December 8, 2025 • 15 mins
The entertainment industry looks to be reshaped if Netflix's acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) for an enterprise value of approximately $82.7 billion closes.
This monumental deal, which was officially agreed upon in late 2025, sees the streaming giant gain control of Warner Bros.' film and television studios, its extensive content library, HBO, and HBO Max.
Comprehensive Summary of the Acquisition
Netflix won a bidding war against competitors like Paramount and Comcast to secure the historic acquisition, which is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026, pending regulatory and shareholder approval.
Deal Specifics
* Total Enterprise Value: Approximately $82.7 billion.
* Structure: A cash and stock transaction, valued at $27.75 per WBD share, after WBD first spins off its Global Networks division (including CNN and TNT) into a separate publicly traded entity called Discovery Global.
* Strategic Rationale: The merger is a strategic move for Netflix to eliminate a major streaming competitor (HBO Max) and immediately acquire one of Hollywood's most prestigious studios with decades of premium, globally recognized intellectual property (IP).
New Content Powerhouse
The deal creates an unparalleled content catalog, merging Netflix's own successful titles like Stranger Things and Wednesday with Warner Bros.' iconic franchises and storied libraries. This trove of newly acquired content includes:
* Film Franchises: Harry Potter, the DC Universe (Superman, Batman, etc.), The Matrix.
* Television Series: Game of Thrones, The Sopranos, The Big Bang Theory, Friends, and The White Lotus.
* Classic Films: Timeless titles like Casablanca and Citizen Kane.
Industry & Regulatory Backlash
The announcement was met with immediate and intense backlash from U.S. lawmakers, industry guilds, and Hollywood figures, who fear the creation of a media giant with monopolistic power in the streaming market.
* Antitrust Concerns: Critics, including politicians like Senator Elizabeth Warren, called the deal an "anti-monopoly nightmare," warning that the combined company would control close to half of the U.S. streaming market. This concentration of power could lead to higher subscription prices, fewer consumer choices, and a reduction in content diversity.
* Worker Impact: Both the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Directors Guild of America (DGA) released statements calling for the merger to be blocked, arguing that the outcome would eliminate jobs, push down wages, and worsen working conditions for entertainment workers by consolidating control into fewer hands.
Ted Sarandos and the "Outdated" Movie Industry
A central point of controversy following the acquisition has been the past and present comments of Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos regarding the traditional movie industry model, which is feared to be undermined by the deal.
Sarandos' Controversial Stance
Sarandos has long been a proponent of the streaming-first model, and his comments about the theatrical experience have been perceived as dismissive and a threat to cinema:
* "We're saving Hollywood": When asked if Netflix was destroying Hollywood, Sarandos stated, "No, we're saving Hollywood." He framed Netflix as an innovator creating a new business model for filmmaking.
* The "Outdated Concept": He has famously called the traditional theatrical release, where a film plays exclusively in a cinema for two months, an "outdated concept" and "outmoded." He argued that the desire for audiences to watch a movie on a giant screen with strangers for an extended, exclusive window "just doesn't happen very much" anymore and is out of step with consumer demand for at-home viewing.
* Focus on Access: Sarandos maintains that the shift is "pro-consumer" because it provides greater access, especially for those who don't live near a multiplex or can't afford expensive movie tickets.
The Acquisition's Impact on Theatrical Windows
Despite the backlash and Sarandos's past comments, Netflix quickly tried to reassure the industry by stating that it would "continue to support" a life cycle that includes a movie theater release for Warner Bros. films.
However, critics and filmmakers remain highly skeptical. They fear that Netflix's acquisition of a major theatrical studio signals the ultimate end of robust, exclusive theatrical windows. The expectation is that even if Warner Bros. films continue to be released in theaters, they will be pulled quickly onto the combined streaming platform (Netflix/HBO Max) to satisfy Sarandos's push for "consumer-friendly" immediate access, thereby diminishing the box office revenue and cultural significance of the theatrical experience. James Cameron was among the high-profile directors who criticized the purchase, calling it "a disaster."
Becom
This monumental deal, which was officially agreed upon in late 2025, sees the streaming giant gain control of Warner Bros.' film and television studios, its extensive content library, HBO, and HBO Max.
Comprehensive Summary of the Acquisition
Netflix won a bidding war against competitors like Paramount and Comcast to secure the historic acquisition, which is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026, pending regulatory and shareholder approval.
Deal Specifics
* Total Enterprise Value: Approximately $82.7 billion.
* Structure: A cash and stock transaction, valued at $27.75 per WBD share, after WBD first spins off its Global Networks division (including CNN and TNT) into a separate publicly traded entity called Discovery Global.
* Strategic Rationale: The merger is a strategic move for Netflix to eliminate a major streaming competitor (HBO Max) and immediately acquire one of Hollywood's most prestigious studios with decades of premium, globally recognized intellectual property (IP).
New Content Powerhouse
The deal creates an unparalleled content catalog, merging Netflix's own successful titles like Stranger Things and Wednesday with Warner Bros.' iconic franchises and storied libraries. This trove of newly acquired content includes:
* Film Franchises: Harry Potter, the DC Universe (Superman, Batman, etc.), The Matrix.
* Television Series: Game of Thrones, The Sopranos, The Big Bang Theory, Friends, and The White Lotus.
* Classic Films: Timeless titles like Casablanca and Citizen Kane.
Industry & Regulatory Backlash
The announcement was met with immediate and intense backlash from U.S. lawmakers, industry guilds, and Hollywood figures, who fear the creation of a media giant with monopolistic power in the streaming market.
* Antitrust Concerns: Critics, including politicians like Senator Elizabeth Warren, called the deal an "anti-monopoly nightmare," warning that the combined company would control close to half of the U.S. streaming market. This concentration of power could lead to higher subscription prices, fewer consumer choices, and a reduction in content diversity.
* Worker Impact: Both the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Directors Guild of America (DGA) released statements calling for the merger to be blocked, arguing that the outcome would eliminate jobs, push down wages, and worsen working conditions for entertainment workers by consolidating control into fewer hands.
Ted Sarandos and the "Outdated" Movie Industry
A central point of controversy following the acquisition has been the past and present comments of Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos regarding the traditional movie industry model, which is feared to be undermined by the deal.
Sarandos' Controversial Stance
Sarandos has long been a proponent of the streaming-first model, and his comments about the theatrical experience have been perceived as dismissive and a threat to cinema:
* "We're saving Hollywood": When asked if Netflix was destroying Hollywood, Sarandos stated, "No, we're saving Hollywood." He framed Netflix as an innovator creating a new business model for filmmaking.
* The "Outdated Concept": He has famously called the traditional theatrical release, where a film plays exclusively in a cinema for two months, an "outdated concept" and "outmoded." He argued that the desire for audiences to watch a movie on a giant screen with strangers for an extended, exclusive window "just doesn't happen very much" anymore and is out of step with consumer demand for at-home viewing.
* Focus on Access: Sarandos maintains that the shift is "pro-consumer" because it provides greater access, especially for those who don't live near a multiplex or can't afford expensive movie tickets.
The Acquisition's Impact on Theatrical Windows
Despite the backlash and Sarandos's past comments, Netflix quickly tried to reassure the industry by stating that it would "continue to support" a life cycle that includes a movie theater release for Warner Bros. films.
However, critics and filmmakers remain highly skeptical. They fear that Netflix's acquisition of a major theatrical studio signals the ultimate end of robust, exclusive theatrical windows. The expectation is that even if Warner Bros. films continue to be released in theaters, they will be pulled quickly onto the combined streaming platform (Netflix/HBO Max) to satisfy Sarandos's push for "consumer-friendly" immediate access, thereby diminishing the box office revenue and cultural significance of the theatrical experience. James Cameron was among the high-profile directors who criticized the purchase, calling it "a disaster."
Becom
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to a Broadcasters Podcast Extra. I recorded this a
little bit earlier today when I was on the road
because I had a rant ready for me about the
Netflix Warner Brothers eighty two billion dollar deal that will
be a disaster for the box office. Here's what I said. So,
everything that's going on with the impending Netflix eighty two
(00:22):
billion dollar sale are buying of Warner Brothers Rabbit and
the fact that Ted Sarandos and the comments he has
made constantly about movie theaters, the exhibution experience, and his
whole diet trap even now just flaunting and trolling on
(00:44):
the fact that he feels like, well, people should just
go ahead and embrace the Netflix direct the Netflix feel
of mid or subpar quality movies at a lower budget,
which will take away a lot of stars from the
kind of movies they'll do. I mean, they gotta even
want to do movies for Netflix. Well, they're gonna be
(01:06):
so low budget. They can also control the fact of
how much they're gonna make money back on because BA
can always tweak the subscription price, which they constantly keep doing.
The price keeps hiking up, and regardless of what money
Netflix is making, it's the subscribers that are getting hurt
by it. The fact that Netflix doesn't have the gall
(01:30):
the stones to go ahead and actually put their movies
out for a proper exhibition. Believe it or not, test
Srando's if he really believes what he says, then he's
really going to the gate. Everything's been said about the
movie experience, where when there's a movie that's really good
that you want to experience with other people in the audience. Okay, yeah,
(01:53):
there are people that are anti social, that are cheap
or just don't want to go ahead and go out
to the movie, because those are not the prerogative. But
there are plenty of people that go out to the
movies this week. This weekend rather is case in point,
because of the fact that we had Wicked for Good,
five nights of Freddy's two and Jiujutsu Katsen that all
(02:16):
made money this week in the box office. They all
were busy at my movie theater and an other movie
theaters nationwide doing the same. See this time of year.
He tried to go ahead and Tetsereno's trying to go
ahead and bash on Barbenheimer the phenomenon of twenty twenty two,
saying that, Oh, Barbie and Abenheiber, they would have been
(02:36):
just as successful and the magnitude of their movies would
have been just as well if they were on Netflix.
Now he is just doing that the troll Pete. There
is no way if he really believes in his mind
that Netflix is that important. I mean, it's a lucky
thing when they have certain things that are going on
in Netflix that go viral. A couple of things that
(02:58):
had to happen for that apossible for K Pop Demon
Hunters to do the success that they had with the music.
By the way, the extra money that Netflix made off
of that movie, I don't know if an good to
go ahead and fuel and off to warrant a twenty
twenty nine sequel. They did the single long they put
the movie in theaters after the fact, now nobody knew
(03:23):
what K Pop Demon Hunters was. But as a different story,
NIE's Out another movie that's gonna be put out in
short exhibition. I don't even know it's gonna be out
for like a week or two weeks at all. Coming
up the new ni is Out Mystery. Then you have
Stranger Things, the final episode of season five, which you're
gonna put on five hundred screens and if you're lucky,
(03:43):
you can find a time where you could watch. So
they don't care. Netflix does not care. They are playing
to the bare minimum effort, lowest common denominator viewer. And
these are people that just don't really care. They just
don't mind that they have the trunch of different movies
(04:04):
and TV shows to watch and if they get to
they'll get to it. A complete on demand generation they
have built since they moved to this digital streaming concept,
they've been the disruptor. And instead of Napster that went
away because they were taken down by anti trust and
there was piracy issues. Well, Netflix instead, they're just going
(04:24):
to get get to disrupt. But that's the play they
want to make. They only want to disrupt. They don't
care the fact that the Academy, the Motion Picture of Academy,
allowed Netflix to put their movies in for consideration. Because
(04:46):
Netflix does the bare mim themselves and marketing and promotion
and exhibiting their movies to be considered for OSCAR nomination
or to win Oscars, I'm glad, hey, good to you,
or you're making some movies and TV shows that are
getting nominations, wonderful you're getting Emmy nods, you're getting Oscar Notts. Wonderful,
(05:07):
but put your money where your mouth is. Do you
really think that you're gonna make a real debt at
the movie theaters with any of these movies that you did?
Remember the movie industry that Netflix was into initially was
taking movies a clover Field, The Steve Club that they
sequel The clover Field and saying, Okay, Paramount's gonna lose
(05:29):
fifty million dollars in this movie, we're gonna put it
on Netflix, and you know it doesn't hurt us at all.
We could take some of these I'm gonna say, like
this kind of has been past their prime stars like
Adam Sandler, and then putting other stars that probably don't
have that much type like Kevin Hart, and giving them
movies all they want, these cheat comedies that they make
(05:52):
that are not that good at all or really not
good at all, and giving them the money and the
wherewithal to go and make a movie cheap, and then
it comes out and you don't hear anything else about it.
And there's so many movies they have with various stars
because well they have to put it somewhere, so imagine
if Warner Brothers get just picked up on this. Now,
(06:14):
the television cable entity that is Discovery Global, that's not
part of this at all. But the movie theater aspect,
Warner Brothers has a big part in their movies. Now
the immediate impact on this deal once it does get approved,
which I don't believe is going to get approved, but
(06:35):
let's just play for argument's sake, that is going to
get approved. The deal that Warner Brothers made with their
movie theater partners is through twenty twenty nine. They are
not going to deviate away from the exhibition window, which
is I guess thirty days from opening night and then
(06:56):
being able to go ahead and put it out there
for streaming or yeah, for digital on demand, they'll make
it available thirty days after. Okay, But when you have
certain movies that are gonna do really well and people
want to go back and watch them in the theaters
within every an audience, one of the things I've been
(07:16):
doing with my Regal subscription is I do like to
go back to a movie and get another second take
of what the audience experience is because we're watching movies
together as an event. If you were to watch Avengers
Endgame at your home and that's the first place you watched,
or Spider Man Away from Home, or any of these
(07:37):
anime movies I've been watching now, from Demon Slayer to
Dragon Ball Z to Juju conson this past weekend. The
fact that you don't have a community around you to watch,
so you're gonna be twitch streaming this, and that's gonna
make the same kind of feel. No. Younger people are
getting more accustomed to going to movies for the community
(07:57):
of it and the movie the studios are going to
the movie theaters and the anime movies. We were talking
about the fact that the anime movies are gonna start
getting distributed on the quieter nights, the quieter fridays of
release where there's not any big movies up against where
there's a lot of slots open. So the anime Kennedy,
(08:19):
Warner Brothers, Japan, Crunchy Roll, they're willing to go ahead
and take a shot at movies here and say, you
know what, we could probably go ahead and make this happen.
We can get one hundred milly dollars, two hundred many
dollars whatever and make back our budget. Plus we're gonna
get the international the street because of the box office there,
anime is replacing what the Marvel and DC super universes are.
(08:42):
But let's just take for example, the DC Universe Batman
two is supposed to be coming out. You have other
movies are gonna be built and put together, and you're
telling me that you're willing to go ahead and fore
go to the movie theater for thirty to forty five
days of exhibition, get people out there to watch, and
give them four to six weeks to watch the movies
(09:04):
at plenty of theaters nationwide and make that fifty five
sixty percent. Then you're gonna make back on return, which
some movies are gonna make half a billion to a
billion dollars, especially when the superhero movies. When it's done right,
you're gonna go ahead and forego that to go to
some limited window maybe for a week, two weeks, a
(09:24):
limited amount of theaters because Netflix doesn't want to spend
the money on it, no promotion on it, just Netflix
and then say, okay, well, we're gonna go ahead and
put the movie theater out there. We're gonna get the
movie theater experience for just a short amount of people
in various markets and then it goes to Netflix same day.
(09:47):
I understand the exclusivity part, but when you're gonna take
a movie city like Water Brothers heralded and there's a
good quarter to a third of the market that Water
Brothers has in their movies right now compared to other
movie studios, they put out a lot of cinema heat
of movies. Netflix doesn't want to pay attention to what
(10:10):
Disney Plus did or what Warner Brothers did during the
pandemic day and date. We went through extensively on this
podcast about they don't care. They think earllion. There's an
ignorance and a stubbornness at Netflix and Ted Sorrando's thinking,
oh well, we can do it better, we have a
better model. Sure, Okay, some of these other streaming outlets,
(10:37):
they were putting a lot of investment into putting movies
or TV shows and premiering them on their streaming platform
as opposed to using network TV for television or cable
TV or going to movie theaters for the movies they have. So,
I mean, you see that Disney's done better with some
of their movies they've had. Zootobia is own right now
(11:00):
out and as banking. And I don't think that Disney
Plus and putting it on that platform, along with the
subscription price that would have the high cup to get
that movie out there availability that would work out good.
But for them, they don't mind. They are happy to
(11:22):
forego the movie audience because we want to test the
movie and see how it does. The bottom line is
any movie you watch on streaming, it should be a replay.
It should be what the HBO showed time experience of
the late seventies to the early nineteen eighties, and beyond
(11:46):
that is what we should still have. The homegoing experience
should be not direct to. Because in Netflix thinks they
can go ahead and they can get away from the
stigma of direct the cable, direct the TV that they
think they can go ahead and put mouies and shows
out there that are not gonna be seen as poor quality.
(12:10):
Now listen to me for a free service. They can
get away with putting stuff that's subpart Netflix. I mean
what you are paying for now twenty four to twenty five,
twenty six dollars a month, I mean you should be
getting movies at are one hundred billion dollars one hundred
million to two hundred million dollar budgeted films for the
(12:31):
kind of money that they're putting in because Netflix is
trying to go and get the whole pot. What needs
to happen is, and I listen, I don't even like
the fact that Paramount is also trying to make the
bid as well, and that we're gonna go to anti
trust with this. But what needs to happen is anti
trustees to come into play. The federal government. The SEC
(12:54):
needs to come in and deny the bit. Now. I
still don't like the fact that they don't do that
and the Paramount gets to come in with a hostile
takeover a bit whatever it is. I don't like it either.
But Warner Brothers Discovery went through a merger several years
ago just to go and get bought by somebody else
because it is deregulation that's going on and that has
not been resolved. They just want to go along with it.
(13:17):
It's stupid. So I hate that they have put this
together and the movie experience for some of those movies
that were going to lose as a result, it's going
to be stupid. I don't want it to happen, but
at least Paramount is a lesser of two evils. Because
(13:40):
they're not going to offend the movie community and just
take the movies away and put it on Paramount Plus
or whatever streaming. You should be able to know there's
a certain threshold they're able to get in terms of
retention of audience for Netflix. Yeah, you do movies every
year and a lot of crappy movies and once a week,
(14:03):
great for you. And I am honestly not really felt
like I've gotten to a movie that really felt special
or good in the time that I ever watched Netflix,
whether I watched it with a subscription or not, I
don't feel like I've gotten anything from it. The upo
of Netflix from the initial start was from all the
(14:26):
catalog of programming that we had to get things up,
and they only have so many the original specials that
they do. They're taking from other foreign sources to get
their their shows out there in the first place. I
don't want to have the political part. That's not anything
what I'm doing with this. I mean there's all political.
There's actually a bipartisan comment about people not feeling good
(14:47):
about this for whatever reasons. But yeah, I don't want
the monopoly and I don't want more movies taken away
from the movie theater. That's how it's supposed to be,
and I really hope that somebody figures that out. Of Course,
next week on the Broadcasters Podcast, if there's any more
information we can get about this and where things go along.
(15:09):
As we hear more from Ted Sarandos or from the
folks at Warner Brothers Discovery, whatever there is, we'll talk
about it and follow back up here on the Broadcasters Podcast.
Remember the content as king, and the control of your
content is in your hands.
Welcome to a Broadcasters Podcast Extra. I recorded this a
little bit earlier today when I was on the road
because I had a rant ready for me about the
Netflix Warner Brothers eighty two billion dollar deal that will
be a disaster for the box office. Here's what I said. So,
everything that's going on with the impending Netflix eighty two
(00:22):
billion dollar sale are buying of Warner Brothers Rabbit and
the fact that Ted Sarandos and the comments he has
made constantly about movie theaters, the exhibution experience, and his
whole diet trap even now just flaunting and trolling on
(00:44):
the fact that he feels like, well, people should just
go ahead and embrace the Netflix direct the Netflix feel
of mid or subpar quality movies at a lower budget,
which will take away a lot of stars from the
kind of movies they'll do. I mean, they gotta even
want to do movies for Netflix. Well, they're gonna be
(01:06):
so low budget. They can also control the fact of
how much they're gonna make money back on because BA
can always tweak the subscription price, which they constantly keep doing.
The price keeps hiking up, and regardless of what money
Netflix is making, it's the subscribers that are getting hurt
by it. The fact that Netflix doesn't have the gall
(01:30):
the stones to go ahead and actually put their movies
out for a proper exhibition. Believe it or not, test
Srando's if he really believes what he says, then he's
really going to the gate. Everything's been said about the
movie experience, where when there's a movie that's really good
that you want to experience with other people in the audience. Okay, yeah,
(01:53):
there are people that are anti social, that are cheap
or just don't want to go ahead and go out
to the movie, because those are not the prerogative. But
there are plenty of people that go out to the
movies this week. This weekend rather is case in point,
because of the fact that we had Wicked for Good,
five nights of Freddy's two and Jiujutsu Katsen that all
(02:16):
made money this week in the box office. They all
were busy at my movie theater and an other movie
theaters nationwide doing the same. See this time of year.
He tried to go ahead and Tetsereno's trying to go
ahead and bash on Barbenheimer the phenomenon of twenty twenty two,
saying that, Oh, Barbie and Abenheiber, they would have been
(02:36):
just as successful and the magnitude of their movies would
have been just as well if they were on Netflix.
Now he is just doing that the troll Pete. There
is no way if he really believes in his mind
that Netflix is that important. I mean, it's a lucky
thing when they have certain things that are going on
in Netflix that go viral. A couple of things that
(02:58):
had to happen for that apossible for K Pop Demon
Hunters to do the success that they had with the music.
By the way, the extra money that Netflix made off
of that movie, I don't know if an good to
go ahead and fuel and off to warrant a twenty
twenty nine sequel. They did the single long they put
the movie in theaters after the fact, now nobody knew
(03:23):
what K Pop Demon Hunters was. But as a different story,
NIE's Out another movie that's gonna be put out in
short exhibition. I don't even know it's gonna be out
for like a week or two weeks at all. Coming
up the new ni is Out Mystery. Then you have
Stranger Things, the final episode of season five, which you're
gonna put on five hundred screens and if you're lucky,
(03:43):
you can find a time where you could watch. So
they don't care. Netflix does not care. They are playing
to the bare minimum effort, lowest common denominator viewer. And
these are people that just don't really care. They just
don't mind that they have the trunch of different movies
(04:04):
and TV shows to watch and if they get to
they'll get to it. A complete on demand generation they
have built since they moved to this digital streaming concept,
they've been the disruptor. And instead of Napster that went
away because they were taken down by anti trust and
there was piracy issues. Well, Netflix instead, they're just going
(04:24):
to get get to disrupt. But that's the play they
want to make. They only want to disrupt. They don't
care the fact that the Academy, the Motion Picture of Academy,
allowed Netflix to put their movies in for consideration. Because
(04:46):
Netflix does the bare mim themselves and marketing and promotion
and exhibiting their movies to be considered for OSCAR nomination
or to win Oscars, I'm glad, hey, good to you,
or you're making some movies and TV shows that are
getting nominations, wonderful you're getting Emmy nods, you're getting Oscar Notts. Wonderful,
(05:07):
but put your money where your mouth is. Do you
really think that you're gonna make a real debt at
the movie theaters with any of these movies that you did?
Remember the movie industry that Netflix was into initially was
taking movies a clover Field, The Steve Club that they
sequel The clover Field and saying, Okay, Paramount's gonna lose
(05:29):
fifty million dollars in this movie, we're gonna put it
on Netflix, and you know it doesn't hurt us at all.
We could take some of these I'm gonna say, like
this kind of has been past their prime stars like
Adam Sandler, and then putting other stars that probably don't
have that much type like Kevin Hart, and giving them
movies all they want, these cheat comedies that they make
(05:52):
that are not that good at all or really not
good at all, and giving them the money and the
wherewithal to go and make a movie cheap, and then
it comes out and you don't hear anything else about it.
And there's so many movies they have with various stars
because well they have to put it somewhere, so imagine
if Warner Brothers get just picked up on this. Now,
(06:14):
the television cable entity that is Discovery Global, that's not
part of this at all. But the movie theater aspect,
Warner Brothers has a big part in their movies. Now
the immediate impact on this deal once it does get approved,
which I don't believe is going to get approved, but
(06:35):
let's just play for argument's sake, that is going to
get approved. The deal that Warner Brothers made with their
movie theater partners is through twenty twenty nine. They are
not going to deviate away from the exhibition window, which
is I guess thirty days from opening night and then
(06:56):
being able to go ahead and put it out there
for streaming or yeah, for digital on demand, they'll make
it available thirty days after. Okay, But when you have
certain movies that are gonna do really well and people
want to go back and watch them in the theaters
within every an audience, one of the things I've been
(07:16):
doing with my Regal subscription is I do like to
go back to a movie and get another second take
of what the audience experience is because we're watching movies
together as an event. If you were to watch Avengers
Endgame at your home and that's the first place you watched,
or Spider Man Away from Home, or any of these
(07:37):
anime movies I've been watching now, from Demon Slayer to
Dragon Ball Z to Juju conson this past weekend. The
fact that you don't have a community around you to watch,
so you're gonna be twitch streaming this, and that's gonna
make the same kind of feel. No. Younger people are
getting more accustomed to going to movies for the community
(07:57):
of it and the movie the studios are going to
the movie theaters and the anime movies. We were talking
about the fact that the anime movies are gonna start
getting distributed on the quieter nights, the quieter fridays of
release where there's not any big movies up against where
there's a lot of slots open. So the anime Kennedy,
(08:19):
Warner Brothers, Japan, Crunchy Roll, they're willing to go ahead
and take a shot at movies here and say, you
know what, we could probably go ahead and make this happen.
We can get one hundred milly dollars, two hundred many
dollars whatever and make back our budget. Plus we're gonna
get the international the street because of the box office there,
anime is replacing what the Marvel and DC super universes are.
(08:42):
But let's just take for example, the DC Universe Batman
two is supposed to be coming out. You have other
movies are gonna be built and put together, and you're
telling me that you're willing to go ahead and fore
go to the movie theater for thirty to forty five
days of exhibition, get people out there to watch, and
give them four to six weeks to watch the movies
(09:04):
at plenty of theaters nationwide and make that fifty five
sixty percent. Then you're gonna make back on return, which
some movies are gonna make half a billion to a
billion dollars, especially when the superhero movies. When it's done right,
you're gonna go ahead and forego that to go to
some limited window maybe for a week, two weeks, a
(09:24):
limited amount of theaters because Netflix doesn't want to spend
the money on it, no promotion on it, just Netflix
and then say, okay, well, we're gonna go ahead and
put the movie theater out there. We're gonna get the
movie theater experience for just a short amount of people
in various markets and then it goes to Netflix same day.
(09:47):
I understand the exclusivity part, but when you're gonna take
a movie city like Water Brothers heralded and there's a
good quarter to a third of the market that Water
Brothers has in their movies right now compared to other
movie studios, they put out a lot of cinema heat
of movies. Netflix doesn't want to pay attention to what
(10:10):
Disney Plus did or what Warner Brothers did during the
pandemic day and date. We went through extensively on this
podcast about they don't care. They think earllion. There's an
ignorance and a stubbornness at Netflix and Ted Sorrando's thinking,
oh well, we can do it better, we have a
better model. Sure, Okay, some of these other streaming outlets,
(10:37):
they were putting a lot of investment into putting movies
or TV shows and premiering them on their streaming platform
as opposed to using network TV for television or cable
TV or going to movie theaters for the movies they have. So,
I mean, you see that Disney's done better with some
of their movies they've had. Zootobia is own right now
(11:00):
out and as banking. And I don't think that Disney
Plus and putting it on that platform, along with the
subscription price that would have the high cup to get
that movie out there availability that would work out good.
But for them, they don't mind. They are happy to
(11:22):
forego the movie audience because we want to test the
movie and see how it does. The bottom line is
any movie you watch on streaming, it should be a replay.
It should be what the HBO showed time experience of
the late seventies to the early nineteen eighties, and beyond
(11:46):
that is what we should still have. The homegoing experience
should be not direct to. Because in Netflix thinks they
can go ahead and they can get away from the
stigma of direct the cable, direct the TV that they
think they can go ahead and put mouies and shows
out there that are not gonna be seen as poor quality.
(12:10):
Now listen to me for a free service. They can
get away with putting stuff that's subpart Netflix. I mean
what you are paying for now twenty four to twenty five,
twenty six dollars a month, I mean you should be
getting movies at are one hundred billion dollars one hundred
million to two hundred million dollar budgeted films for the
(12:31):
kind of money that they're putting in because Netflix is
trying to go and get the whole pot. What needs
to happen is, and I listen, I don't even like
the fact that Paramount is also trying to make the
bid as well, and that we're gonna go to anti
trust with this. But what needs to happen is anti
trustees to come into play. The federal government. The SEC
(12:54):
needs to come in and deny the bit. Now. I
still don't like the fact that they don't do that
and the Paramount gets to come in with a hostile
takeover a bit whatever it is. I don't like it either.
But Warner Brothers Discovery went through a merger several years
ago just to go and get bought by somebody else
because it is deregulation that's going on and that has
not been resolved. They just want to go along with it.
(13:17):
It's stupid. So I hate that they have put this
together and the movie experience for some of those movies
that were going to lose as a result, it's going
to be stupid. I don't want it to happen, but
at least Paramount is a lesser of two evils. Because
(13:40):
they're not going to offend the movie community and just
take the movies away and put it on Paramount Plus
or whatever streaming. You should be able to know there's
a certain threshold they're able to get in terms of
retention of audience for Netflix. Yeah, you do movies every
year and a lot of crappy movies and once a week,
(14:03):
great for you. And I am honestly not really felt
like I've gotten to a movie that really felt special
or good in the time that I ever watched Netflix,
whether I watched it with a subscription or not, I
don't feel like I've gotten anything from it. The upo
of Netflix from the initial start was from all the
(14:26):
catalog of programming that we had to get things up,
and they only have so many the original specials that
they do. They're taking from other foreign sources to get
their their shows out there in the first place. I
don't want to have the political part. That's not anything
what I'm doing with this. I mean there's all political.
There's actually a bipartisan comment about people not feeling good
(14:47):
about this for whatever reasons. But yeah, I don't want
the monopoly and I don't want more movies taken away
from the movie theater. That's how it's supposed to be,
and I really hope that somebody figures that out. Of Course,
next week on the Broadcasters Podcast, if there's any more
information we can get about this and where things go along.
(15:09):
As we hear more from Ted Sarandos or from the
folks at Warner Brothers Discovery, whatever there is, we'll talk
about it and follow back up here on the Broadcasters Podcast.
Remember the content as king, and the control of your
content is in your hands.
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