Netflix has cookies to nom, nom, nom on.
Coming on top of a two-company bidding war, the streaming giant has landed the feature film rights to Sesame Street, the long-running and iconic children’s educational television show.
Rideback, the production company behind the billion-dollar live-action Lilo & Stitch and Aladdin movies, and run by Jonathan Eirich and Michael Lofaso, will produce the feature. The company had already been working with Sesame Workshop, the company behind the show, on an animation project, and was able to get an early jump.
Sesame Workshop will be involved in a producer capacity as well.
The move brings Sesame Street fully into Netflix’s arms as the streamer already has the television rights, something it picked up in May 2025.
Who would acquire the movie rights has been about a year-long contest. Sesame Workshop signed with CAA in the fall and initially it was a three-way grouch match between Netflix, Universal and, according to sources, Warner Bros.
Warners, who actually had the feature rights for about a decade but was never able to get to a Sesame Street movie, bowed out early amid acquisition drama, first by Netflix, then by Paramount.
Universal proved a strong contender as it had The Daniels, the Everything Everywhere All at Once filmmaking team of Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, attached to produce as well as Phil Lord and Chris Miller. (Neither entity was attached to direct, sources stress.)
In the end, Netflix prevailed. It helped that Sesame Workshop also approved of Rideback’s approach to the material. No filmmaker is currently attached.
Sesame Street is best known as the home of the Big Bird, Bert and Ernie, Grover, Oscar the Grouch, Cookie Monster and Elmo. The series has generated two previous big-screen adaptations, 1985’s Follow That Bird and 1999’s The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland. Bird featured John Candy, Chevy Chase and Dave Thomas as well as the marquee puppets. It was distributed by Warner Bros.
The Insneider newsletter first reported the news of Netflix’s acquisition.
