Netflix Film VP Doug Belgrad is out at the streamer as part of its company-wide layoffs on Wednesday, TheWrap has learned.
Belgrad served as a right-hand man to Netflix Film head Dan Lin, and was one of Lin’s first hires when he took over the role from Scott Stuber. During his two years at the streamer, Belgrad helped shore up a more consistent pipeline of films, specifically shepherding hits like “The Rip,” “War Machine,” “People We Meet on Vacation” and “Happy Gilmore 2,” as well as critical successes like “Train Dreams.”
Belgrad was also instrumental in hashing out Netflix’s Pay-1 deal with Sony, identifying Sony films to acquire to release as Netflix originals are part of their partnership. Those included “People We Meet on Vacation,” “Voicemails From Isabelle” and the upcoming “Grown Ups 3.”
He also worked closely with talent like Greta Gerwig, Guillermo del Toro, Peter Berg and Joe Carnahan.
Netflix declined to comment.
Belgrad was previously a longtime Sony Pictures employee, serving as President of Production starting in 2003, President of Columbia Pictures in 2011 and then elevated to President of Sony Motion Picture Group in 2013.
He joined Netflix in 2024.
Netflix laid off roughly 1,000 employees on Wednesday, or 6% of its workforce, and co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said in an email to staff that the majority of the cuts are in the product, tech, legal and human-resources teams.
“Our mission – to entertain the world – is ambitious, and delivering on it requires us to be disciplined about where we prioritize our people and resources,” Sarandos and Peters said in their note to staff. “Our business is strong and growing, and we remain on track to deliver our full- year forecast. We’ll continue to invest aggressively in high- impact areas to improve our service and further drive growth and innovation. Doing that means making focused choices across the business so we can keep delivering for our members, partners, employees, and investors.”
While Netflix has struggled with growth in 2026, the streamer has actually had a pretty successful year when it comes to original films. Genre movies like “The Rip,” “Apex” and “War Machine” all performed exceptionally well with subscribers under the guidance of VP Ori Marmur, who oversees the genre unit under Lin.
Next up, Netflix is pushing into the theatrical space in a big way. Awards contender “La Bola Negra” will get the streamer’s first 45-day theatrical window this fall, David Fincher’s “The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth” will be its first IMAX release in November, and Greta Gerwig’s “Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew” is getting a global theatrical rollout and 45-day theatrical window when it hits theaters in February long before its streaming debut.
