay attention to his mandatory 2,000 screens / 30-day run for the eligibility rule.

It would force streamers to fundamentally alter their business models or bow out of the race entirely. But it could also reduce the number of risky, high-budget "art films" that only survive on streaming budgets.

There's no easy answer, but it's clear we're at an inflection point of the industry as a whole.

Let me know what you think in the comments.