Helen Mirren laid down her thoughts on streaming platform Netflix during Warner Bros.’ presentation at 2019 CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Tuesday.
“I love Netflix… but f— Netflix,” Mirren said to promote her upcoming film “The Good Liar.” “There is nothing like sitting in the cinema, the lights go down, the incredible moment of excitement…”
Mirren continued to explain that watching a film in a communal environment like a theater is incomparable.
NATO chief John Fithian assured movie theater execs in Las Vegas that streaming services like Netflix don’t have to be seen as a threat to their bottom line and that they can coexist.
While Fithian did not mention Netflix by name, he cited a 2017 Ernst & Young report that showed that moviegoers who frequently went to cinemas also spent more time on streaming services at home.
“For every race and age demographic, average streaming hours per week was higher for respondents who visited a movie theater nine times per year or more compared to those who visited a theater only once or twice,” Fithian said. “Streaming and theatrical don’t just co‐exist, they reinforce each other.”
That message of partnership was shared by MPAA president Charles Rivkin, who addressed Netflix’s admittance to the MPAA a few months ago.
“We are all stronger advocates for creativity and the entertainment business when we are working together, all of us,” Rivkin said.
Warner Bros. has dated “The Good Liar,” a drama starring Mirren and Ian McKellen, for release on Nov. 15, 2019.
The film is arriving at the height of next year’s awards season.
Bill Condon directs the drama about career con artist Roy Courtnay (McKellen) in an adaptation of a novel by Nicholas Searle. Courtnay meets a wealthy widow named Betty (Mirren) online and moves into her home with the intent to swindle her. And though she’s an easy mark, he slowly comes to care for her. McKellen’s character in the book has been compared to Patricia Highsmith’s “The Talented Mr. Ripley.”
Jeffrey Hatcher, who also wrote Condon’s “Mr. Holmes” starring McKellen as the aging detective, wrote the screenplay based on Searle’s book from 2015.
“The Good Liar” will open opposite the third “Kingsman” film and a week ahead of “Frozen 2.”
Condon last directed Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” remake. Mirren just appeared in Disney’s “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms.”