Warner Bros., the film studio that’s older than television and probably your grandmother, has been the gift that everybody was trying to get their hands on this holiday season. Paramount wanted it. Comcast wanted it. However, Netflix will be the company that, pending regulatory approval, walks away with the hottest property in the auction house, for a cool $83 billion.
One of the biggest questions hanging over a potential Netflix purchase was whether the streaming-first studio was going to keep releasing Warner Bros. movies in theaters, considering Netflix itself really tries to avoid doing that. In the announcement, via THR, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos seemed to indicate that WB movies would still be theatrical releases, saying…
Warner Bros.’ studios are world-class, with Warner Bros. recognized as a leading supplier of television titles and filmed entertainment. HBO and HBO Max also provide a compelling, complementary offering for consumers. Netflix expects to maintain Warner Bros.’ current operations and build on its strengths, including theatrical releases for films.
So… Netflix expects to maintain Warner Bros. movies in theaters, which indicates that, for now, that’s the plan. Of course, if something unexpected were to happen, it sounds like Netflix is at least open to changing that plan. In a later conference call, Sarandos said that we could “count on” everything currently planned for theatrical release from Warner Bros. to go that way. So don’t expect an upcoming DC movie like Man of Tomorrow or an already filmed tentpole like Dune: Part Three to become a streaming release.
Of course, once the current schedule of theatrical releases is worked through, it’s far from certain that Warner Bros. will continue to release the same number of films that it has in recent years. We could still see a drastic reduction in which movies get full theatrical releases. Warner Bros., a studio that has stood far longer than any of the technology that made Netflix successful, may change a lot in the years to come because of this deal.
The fact that this comes after Warner Bros. has been particularly strong theatrically can’t be overlooked. It wasn’t that long ago that Barbie became the highest-grossing WB movie ever. This year, WB had major hits with The Minecraft Movie and Superman, but has also been remarkably consistent, setting a record with the number of films that have seen $40 million openings, including Sinners and Weapons. Plus, the release of One Battle After Another was very successful, too.
One thing that we can likely expect to change is that while those movies may still be released in theaters, they will end up on streaming sooner. On the same call, Sarandos said that he thought “windows will evolve to be much more consumer friendly,” which could mean shorter periods between theatrical releases and streaming debuts.
Clearly, there are a lot of questions still left to answer, and since a deal this big won’t close overnight, it will likely be quite a while before we really know how this is going to work. The one thing we know for sure is that the industry has changed in a big way today, and it will never be the same again.