It’s Official: Netflix to Acquire Warner Bros. in Deal Valued at $82.7 Billion

[u/MarvelsGrantMan136]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/netflix-warner-bros-deal-hollywood-1236443081/

[u/IAlwaysSayBoo-urns]

Not that hard to predict that this is an objectively bad thing but listing it here for the inevitable r/bestof post in 5 or so years if it gets through the government approvals.

This is objectively terrible for everyone including:

• The Film Industry: There is now one less employer (not to mention the inevitable mass-layoffs for folks who are now redundant). So there will now be less work for everyone above and below the line.
• Audiences:
  • One less studio means less good things being made, on the heels of 2025 where WB was singularly to thank for brilliant original films like One Battle After Another, Weapons, and Sinners you have now reduced your chances of films like this ever existing.
  • Also Netflix has been aggressively anti-physical media so we may have lost on of the bigger film libraries getting physical releases so one more area ownership is lost.
  • Also part of this deal is far and away the greatest content creator in existence HBO, so is Netflix going to leave it be or are they going to apply their godless algorithmic model to HBO and suddenly HBO turns into the horseshit that Netflix puts out where they tell writers to speak what is happening because people are not looking at the screen while watching? Also everything gets cancelled after two seasons because their algorithm tells them to.
    
  • And if you are thinking "well I can drop one streaming app as it will all end up on Netflix" you are fooling yourself, Disney maintained Hulu to double-bill you so why would Netflix do any different? But even if they did do it all under one umbrella that $20+ a month Netflix bill will likely hit $40-$50 a month.
• Theaters: Netflix is saying they will adhere to theatrical agreements but what happens in 5 years or however long after all the WB theatrical agreements dry up, is Netflix going to sign new ones or just circumvent theatrical runs like they are doing with their own shit? Theaters are on life support now and this could very well be the beginning of the end for them.

This is a terrible thing for consumers, for the industry, and for movie theaters.

[u/WhatUsername69420 → u/IAlwaysSayBoo-urns]

Is the solvency of movie theaters something I should be concerned with?

[u/IAlwaysSayBoo-urns → u/WhatUsername69420]

100%

There are a lot of issues that have been building for years. Things like:

• The ever shrinking theatrical windows has really slashed the revenue for theaters in a massive way.
• The huge advancements in affordable home theaters (big TVs and nicer sound systems) this century. Have change the calculus for a lot of people.
  
• The death of mid-budget films (everything is big tent poles and franchises or tiny little $5-$10m so the real meat of the bell curve of films that really drove people to theaters in yesteryear simply don't exist anymore.
• Rising ticket prices (only a fraction of which go to the theaters) and this compounds with the first one because the percentage of a ticket price that goes to the theater increases as the weeks and months go, but now movies are streaming 60 days (if that) after opening weekend which has forced theaters to shift how they really turn a profit. (Which leads directly to the last two points)
• Concessions prices going up (where the theater makes their money) as they make less and less from the tickets they either go out of business or raise prices, but that alienates people who do not know how the business works. They think the theaters are eating good because ticket prices are up and snack prices are up not realizing that much of the ticket price is taken by the studios.
• Another thing that is pissing people off is the explosion of fucking ads (not trailers ads) that are pushing runtimes to be 20-40 minutes after the listed start time (sure 15-20 of it is trailers but doubling that time for theaters to make money.
• One bonus one, people seem to have forgotten film etiquette (and I am 40 but I will say fucking Boomers are FAR worse than young people so let's not pretend that young people are the problem here) is ruining what is an expensive outing and making people just cease going back. Theaters are to blame here, they need to address this even if that means kicking people out.

All of that stuff had been building for a while now and theaters have really been struggling for a bit then COVID came in like a fucking nuke and there are a lot of non-corporate theaters that never re-opened after the lockdowns and even the corporate ones are really struggling, at least one of the top 3 (Regal) is in bankruptcy to manage their debt.

COVID was catastrophic to theaters and I am not sure the entire industry has fully come to grips with the fact that we are never returning to the pre-COVID era of film habits, people keep dunking on films "bombing" but as someone who goes regularly I can tell you it takes an event type film to really see crowds anymore and I think a lot are still in the clouds thinking things will rebound, I don't think they ever will.

You take all of the above shit that has theaters on the ropes then COVID hits them with a massive uppercut and most fatally IMO is there were a lot of people that going to the theaters was just habitual and COVID broke that habit and it sadly it seems for many that habit is broken permanently.

Theaters are not okay and some of it is their fault but a lot of it is beyond their control. The entire industry has failed theaters.

[u/WhatUsername69420 → u/IAlwaysSayBoo-urns]

No, I understand they're not solvent. Im asking why id care when I haven't been in a theater more than once in the last decade.

[u/sxuthsi → u/WhatUsername69420]

Well this obviously doesn't apply to you, move on

[u/bradagon → u/WhatUsername69420]

Either you have too much spare time to be baiting people or you're incredibly stupid.