Netflix has dismissed film chief Dan Lin after almost three years in the job, according to Variety, which reported he was let go at the start of the weekend and addressed his teams on Monday. The exit follows the shock departure of chief content officer Bela Bajaria and the layoffs of roughly 1,000 staff — about 6% of the workforce — in the company's biggest round of cuts in four years.
Lin's right-hand man Doug Belgrad and indie film head Sheroum Kim are also gone, while Carolina Garcia, the director of original series, was let go as well. Lin, who took over the film division from Scott Stuber in 2024, attended Saturday's Academy Gala and a Netflix screening of the acclaimed La Bola Negra on Sunday evening — his final public appearances in the role — just before his dismissal was confirmed.
The layoffs were announced on October 14, with the company describing the move as part of hiring and investment discipline. Netflix's fourth-quarter margin forecast of 26% includes about 120 basis points of cost tied directly to the workforce reduction, The Hollywood Reporter noted. The cuts are the largest since the streaming wars' earlier retrenchment, and they landed just days before the company's third-quarter earnings report.
That report paired a profit beat — net income up 44% to $3.66 billion — with a weak outlook: fourth-quarter guidance missed Wall Street estimates, and the 2026 advertising forecast was cut by about $300 million to roughly $2.7 billion. More than 20 brokerages lowered their price targets, and the stock has fallen more than 26% this year.
Co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters told investors the company has an opportunity to take its slate to the next level, especially in the U.S., where one big, buzzy show can have an outsized effect, according to Variety's account of the earnings call. With former Disney and Fox executive Peter Rice starting as chief content officer on October 26, the Lin era ends as the Rice era begins — and the film division's next chapter is now the industry's most-watched executive search.