Narnia: The Magician's Nephew is cinema's 'biggest' chance to make Netflix work

Narnia: The Magician's Nephew has been hailed as cinema's "biggest opportunity" ever to capitalise on Netflix resources.

AMC CEO Adam Aron is feeling confidence after the news that the streaming giant is giving Greta Gerwig's upcoming fantasy blockbuster a full global theatrical release.

Speaking in an earnings call, Aron said: "The momentum in the industry is palpable.

"The significance cannot be lost by anyone of Netflix’s announcement that in February, 2027, just nine months from now, they will be giving Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew, a global, theatrical release…

"This is the biggest opportunity our industry has ever had to embrace Netflix as a theatrical contest provider."

Originally, the movie was set to drop over Thanksgiving this year with a limited two-week global window on 1,000 Imax screens.

However, the AMC boss is hopeful that the change of plans for Narnia - which will have a global release on February 12 followed by its Netflix drop on April 2 - could be a change of plan.

He teased: "What this leads to, I will leave you all to speculate among yourselves.”

However, he insisted the "interpersonal dynamic” is positive, while there has been a "tremendous amount of high-level diplomacy" between both sides over the last few months.

He added: "Both companies have said publicly and privately that we are looking to do more together."

And Aron insisted he believes AMC "will find other opportunities to work with Netflix", having also collaborated on AMC screenings of Kpop Demon Hunters Singalong, the Stranger Things finale, and episodes of One Piece.

The first of the Gerwig's new adaptations of C.S. Lewis' beloved children's book series will hit cinemas in February next year, a star-studded cast including the likes of Meryl Streep, Daniel Craig, Carey Mulligan, Ciarán Hinds, Emma Mackey and Denise Gough.

Gerwig, 42, hailed the project the "honour of a lifetime".

She said in a statement: “I was a child when I first read The Magician's Nephew, and I fell in love with the gorgeously improbable but completely brilliant concept of a cosmic lion singing the world of Narnia to life.

“I didn't know that I would grow up to make films, but a universe built out of music is an idea that always lived in my heart.

"It is the honour of a lifetime to be asked to imagine it into being. Because of C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia, I believed in magic and hidden worlds and adventure.

"I believed that anywhere could be enchanted and that anyone could be swept up into an epic. That wonder and awe was available to everyone, even ordinary people like me.”

Gerwig will also serve as writer and producer, as well as director.

The Magician's Nephew, which was published in May 1955, was the sixth book published in the seven-novel series but in recent years has served as the first volume in the tale. It is set 1,000 years before the events of the most famous of the stories, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and tells of how Aslan the lion created Narnia.