With exhibitors, guilds and filmmakers like James Cameron scared that a Netflix and Warner Bros merger “will be disastrous for the theatrical motion picture business,” along comes No. 1 theater circuit boss AMC’s Adam Aron yesterday during an earnings call, waving a flag for the streamer and its future on the big screen.

Aron was over the-moon about the recent success AMC has had with Netflix in the theatrical releases of KPop Demon Hunters and the Stranger Things series finale on New Year’s Eve and Day, the latter minting $15M for the circuit in concession revenue and more than 753K admissions (Netflix due to guild residual issues was unable to charge for tickets to Stranger Things).

Ironically, AMC refused to play the most watched Netflix movie of all-time, the Oscar nominated KPop Demon Hunters, in late August, but that didn’t stop the movie from becoming No. 1 at the box office with $19M (over Saturday and Sunday); the first time Netflix ever led the weekend chart. AMC came around and opened its arms to KPop Demon Hunters over the sleepy Halloween weekend, a movie which Aron exclaimed delivered “approximately 35% of the film’s total attendance during the holiday frame” (the Sony Pictures Animation produced title’s second weekend at the B.O. did around $6M).

Aron and Netflix have long locked horns, the two sides unable to hatch a deal for big movies, such as a wide release of Martin Scorsese’s 2019 3 1/2 hour epic The Irishman. However, it’s clear, hatchets have buried.

“You may recall that a few months ago AMC and Netflix made the joint decision to partner together,” said Aron on the Q4 earnings call yesterday, “This was a significant departure from our two companies staying at arms length from each other over many years.

“The success of our recent collaborations with Netflix highlight the strategic opportunity that lies ahead. With roughly two-thirds of AMC Stubs loyalty members also subscribing to Netflix, the audience overlap is both significant and compelling,” he further added. 

Aron summed up his rally for Netflix by beaming, “Our two companies should be best of friends, and I can confirm that AMC is enthusiastic about the prospect of expanding our relationship with Netflix. We look forward to working together to create innovative, mutually beneficial theatrical events that drive value for both companies.”

Aron’s positive remarks about Netflix are an anomaly as many have been quick to point out how challenging the streamer has been in embracing theatrical, specifically a wide release. Since making an $83B bid for Warner Bros. theatrical, TV and HBO Max components, Sarandos has changed his tune on theatrical, claiming that he’ll stick to a 45-day exclusive theatrical window should Netflix win Warner Bros. Sarandos has gone further, as some have worried whether he meant 45 days theatrical-to-streaming (which would be a killer for the business), to emphasize that Netflix would segue movies from cinemas to a traditional PVOD window, and then streaming later on.

As far as Netflix’s future theatrical commitments, it was announced yesterday that the first two episodes of One Piece‘s season 2 will also screen in theaters when the show hits the streamer on March 10 in 200 locations in U.S, Canada and Japan. There’s also the Imax release of Greta Gerwig’s Narnia in November, which AMC will be involved with. However, there’s been no word of Netflix committing to a wide release of Narnia or David Fincher’s The Adventures of Cliff Booth this summer starring Brad Pitt in his stuntman role from the Oscar winning Quentin Tarantino film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Yesterday, the Warner Bros. Discovery board determined that a new proposal from Paramount could reasonably be expected to lead to a so-called “Company Superior Proposal” as defined in WBD’s merger agreement with Netflix and that it will continue talks with the David Ellison company.