The prospect of Netflix acquiring Warner Bros — with Paramount mounting a hostile counter-bid for the same crown jewel — marks a watershed moment in the history of cinema. Regardless of the winner, the movie world will not look the same.
If Netflix buys Warner Bros, it will have access to a century of storytelling capital. Warner’s catalogue — which includes a vast classic film library, DC superheroes and the Harry Potter universe — would instantly give Netflix multi-generational IP that can be mined across films, series, animation, games and merchandise. It would strengthen Netflix’s ability to build franchises instead of chasing an algorithmically safe and forgettable hit.
Paramount Studios, already saddled with debt, is fighting for survival. The acquisition of Warner Bros will give it scale and create a traditional studio behemoth with formidable theatrical distribution, cable networks and a strong streaming catalogue.
For audiences, however, the picture is more complicated. While consolidation may lead to big-budget movies, better-coordinated franchises and a wide-ranging catalogue, their choices will be controlled by a small number of corporations.
Since its founding in 1923, Warner Bros has been known for many firsts in Hollywood — it was the first major studio to produce sound films in the late 1920s, it bet heavily on television in the 1950s, and in the 1970s Warner pioneered superhero films and later started its HBO division in the late 1990s. However, the downward slide began after AT&T’s botched acquisition of Warner Bros in 2018.
The stakes are enormous for filmmakers and new talent. The acquisition — whether by Netflix or Paramount — would create the single most important buyer of content on the planet, with unprecedented leverage over terms, rights and creative control, adversely affecting independent producers and mid-budget, riskier films, and creating a humongous monopoly that is prohibited in the US.
