Doug Belgrad is leaving Netflix where he has been VP of Film for more than two years. His exit, which was confirmed by the streamer, is part of larger layoffs at Netflix today.
Ironically, Belgrad was film chief Dan Lin’s first appointment after a round of layoffs when Lin replaced Scott Stuber and reorganized Netflix’s film department.
There have been rumors for some time that there will be changes in the motion picture department of Netflix. This was due to a decline in viewership for their films, i.e. viewership of 23 billion hours during the first half of 2026, -3.1% compared to previous cycles. In an effort to further stunt its films, Netflix is committing to imposing longer windows (on some titles) in theaters for the first time and will report the earnings of films like the Cannes winner. la bola negraDavid Fincher’s Other misadventures of Cliff Booth, peter berg’s mosquito bowl, danny boyle’s ink, Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: The Wizard’s Nephew and animated titles Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. All this is happening after losing the bid to buy Warner Bros. Studios. There has been heavy gossip circulating that former Warner Bros. studio heads Michael De Luca and Pam Abedy will be heading to the streamer, however, sources say that their recent lunch with CEO Ted Sarandos was merely on a peer-to-peer basis. Netflix will need De Luca and Abdi to show a commitment to dramatization to compete with the streamer; The pair were recently tapped by Skydance co-CEO David Ellison for top positions in the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger.
When Belgrade came to Netflix, there were four challenges: there was not enough product in the pipeline, the streamer was known for excessive spending, there were delays in post-production and filmmakers did not always have the support of editorial feedback. Lynn and Belgrade addressed these issues and now have a full slate of titles through 2028. Belgrad focused most of his time on guiding the filmmakers through post-production.
While at Netflix, Belgrad supervised a team of 35 production executives. Belgrad also participated in Sony’s output deal at Netflix. In addition to being a deal worth a billion dollars, the agreement also calls for Sony to funnel several direct-to-streaming movies to Netflix (Culver City Lot was responsible for the streamer’s most-watched movie to date). kpop demon hunter, which also doubles as Netflix’s first film to open at No. 1 at the weekend box office in late August 2025). Belgrad worked with Sony leadership Tom Rothman, Sanford Panich, and Elizabeth Gabler to identify which pictures would fill the direct-to-Netflix slots. These films are included People We Meet on Vacation, Isabelle’s Voicemails (51 million views in 11 days), and 72 hours Starring Kevin Hart. There are other direct Sony-to-Netflix movies in the pipeline adult 3 (Belgrade was an executive on Sony’s first two films), matter of time with Ben Stiller, and Snowman Starring Chris Pine.
Before joining Netflix in May 2024, Belgrad spent 25 years at Sony Pictures, and ultimately was co-president under Amy Pascal. He joined Culver City in 1989 and was promoted to co-president of production at Columbia in 2003 and president in 2008. men in Black franchise, the Adam Sandler canon at Sony, and the Oscar-nominated American Hustle And Captain Phillipsto name a few.
After stepping down from Sony as Chairman of the Motion Picture Group in 2016, he formed 2.0 Entertainment, which was instrumental in producing and co-financing films like Sony’s. Gran Turismo and the last two bad boys, of 2024 Bad Boys: Ride or Die And bad boys for Life, The latter was a huge pre-Covid hit with $426.5 million earnings and was the highest grosser in the franchise.
Belgrade is still the president of 2.0. He doesn’t plan to immediately reunite with his former colleagues there, but a productive future is not out of the question.
more to come.