Netflix Ousts Film Chief Dan Lin in a Week of Cuts. Twenty Billion Dollars Should Buy Better Stories.

The facts come first below. My opinion follows in the section marked as opinion.

Netflix has pushed out the man who picked its movies. It is the second top executive to leave in less than a week, and it comes just before the company reports quarterly earnings to an uneasy Wall Street.

Dan Lin was dismissed as head of film after almost three years, Variety reported Monday, citing multiple sources. He was let go at the start of the weekend and spent Monday addressing his teams. A Netflix spokesperson had no immediate comment. Peter Rice, the company's incoming content chief, will run the film division until a new head is named, Reuters reported.

A week of cuts at the top

Last Thursday, Netflix announced that Rice, a former chairman of Walt Disney Television, will become chief content officer on Oct. 26. He replaces Bela Bajaria, who is leaving after nearly 10 years. "She led enormous changes at Netflix," co-CEO Ted Sarandos said in the announcement. Of Rice, he said, "He understands what makes stories resonate."

A day earlier, Netflix said it would lay off about 1,000 people, roughly 6 percent of its staff, mostly in product, technology, legal and human resources, CNBC reported. In a memo, Sarandos and co-CEO Greg Peters wrote that the company must be "disciplined about where we prioritize our people and resources." Variety reported that the cuts also took Lin's top deputy, Doug Belgrad, and the head of the film division's independent unit, Sheroum Kim.

Lin came to Netflix in 2024 from Rideback, the production company behind the "Lego" movies. He told The New York Times in June that he had greenlit or acquired 88 movies for Netflix, according to Variety. Reuters noted that "KPop Demon Hunters," an animated hit made on his watch, won an Academy Award.

Why Wall Street is watching

Netflix reports third-quarter results after the market closes Tuesday. Deadline reported that the stock is down 25 percent this year and more than 40 percent over the past 12 months. Some of that decline came after Netflix lost the fight for Warner Bros. to Paramount Skydance. The New York Post, citing The Wall Street Journal, put the 12-month drop at 40 percent and said Bajaria had overseen a $20 billion budget for shows and films.

Sarandos said recently that Netflix is "not growing as fast as I want us to," Reuters reported, and engagement data show viewers spending more time on creator-led platforms like YouTube. Analysts expect quarterly revenue of $12.8 billion, up 11.8 percent from a year earlier, Deadline reported. They say the company's comments on viewing and its coming slate may matter more than the numbers.

Opinion: Twenty billion dollars should buy better stories

Netflix is not failing. It is still profitable, still growing its revenue, and still the biggest name in streaming. But a company that spends $20 billion a year on shows and films, and still watches its stock fall 40 percent in a year, has to ask whether it is spending on the right things.

Jesus told a parable about a man who started building a tower without first sitting down to count "whether he have sufficient to finish it." Netflix chased Warner Bros. and lost, and the Post reported that the bidding war cost it dearly. Now about 1,000 people are out of work, and the people who chose what millions of families watch are being shown the door. Those workers deserve our prayers as they look for jobs, and the executives deserve no gloating.

The fix is not more money. It is better judgment about what is worth making. Paul told the Philippians to think on "whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely." That is good advice for a viewer, and not bad advice for a studio. Peter Rice's résumé, as Netflix itself lists it, includes broad hits like "American Idol" and "This Is Us." If he wants Netflix to grow again, more stories that a whole household can watch together would be a good place to start.

Dock Line's look at another big media shakeup this month is Christiane Amanpour Leaving CNN After 43 Years.