Paramount ends Netflix animation deal: two movies are still coming

Paramount and Netflix have ended their animation deal. Brad Bird’s Ray Gunn and Rich Moore’s still-untitled Jack and the Beanstalk movie are staying at Netflix. By all accounts, the split was mutual. The 2023 pact made a lot more sense when it was built around Skydance Animation as its own partner. Once Skydance came under Paramount, the arrangement no longer lined up with Paramount’s broader distribution plans.

Netflix Download

Netflix also isn’t as dependent on outside animation as it used to be. Dan Lin and Hannah Minghella have expanded the company’s in-house slate with The Sea Beast, Leo, Pinocchio, and KPop Demon Hunters. Paramount, meanwhile, has more reason to keep Skydance Animation movies inside its own system, whether that means a theatrical release or distribution through its own channels. That includes Cosmic Motors from John Lasseter and Louie Del Carmen. Around the industry, the talk points in a few directions at once: Skydance Animation appears to have had favorable original terms, Netflix has grown more self-sufficient, and Paramount wants to hold on to family titles rather than send them out.

If you follow Netflix animation, this still jumps out because Swapped went on to become one of Netflix’s most-watched films ever, with 144.9 million views.

You’ll still get Ray Gunn and Jack and the Beanstalk on Netflix. Paramount will also keep licensing Matlock, The King of Queens, Seal Team, Watson, and NCIS to Netflix.

Paramount+ Download