Sony Considering Netflix Release For Masters of the Universe

He-Man could be making his return to live action film not in theaters, but on Netflix according to a new report. according to THR, Sony Pictures head Tom Rothman is mulling the possibility of selling the carriage rights to Masters of the Universe to the streaming service as opposed to a theatrical release.

The film stars Noah Centineo as He-Man and is currently set for a March 5th, 2021 release date in theaters. The idea from Sony would be that through Netflix, they will be able to negotiate a guaranteed amount of money instead of risking selling the rights in different territories, retaining the rights in others and ultimately being bound more to how successful the film is in theaters.

Netflix is becoming an increasingly common destination place for big-budget films. Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, which will bow on Netflix on November 29th following a limited November 1st US release, had a production budget of $159 billion. Michael Bay’s ensemble action-thriller 6 Underground stars Ryan Reynolds and cost about $150 million; it debuts on Netflix on December 13th. And these are just the latest, spurred on by the success of films like Bright ($90 million budget) and the service’s expensive television series.

For now, talks to potentially bring Masters of the Universe to Netflix are still very preliminary, so there is no guarantee that this will happen. It does point to an increasing willingness for Hollywood studios to do business with streamers though.