Greta Gerwig’s Netflix Narnia Will Debut in Imax Theaters
Greta Gerwig’s Narnia film will be released exclusively in IMAX theaters for two weeks before its debut on Netflix.
After months of negotiations, Imax announced that the film will open in theaters on Thanksgiving Day 2026 and will premiere on Netflix on Christmas. This is a rare deal for the streaming service, seeing as though the company likes to debut its projects exclusively on the platform. However, the streamer has released titles in theaters to qualify for Oscar nominations.
For example, Netflix allowed Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery to have a one-week run in over 600 venues, marking the company’s largest theatrical release. The film received a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 95 Academy Awards, among other accolades.
Nevertheless, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos assures Narnia’s theatrical release does not represent a “change in our core strategy. Our core strategy is to give our members exclusive first-round movies on Netflix.”
“In the case of ‘Narnia,’ it’s a two-week special event. I think it’s very differentiated from other runs because I doubt anyone has a screen as big as an Imax screen at home. It is a differentiated consumer experience,” he continues. “But we’ve done variants of these releases many times, and doing it with Imax greatly simplifies our release process as well.”
Narnia is officially returning to the big screen!
— NarniaWeb (@NarniaWeb) January 17, 2025
Netflix has announced that Greta Gerwig's first Narnia film will debut in IMAX theaters for a 4-week run beginning on Thanksgiving Day 2026.
Let the countdown begin! https://t.co/yPCT7BdJ2z
The film is based on The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, a series of fantasy novels that explore the difference between good and evil. In 2018, Netflix announced that it would produce work based on the novels, Greta Gerwig, director of critically acclaimed films Barbie and Little Women, joined the project in 2020.
Rewatching Little woman(2019) it really is a masterpiece. I can only dream of how brilliant Greta’s Narnia series is gonna be
— CHALLENGERZZZ (@teddychalamet) January 22, 2025
As Netflix works with Imax theaters to theatrically release Narnia, they are suggesting that this might be another one of Gerwig’s masterpieces. After all, this will be her next big film following the success of Barbie, 2023’s highest-grossing film and the highest-grossing film directed by a solo female director.
While you wait for Narnia, you can stream Barbie on MAX.
