Netflix To Acquire Warner Bros: A Move Towards Monopoly, How It Will Impact The Users

Global OTT leader Netflix has proposed acquisition of one of the oldest and most essential ‘big five’ studios The Warner Bros. This acquisition threatens seismic shifts for the entertainment industry and the future of moviegoing. 

The 102-year-old studio owns three of the top five domestic earning films — A Minecraft Movie, Spiderman and Sinners. Apart from these three films the company also had rights over Oscar frontrunner, One Battle After Another. 

 Will Warner Bros. continue releasing movies in theaters? 

The iconic movie studio Warner Bros will keep releasing its movies in theater even after the acquisition, but it might change as well. It will take at least 12 to 18 months before the deal goes through, and moviegoers can expect essential business as usual until then.  

The co-CEO of Netflix Ted Sarandos stated that the company will support the life cycle that starts in the movie theater for Warner Bros movies. He further said that he doesn’t think the long exclusive windows are consumer friendly. 

The theatrical business has been impacted by Covid. The users have shifted to streaming platforms to tackle these studios experimenting with different theatrical windows. For many years, a 90-days theatrical window was considered to be standard but now it’s closer to 45 days and it often depends on film. 

Netflix also releases some films theatrically, but these releases are to fulfil the eligibility criteria for an award or as a gesture paid to a top filmmaker. This year Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite and Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly were released theatrically by Netflix. 

What will this acquisition lead to 

The merger of Netflix and Warner Bros will lead Netflix towards monopoly over the film and entertainment industry. The overall film industry is assumed to be of 136 billion USD whereas Hollywood alone constitutes 42 billion USD. The Netflix market cap is around 440 billion USD, and Warner Bros’ market cap is around 64 billion USD. 

This acquisition can lead to fewer options for users and can even lead to higher subscription prices due to very minimal competition. From the consumer point of view, this deal may impact their wallets.  

Netflix has acquired the Millarworld, Scanline VFX, The Roald Dahl Story Company and some other companies in past whereas Warner Bros owns New Line Cinema, the iconic DC Studios, HBO, Cinemax, CNN, Cartoon Network, Discovery Channel and many other media companies. 

This acquisition will give Netflix control over media industry covering all ages and interests. The company will not only create monopoly over the media industry but can also control the content and can push personal agenda to every age group.