It’s now old news that Warner Brothers has accepted a bid from Netflix to acquire the company for $82.7 billion, leading to a ton of questions on how the streaming service will handle taking on such a massive theatrical endeavor.
Warner Brothers and WBD (Warner Brothers Discovery) aren’t just home to James Gunn’s DCU, but also produces and distributes many other massive franchises such as Harry Potter, the Dune films, and the King Kong/Godzilla movies. With a theatrical library that massive, fans were understandably concerned about how a streaming platform that previously has no real experience in theaters would handle film production and distribution on this large of a scale.
Rumors were even circulating (for quite some time actually) that movies like Matt Reeves’ The Batman 2 would be released as a Netflix exclusive, skipping its theatrical releases entirely. This is worrying for moviegoers as characters like Batman and Superman are theater tent-poles and removing them from future cinematic releases would speak volumes about the future direction of media distribution in general. A new report from Collider helps to put the mind at ease, however, as they are reporting that in a recent Wall Street call Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos confirmed that the streaming service’s acquisition of Warner Brothers would not disrupt the current flow of theatrical distribution. According to Sarandos:
“In this transaction, we pick up three businesses we’re not currently in, so we have no redundancies currently. One of them is a motion picture studio with a theatrical distribution machine. We’re deeply committed to releasing those movies exactly the way they would release those movies today.”
While this will most likely hold true for major franchises, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Netflix going about integrating their streaming platform in other ways. For example, other films (such as the Knives Out franchise which Collider uses as an example in their article) is technically a streaming exclusive, but was also given a small limited theatrical release. Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is a perfect example because it’s a Netflix exclusive on their streaming platform, but did have a small theatrical window that began on November 26th and will go until the streaming premier date of December 12th (less than a month), which is below the average 30-45 theatrical release window. This could change given demand for the film, but as it stands now Netflix is in a win-win situation either way here because they reap the benefits of both platforms, theatrical and streaming, without having to foot the bill for a full cinematic release if the demand isn’t there for a certain film.
So, while Netflix will still most likely use their streaming leverage with DCU/HBO Max series’ such as Lanterns and Peacemaker, and may even use the platform to release some of the more B and C tier hero movies (Clayface anyone?), I think it’s safe to say the major heroes of the DC Universe will still have major cinematic releases to match. The idea that Batman 2 would be a Netflix exclusive is honestly absurd, with Batman being one of the largest cinematic money making franchises for more than thirty years. If anything, this may just lead to an even more seamless and logical integration of DC properties between streaming services and movies. This is something I don’t even think Marvel has nailed down yet with their Disney+ offerings being so drastically disjointed from the current theatrical releases, and with Netflix at the helm of the DCU properties maybe they can do it right. If anything, it might point Disney and Marvel is the right direction of property and franchise cohesiveness. Hopefully.
So, are you excited about the Netflix acquisition of Warner Brothers? Do you think this will be good or bad for the DCU as a whole? Will Paramount swoop back in and make this whole thing null and void? Who knows, man. Let us know what you think down in the comments about this whole situation!
Source: Collider
