2 days Ago By Anthony Maglio
Asked on Thursday’s earnings call about the current global economic uncertainty, which for lay people means President Trump’s existing China tariffs and global tariff threats, Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters acknowledged he is “playing close attention, clearly, to the consumer sentiment and where the broader economy is moving.” Not that he and his fellow co-CEO Ted Sarandos are worried. “We pay taxes and levies around the world consistent with all sorts of local regulations.
And there’s always some of that that has existed, always has,” Sarandos said. “But what we’re seeing today, we’re not changing anything in the forecast.” Peters said he and Sarandos “take some comfort .
.. that entertainment historically has been pretty resilient in tougher economic times.
” And you can pretty much double that for Netflix, he said, which Sarandos called “a tremendous value in absolute terms and certainly in competitive terms.” Netflix is not just significantly larger than its competitors, it also exists pretty much everywhere — a macro status that works on a microeconomic level. “We believe we’re additive to the local economies and the local cultures all around the world where we’re working, so (we’re) perhaps a little bit less exposed,” Sarandos said.
It was an expression of confidence following another quarter of strong financial performance. Netflix reported its first quarter 2025 results on Thursday, April 17. This Q1 marked the first quarter that Netflix no longer shared subscriber growth (or loss) figures.
The company reported $10.5 billion in revenue, operating income of $3.3 billion, and a margin of 31.
7 percent — all up substantially from a year ago. Netflix comfortably beat Wall Street’s forecasts. In its quarterly letter to shareholders, the streamer revealed founder Reed Hastings is becoming chairman and executive chairman.
Hastings moved from co-CEO to executive chairman two years ago. Last Wednesday, April 9, 2025, Trump announced he was pausing most of his planned tariffs for 90 days — not you China, you get more tariffs. The president said specifically that he was pausing reciprocal tariffs on “non-retaliating countries,” whatever that means.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent later elaborated that under the pause, most countries would still be subject to a 10 percent tariff. Trump now has less than three months to negotiate with a whole host of nations. It’s not fully clear what the implications for Hollywood could be.
Advertising could take a big hit , and physical goods — like the consumer products and physical media that support TV and film profits — may suffer some as well. There are also concerns about the costs of construction materials for major buildouts, including Netflix’s own plan to create studio- and office-space in the shuttered Fort Monmouth military base in New Jersey. It’s a massive project, rehabbing nearly 500,000 square feet into a dozen soundstages; construction is set to begin “soon,” a Netflix spokesperson for the project told The Hollywood Reporter .
And then there’s China, which is getting creamed with tariffs. One potentially devastating retaliatory move by China could be a ban on U.S.
films . The nation could also put the squeeze on companies like Imax that are expanding their operations swiftly in the country..
