Director David Fincher has left Netflix, the latest change at a company that has recently cut 1,000 jobs, lost its chief content officer and seen its stock price fall nearly 50 percent over the past year.
Fincher first worked with Netflix in 2013, directing House of Cards, an early original series credited with helping shift the company from licensing other studios’ shows to producing its own programming. Netflix now spends roughly $20 billion a year on original content. Fincher went on to direct the first season of Mindhunter in 2017 and signed an exclusive deal with Netflix in 2020, under which he made the films Mank (2020) and The Killer (2023).
His most recent project was The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth, a sequel to Quentin Tarantino’s 2019 film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Tarantino wrote the script, and Brad Pitt returned to the role for which he won an Oscar. The film is scheduled for a limited IMAX theatrical release next month.
According to reports, Netflix has spent about $250 million on the project. After viewing his first cut, Fincher requested additional funding for reshoots. Netflix Films chairman Daniel Lin, who was hired two years ago in part to control spending, approved only a portion of that request. Fincher has since departed the project. Lin’s own future at the company has also been described as uncertain.
The departure comes as Netflix faces broader competitive pressure. Chief content officer Bela Bajaria has left the company, and Netflix was unsuccessful in its bid to acquire Warner Bros. In terms of television viewing share, Netflix trails YouTube, 7.8 percent to 14.2 percent, and the combined share of three free, ad-supported streaming services — Roku Channel, Pluto, and Tubi — is close to matching Netflix’s total.
Netflix reported 2025 revenue of $45.2 billion and a net profit of $11 billion last year. YouTube’s 2025 revenue reached $60 billion, including $40 billion from advertising; Alphabet, YouTube’s parent company, has not disclosed the platform’s net profit.
Netflix has been expanding into live sports programming and podcast hosting as it looks for new sources of growth amid a leveling-off in subscriber numbers.
