During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Netflix and the Warner Bros. Discovery deal, Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos dropped a bombshell regarding Superman, the James Gunn-directed reboot of DC’s iconic hero.
Sarandos confirms the film underperformed while addressing the industry-standard 45-day theatrical release prior to hitting streaming.
Sarandos Grilled on 45-Day Window
Original video via YouTube (1hr 16mins 17 seconds mark), the moment came as Senator Cory Booker pressed Sarandos on whether Netflix would abide by a full, exclusive 45-day theatrical window for upcoming films, a practice that has become the de facto standard before a movie transitions to streaming or VOD:
BOOKER: “I want to ask a direct question: Will this be a fully exclusive 45-day theatrical window?”
SARANDOS: “Fully exclusive to theaters, yes.”
But when asked if this window is strictly enforced, Sarandos gave a telling response, and name-dropped James Gunn’s Superman:
SARANDOS: “It is the industry standard for self-enforcement. However, routinely movies that underperform, the window moves a little bit… and Superman was a little shorter window, and Sinners, a little longer window, but they still could refer to it as a 45-day window.”
Sarandos’ candid admission confirms what many in the industry already suspected and what we first told you: Gunn’s Superman failed to live up to expectations.
This obviously prompted Warner Bros. to release Superman early and push it to video-on-demand just 35 days after its theatrical release.
Watch the video:
Superman 2025 underperformed… this is coming from Ted Sarandos himself 🤷♂️ pic.twitter.com/cHiKvji36S
— Daniel Dami Biu (@damiebi10) February 3, 2026
Gunn’s Superman Didn’t Meet Expectations
The fact that Sarandos felt compelled to distinguish Superman as an underperformer in contrast to another project (Sinners) suggests the movie may have missed financial targets by a wide margin.
While he tried to frame it as common industry practice, his admission is the first public acknowledgment from a top executive that Superman failed to justify a full theatrical run.
The early VOD release raised eyebrows, especially given the reported $350M+ budget and the fact that it was meant to be the cornerstone of Gunn’s new DC Universe reboot, which has now been downgraded to Gunn’s “Superman Family Saga” amid the sale of WBD.
Also, don’t forget that Warner Bros. set the Minecraft sequel release date only two weeks after Gunn’s Superman follow-up, Man of Tomorrow, in 2027. Now, what does that say?
