True story: Thursday night was IndieWire Honors. As Kristen Stewart was delivering her blistering acceptance speech for her IndieWire Maverick Award (“This sheer cliff of tired and lame expectation that people on the margins face when it comes to considering their own desire, fuck off and fuck you”), my phone vibrated with the news of the Netflix–Warner Bros. merger.
Here’s the kicker: I was sitting on the Netflix couch reserved for Jacob Elordi and his makeup artist Mike Hill, who received the Wavelength Award earlier that evening for their work on “Frankenstein.”
All ironies aside, here’s the easy predictions of what this merger will mean: Fewer jobs. (The floor on anticipated initial savings is $2 billion-$3 billion.) Fewer films in theaters. And, fewer good films and shows unless you believe that HBO and Warners’ auteur-nurturing sensibilities can survive the buzzsaw of an algorithmic culture unscathed.
That was the question circulating in IndieWire’s Slacks: If Netflix and Warner Bros. merge, what happens to the art? While it will be months before we can know if this deal sticks, we wanted to capture the anxieties that have nothing to do with spreadsheets.
Whether it is the safety of the Warner Archive or the jarring corporate jargon that nearly equated “Citizen Kane” with “KPop Demon Hunters,” here is a collection of our specific concerns (and upsides, however limited) regarding the industry’s latest seismic shift.
“Netflix made ‘Pulse’ instead”
Pin this deal to a board, throw a dart, and you’ll hit 10 things to be worried about. Netflix and HBO make very different original series, which could be seen as a good thing. Maybe Ted Sarandos wants to keep HBO relatively intact so all the programming can appeal to as many people as possible across multiple brands.
“Relatively” does a lot of heavy lifting there. Netflix isn’t in the business of developing good television; it develops lots of television. HBO is a boutique brand that’s repeatedly proven it can develop outstanding TV shows and support them as they grow into something even better.
Would Netflix have invested the time and resources needed to make “The Pitt” not just another medical drama, but an Emmy-winning, paradigm-shifting medical drama? No, and I can say that with a certain level of confidence because Netflix made “Pulse” instead. – Ben Travers
“Fickle and finite”
Repertory theatergoing can survive this, which may be the only thing that can. I have concerns for what this means about the Warner Archive physical media collection, which boasts gorgeous 4Ks of classics and obscurities from the Warners library. If Ted Sarandos discontinues these, we’re left with streaming versions of lesser quality — and we all know streaming shelf life is fickle and finite. – Ryan Lattanzio
Allergies
I’m allergic to phrases like “intellectual property” and “content,” especially when used frequently and back-to-back. That turned Friday morning’s official Netflix press release into a real jump-scare.
And then there was Ted Sarandos’ introduction to his vision of this great hereafter, combining WBD’s “timeless classics like ‘Casablanca’ and ‘Citizen Kane’ to modern favorites like ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Friends’ — with our culture-defining titles like ‘Stranger Things,’ ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ and ‘Squid Game.’”
“Our mission has always been to entertain the world,” he said. “We’ll be able to do that even better.”
If moving from “Casablanca” to “Squid Game” in a single clause didn’t inspire vertigo, this might: The release preferred to call all of them “intellectual properties” and “content.” To quote the great Tim Robinson (fittingly, from a Netflix show): “I don’t know what any of this shit is, and I’m fucking scared!” -Kate Erbland
Sex and the Squid Game
A merger this big comes with a bottomless pit of potentially disastrous IP experiments. Audiences should anticipate and/or dread the content we’ll have to endure if Netflix ever chooses to mix its original characters with the storied Warner Bros. catalog.
The wacky nonsense viewers could see coming out of Sarandos’ brave new world aren’t an existential threat to the industry, and all those beloved stories could even result in some genuinely cool projects. But the fear of Frankensteining ranks high among the theoretical consequences of this deal serious film and TV lovers will find annoying. “Sex and the Squid Game,” anyone? – Alison Foreman
“Like RFK Jr. buying Pfizer”
My first thought was that — despite what Ted Sarandos has deluded himself into believing — this move directly contradicts what consumers want.
People do not prefer to watch movies at home. What people — especially young people who came of age in tandem with Netflix’s rise to power — prefer is a real and meaningful pop culture. Tangible experiences they carry with them and share with friends.
Has a single movie that Netflix developed in house ever made a meaningful impression on the culture? You might grasp for a few exceptions that might prove the rule, or you can reflect on why it’s so hard to think of them in the first place.
People want movie theaters to be more affordable, better managed, and conveniently located. They do not want movie theaters to become insignificant; even the people who think they’re fine with that are wrong.
Since Netflix’s business model has long been contingent on destroying the theatrical ecosystem, this deal is basically what it would be like if RFK Jr. bought Pfizer. It’s queasy enough that the rich will get richer while making the world worse for the rest of us. To borrow the title of a typically hollow and forgettable piece of Netflix content: Nobody wants this. – David Ehrlich
Algorithm vs. curation
Turner Classic Movies will survive in some form; the linear TCM channel, maybe not. Sure, if Netflix moved into the FAST space, but that would compete with its own ad-based subscription model. Could Netflix look beyond the algorithm and recognize the value of TCM’s curation? Also unlikely, although a combination of curated programming and near-infinite on-demand titles would be a dream.
If nothing else, the Netflix acquisition would save us from asking questions like, “What will CNN be like when run by Bari Weiss?” Let the tears flow for the second CNN direct-to-consumer streaming service that just launched and will likely be shuttered. – Christian Blauvelt
Further dilution of HBO
The company that completely changed the TV landscape will now own the medium’s most prestigious name. Even if HBO stays on the air, or HBO Max remains discrete (neither assured), it’s further dilution of that brand.
Then there’s the question of how a Netflix-controlled HBO Max would release shows. There’s a handful of weekly-release models at Netflix like “The Great British Baking Show” and “Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney,” but they’re the outliers. Sometimes, as with the last season of “Stranger Things,” it splits seasons into “volumes” released a month or two apart.
HBO was built on weekly appointment television that grows anticipation. Hard to imagine that Netflix would embrace the 15 weekly episodes that we’ll watch in Season 2 of “The Pitt”; more likely that it would release an eight-episode season in two parts. – Wilson Chapman
Let’s see what he can do.
Losing another studio is bad, but I can’t help wanting to see what Ted Sarandos has in mind. Hollywood is already under threat on many fronts. What if some of the smartest minds in the business figured out how to save it?
Studios have played to Wall Street and quarterly reports for too long, delaying necessary business shifts and overpaying executives as they play out incoming revenues for as long as they last. They haven’t invested in the future.
Sarandos has long criticized how legacy studios do business — so what can he do? My fantasy is he’d allow Michael DeLuca and Pamela Abdy to continue their extraordinary run at the box office under the Warner Bros. label (“Sinners,” “Weapons”), leaving Bela Bajaria in charge of Netflix content with Dan Lin on the film side. DeLuca and Abdy have a rare gift that Netflix does not: how to make a theatrical movie that draws reluctant moviegoers into theaters.
Netflix is expected to adopt a two-week theatrical window not unlike Universal’s current 17-day window for films unless they gross more than $50 million (or, are directed by Christopher Nolan). Finally, theater chains like AMC would have to book Netflix films. Sarandos has long expressed his disdain for brick-and-mortar theater exhibition, but he’d be able to lure the top talent with theaters in his pocket.
Of course, if he’s not happy with it, he can ditch it. – Anne Thompson