Netflix Lost Margot Robbie’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ to Warner Bros. Despite $150 Million Offer — Has the Streamer Lost Its Dealmaking Mojo?

It turns out money can’t buy everything.

Take the case of the red-hot “Wuthering Heights” package. The Emerald Fennell-directed film, which will star Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, sparked a bidding war, with Netflix’s $150 million offer dwarfing Warner Bros.’ $80 million bid. For the past decade, agents have advised their clients to take the loot. But in a sign of the turning tide, the “Wuthering Heights” filmmakers, led by producer Robbie, opted for Warners film chiefs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy’s pitch for a wide theatrical release and a full marketing campaign.

One top agent says Netflix was “shocked” by the outcome “because obviously they had outbid [every other studio] for so long,” and had been used to winning these contests. Even more surprising: Netflix may not have even finished the heat in second. Amazon is believed to have done so, having promised Fennell a major theatrical push. (Netflix and Amazon declined comment.)

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For its part, Warners was eager to move forward immediately. Production begins in first-quarter 2025, sources say, even if that poses a logistical headache for Elordi, who is scheduled to begin shooting “Euphoria” Season 3 in January for sister company HBO. (Warners also declined comment.)

“Netflix has the biggest number of subscribers and scale, so they can afford to play the game that they’re playing,” says Eric Handler, an analyst at Roth Capital Partners. “But there’s a growing contingent of directors and movie stars who are saying, ‘No thanks.’”

Now, some filmmakers who signed deals with Netflix appear to be having second thoughts about the company’s no-to-cursory theatrical stance and are looking for any wiggle room. In 2020, Greta Gerwig inked a lucrative pact to write and direct two films for the streamer based on C.S. Lewis’ “The Chronicles of Narnia” book series. But that was before the mega-success of Gerwig’s “Barbie” and its $1.45 billion box office haul. With “Barbie” star Robbie having bypassed Netflix on “Wuthering Heights,” Gerwig has renewed leverage and is in discussions to see “Narnia” receive an Imax run when it is released in 2026. A source familiar with the dealmaking says talks are preliminary for “Narnia” to screen at most of the roughly 1,800 Imax theaters globally, but the specific footprint has not been discussed in detail. Another source says the film will only unspool across a fraction of Imax theaters.

Another key detail being ironed out is the time between the Imax run and the Netflix bow. A truncated window could prove thorny for Imax.

“AMC, Regal, Cinemark and any of the partners who have Imax screens are not going to be happy to put money into promoting a movie that you could see on Netflix a week later,” Handler says.

Last month, Imax poached Jonathan Fischer from Netflix to be its chief content officer. Fischer — who was Netflix’s VP of content strategy and analysis, global films — is said to be heavily involved in finding a middle ground for all of the “Narnia” parties. But Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos indicated during a recent earnings call that he isn’t inclined to budge on windowing and insisted that Netflix films are culturally relevant.

“We believe that not making [subscribers] wait for months to watch the movie that everyone’s talking about adds that value. So what we do for filmmakers is we bring them the biggest audience in the world for their films. And then we help them make the best films of their life,” Sarandos said. “I’m sure that we can continue to pierce the zeitgeist and have those moments in the culture even when those moments begin on Netflix.”

All the while, talent continues to navigate a leadership change at Netflix that saw Scott Stuber step down as film chief and Dan Lin fill the post. Agents say the shuffle likely didn’t play a role in the streaming giant losing out to Warners on “Wuthering Heights,” nor is it significant in the “Narnia” talks.

What the “Narnia” window ultimately will be remains to be seen, but some see Netflix as approaching a slippery slope. “If they break precedent for one, then what?” says Peter Newman, head of the MBA/MFA graduate dual degree program at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. “Who’s to say that a director who’s worth three-quarters as much as Greta in the public’s mind shouldn’t ask for the same? It will be very hard to keep that discipline.”