It was quite a shock in January 2024 when Netflix announced that Scott Stuber would leave the company as its head of film. In the seven years Stuber was at Netflix, he brought some of the industry’s best talents over to make films for the streamer. Although many of the movies he helped get made went on to be Oscar darlings, he was also responsible for Netflix’s reputation as a company that appreciates quantity over quality. Dan Lin has taken over for Stuber to help right the ship.

The Hollywood Reporter delved into the beginning of Lin’s tenure on April 1 and explored some of the expectations now placed before him in one of the most coveted roles in the entertainment industry.

Before getting offered the position at Netflix, Lin was a producer and founder at Rideback, a production company responsible for films like Aladdin (2019), It (2017), and The Lego Movie (2014). Most recently, Rideback produced the Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024) live-action series for Netflix. Throughout the nearly two decades he ran his company, Lin earned a reputation for having the strength to command a budget. With how much money Netflix has put into its film division with varied results, this is a quality that they desperately need in an executive.

Since Stuber joined the company in 2017, he produced hundreds of films for Netflix, helping establish the company as a serious contender in the film production area of the industry. He helped Netflix get to a point where the streamer released one new film every week. This strategy proved detrimental because it forced Netflix to spend an unreasonable amount of money on films that go unwatched and get panned by critics. 

The ratio of Netflix films with Rotten Tomatoes scores in the negatives to those with Academy Award nominations is dreadfully high for the former. In recent years, it has gotten so that if a new Netflix film is released, people will automatically assume it will be low-quality, minus the occasional exception.

Since Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos mandated the company follow a “bigger, better, fewer” policy regarding its film division in 2022, it has struggled to make good on that promise. It is the hope that Lin will be the person who will finally get it done without further adding to the company’s extensive debt, which currently levels at roughly $14.5 billion.

As Lin begins his new position, he leaves Rideback with partner Jonathan Eirich and COO Michael LoFaso to run as the new co-CEOs.

Update Courtesy of Evan Miller

Feature Image Courtesy of Observer