The news is definitely bleak as we face what is one of the biggest mergers of our time. As the Netflix deal to purchase Warner Brothers Entertainment looms over us with increasingly likely success, an anonymous collective of key industry players have sent an open letter to Congress, describing the potential for an economic and institutional meltdown should the merger go through.
According to Variety, “[C]ommunication outlines three areas of great concern, including that Netflix could stand to ‘destroy’ the theatrical film marketplace by escalating or eliminating the amount of time Warner Bros. films would play in theaters before hitting a combined Netflix-HBO Max streaming platform.”
The news went out this morning that Netflix was poised to purchase Warner Bros. and HBO Max in a $82.7 billion deal over David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance and Comcast.
Warner Bros executive David Zaslav is already preemptively celebrating, saying, “Today’s announcement combines two of the greatest storytelling companies in the world to bring to even more people the entertainment they love to watch the most. By coming together with Netflix, we will ensure people everywhere will continue to enjoy the world’s most resonant stories for generations to come.”
What does this mean?
This is the kind of merger that has the power to completely change the face of the entertainment industry. Much like the merger of Warner Bros. and HBO back in 2022, it’s presented as something that will bring change and offer more opportunities for creatives. But as shows and films started to get axed at HBO, and as existing titles began disappearing off the platform, the real effects are what are hidden beneath the pomp and circumstance the boards and CEOs like to spew to the press.
The deal also serves to potentially limit theatrical releases on movies. While there have been denials of a two-week window in theaters before moving to streaming, Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix, has said numerous times that Netflix’s business model has nothing to do with movie theaters.
The producers behind the letter of alarm argued that the merger would “effectively hold a noose around the theatrical marketplace.”
The reaction around the internet has been widely negative, with many speaking on probable subscription cost hikes, as well as an unstable industry thrown into turmoil as theatrical runs are in danger.
While the merger would not go through until Q3 of 2026, it is unclear what will happen in the lead-up to that, if it does go through. Film and television are inherently art forms, and in the last decade or two CEOs have completely lost sight of that. They don’t care about the craft, they just care about how much money they can make and how much money they can save.
“Driving folks to a theater is just not our business,” Sarandos said. And they just might try to drive everything out of theaters if they have the opportunity.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
