Carry-On convinced Steven Spielberg that streaming services can have hit movies, according to Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos.
Carry-On was released on Netflix in December 2024. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, the action thriller movie stars Taron Egerton, Jason Bateman, Sofia Carson, and Danielle Deadwyler. The film was released under the Amblin Entertainment, a production company co-founded by Spielberg, banner.
How did Carry-On change Steven Spielberg’s mind about streaming?
Sarandos said, via Variety, “My validation point from Steven was, he said, ‘Having Carry-On felt like when I have a big hit in the theater. I heard the way everyone talked about it, and that’s exactly what a hit movie feels like!’”
Spielberg has been critical about streaming in the past. Specifically calling out HBO Max, the Jurassic Park and The Post director told The New York Times in 2022, “The pandemic created an opportunity for streaming platforms to raise their subscriptions to record-breaking levels and also throw some of my best filmmaker friends under the bus as their movies were unceremoniously not given theatrical releases.”
Amblin Entertainment and Netflix are now collaborating on The Thursday Murder Club, a forthcoming crime comedy movie that is being directed by Chris Columbus (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone). Based on the 2020 novel by Richard Osman, the film stars Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, David Tennant, Celia Imrie, Jonathan Pryce, Naomi Ackie, Richard E. Grant, Tom Ellis, and more.
A release date for The Thursday Murder Club has not yet been announced, though the film is expected to debut at some point this year. Carry-On, meanwhile, is now available to stream on Netflix.
“A young TSA agent (Egerton) fights to outsmart a mysterious traveler who blackmails him into letting a dangerous package slip onto a Christmas Eve flight,” the official synopsis for Carry-On reads.
