Netflix’s Bid for Warner Bros. Discovery: Why Film Fans Should Pay Attention
If you care about movies, the recent announcement that Netflix has entered into exclusive negotiations to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) for a reported $82.7 billion enterprise value should concern you. The potential merger could reshape how films are released, owned, and even made, impacting everything from theatrical distribution to the survival of physical media.
But this moment is also part of a broader story: a decade of mergers and acquisitions that slowly consolidated Hollywood into the hands of tech giants and multinational conglomerates, and every step has brought us to this turning point.
A Decade of Studio Consolidation
Disney Acquires 21st Century Fox (2019)
In 2019, Disney swallowed up most of 21st Century Fox, including the iconic 20th Century Fox studio, in one of the most seismic entertainment deals of the century. This wasn’t just a business move, it was Disney grabbing an entire filmmaking legacy and combining it into its ever-growing empire.
Suddenly, Disney had a massive content vault to supercharge Disney+, gaining the leverage to eventually fold Hulu into the Disney+, and unifying the X-Men under the Marvel banner (even if we’re largely still waiting to see what they actually do with them). And, credit where credit is due, one of the more successful outcomes was that the Alien and Predator franchises found new life, both having been stalling out for year, but under Disney’s umbrella they were revived through Marvel-published comics, new films, and the first television show, proof that sometimes consolidation can spark a few unexpected wins.
But make no mistake: this deal also consolidated power in an unprecedented way, shrinking the number of major studios and setting the tone for everything that happened next.
Amazon Buys MGM (2021)
In 2021, Amazon struck it big with their own major studio purchase by acquiring MGM, and with it, the crown jewel of classic film franchises: James Bond.
This one raised red flags immediately. The Broccoli family, who had stewarded the franchise since its beginning, eventually ceded creative control earlier this year, handing the steering wheel to Amazon. Amazon, being Amazon, is already planning a whole slate of spin-offs, streaming expansions, and universe-building projects to squeeze every last dollar out of 007.
That’s the concern: Bond risks becoming “content” rather than cinema, another brand absorbed into the endless churn of a tech giant platforms.
Sound familiar? It’s the same fear many now have for Warner Bros. under Netflix.
The Road to Warner Bros. Discovery
In 2022, Warner Bros. merged with Discovery, Inc. (from Time Warner), a deal that almost immediately turned into a revolving door of executives, a messy reshuffling of priorities, ongoing drama within the DC cinematic universe, and a rebranding saga for HBO’s streaming service that became a running industry joke (HBO Go → HBO Now → HBO Max → Max → HBO Max again).
Dear HBO Marketing team, I’m sorry, but yes, there is another rebrand on the horizon.
Meanwhile, their box office underperformed, projects were shelved for tax write-offs, and entire fanbases were left frustrated and exhausted. The DC Universe (DCU) reboot under James Gunn and Peter Safran was supposed to steady the ship, but even that feels precarious in light of this new acquisition.
Now we arrive at today: Netflix is poised to absorb one of the last great Hollywood studios.
What the Netflix Acquisition Could Mean
The Future of HBO Max
Let’s be blunt: HBO Max almost certainly disappears as a standalone platform if this deal goes through. Netflix has two options:
Wrap HBO into Netflix, effectively making HBO content a premium pillar within the Netflix ecosystem, or
Run them side by side for a short time, then merge.
But, combining two enormous tech-and-content platforms is never simple. Corporations tend to avoid huge operational shake-ups in the first 1–3 years of an acquisition, but streamers, and studios for that matter, often operate outside traditional playbooks since $100 million franchise releases are on the line. My guess? A deal is reached in the next 12-18 months, followed by small changes in the first year, and major integrations in the next. Where’s that put us? Major announcement in mid-late 2027.
What Happens to Gunn, Safran, Zaslav, and Other Execs?
It’s extremely unlikely that the major creative and corporate heads at WBD survive the transition intact.
David Zaslav will almost certainly negotiate an exit package from day one with a specific timeframe.
James Gunn and Peter Safran may try to stick it out for as long as they can, but Netflix will want control, and the moment that becomes complicated, those two are likely to walk.
If that happens, the DC Universe faces yet another reboot, which would be devastating for a fanbase that’s already been on a years-long rollercoaster.
It’s hard to imagine an outcome where Netflix keeps the current leadership structure long-term though.
The Theatrical Experience and Why This Deal Could Hurt It
One of the biggest dangers in this acquisition is what it means for movie theaters. In 2025 alone, Warner Bros. Discovery contributed over $4 billion to the global box office with titles like:
Minecraft: The Movie - $957.8M
F1: The Movie (Apple Original Films) - $624.3M
Superman - $615.3M
The Conjuring: Last Rites - $403.2M
Sinners - $366.6M
Final Destination: Bloodlines - $313M
Weapons - $263.9M
These aren’t small contributions. This is a studio carrying a huge chunk of the industry.
But, Netflix has built its empire on streaming. Even when they do release films theatrically, the runs are so limited that most people never get a chance to see them in a cinema. Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein is the perfect example: a supposedly “limited” then “expanding” run, but many markets (including mine) never got a single screening.
Netflix’s CEO recently said his criticism of theaters comes down to the window between theatrical and streaming release. But, the numbers don’t lie: without a theatrical window, plenty of viewers simply hold off, and that behavior only makes things tougher for theaters trying to stay afloat.
The U.S. has already seen closures, bankruptcies, and reduced showtimes. Can Netflix be trusted to support an ecosystem it never really valued in the first place?
Physical Media: The Alarm Is Real
Now… what does all of this mean for physical media collectors? Honestly, nothing good. There’s already been growing anxiety in the collector community (myself included) that Netflix would happily ditch physical releases altogether, if they gain control of the Warner Bros. library? That concern only gets louder.
Let’s be real, Netflix could just as easily decide to scale back or even eliminate digital purchases too. They’ve never been shy about pushing everything toward a closed ecosystem. A world where the only place to watch anything is inside the Netflix app is not some far-fetched dystopian idea. It’s a scenario they’d probably celebrate.
And we’ve already seen, over and over again, that owning a digital “copy” of a movie doesn’t actually mean you own anything at all. If licenses disappear or agreements with Amazon, Vudu, Apple, Movies Anywhere, etc., fall apart… that movie you thought you bought can disappear overnight. You’ll wake up one morning to find your library a little bit emptier, and there’s nothing you can do about it.
So here’s the truth of it:
If there’s a film you love, something you know you want to have access to long-term, buy it now. Don’t wait for a Collector’s or Steelbook Edition that may or may not ever happen. If Warner Bros. titles begin shifting under Netflix’s control, you cannot assume digital rights or distribution agreements will survive the transition. I would certainly hope that Netflix would see the benefits of finally owning a new distribution hub, but they could just as easily shutter the doors to push people to more subscriptions.
Physical media has always been the surest way to actually own something, and depending on what Netflix does next… it may become the only reliable way.
Final Thoughts
Nothing is final yet. Netflix and WBD still need to close negotiations, regulators still need to approve the deal, and the spin-off of WBD’s cable networks must be completed before the acquisition can close. There’s also always a possibility that antitrust concerns derail everything, though realistically, given the government’s track record with media mergers, I wouldn’t count on it.
WBD reportedly negotiated a clause guaranteeing they keep $5 billion from Netflix if the deal collapses due to regulatory intervention so WBD wins either way.
But, we, the audience, the collectors, the creators, the theater-goers, are the ones who have the most to lose.
Because if this deal happens, we’re looking at a world where:
One of the last great Hollywood studios disappears into a tech giant
Movie theaters lose a cornerstone of their content
Film libraries become more centralized and more vulnerable
Physical media becomes even more endangered
If Netflix can buy Warner Bros. Discovery, then who’s next? Universal? Sony? Lionsgate?
This merger could define the next decade of Hollywood, for better or worse.
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