From what I've seen or heard, nobody is in favor of WB going to Netflix. Almost every single theater chain would sue Netflix, Actors/Directors Guilds would all sue them as well. Christopher Nolan is the head of one such group that has said they will take legal action against Netflix if said deal goes through. Theater Chains would not sit back and lose billions because Netflix won't keep a movie longer than 2 weeks in a theater. Plus, there would be monopoly issues if the deal were to happen. The idiot "Zazzy" running WB has got to be the worst President/CEO of any company. He's a moron and I can't wait for him to be out of the picture.
Paramount/Skydance Media has offered $108B for the entire WB package. Most will be paid in cash. None of the other companies can touch that. No person in their right mind would turn that down. Plus, once the pendulum swings back to Paramount and WB calls off Netflix deal, Netflix will have to pay WB $5B to walk away. Not a bad way to make an easy $5B.
I think the basic concern about theaters is fair, but I’d be careful with the “everyone will sue Netflix” part. A deal like that would depend heavily on the actual distribution terms, existing contracts, and regulatory approvals. It wouldn’t automatically mean every WB movie disappears from theaters after two weeks.
The $108B figure is also the sort of thing I’d want to see backed by the actual deal terms before treating it as a straight cash comparison. With a transaction this large, financing, debt, assets included, and breakup provisions can make the headline number pretty misleading.
The more interesting issue to me is what happens to WB’s theatrical strategy. Netflix has historically approached releases very differently from a traditional studio, while Paramount has a much stronger incentive to preserve the theatrical ecosystem. That difference could matter considerably more than the headline valuation.
