By Michaela Gordoni
Warner Bros.’ movies have gradually decreased in number, and now with the company up for sale, theaters are concerned the landscape will change enough to adversely affect moviegoing.
Five years ago, Disney absorbed 20th Century Fox, and now another legacy studio may disappear.
This week, after Netflix bid $83.7 billion to buy WB, Paramount Global owners David Ellison and Larry Ellison put in a competitive bid of $108.4 billion, The Hollywood Reporter said.
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos said, “We have not talked a lot about in the past about wanting to do theatrical, because we’ve never been in that business. When this deal closes, we be will in, and we’re going to do it.”
He pointed out that all of the studio’s box office this year wouldn’t have driven the same value without a theatrical release.
“We didn’t buy this company to destroy that value,” he stated.
Related: Potential Warner Bros.-Paramount Merger ‘Financial Death Sentence,’ Analysts Say
“Further consolidation in the industry, no matter who is bringing studios together, is a real threat and potentially existential threat to cinemas,” said Mike Bowers, who runs Harkins Theatres and is chairman of Cinema United’s executive board. “And I would say beyond that, it’s not just to cinemas, it’s to the whole ecosystem. I think there’s a misunderstanding.”
“That’s not the way the industry works. We have fixed costs. You reach a tipping point there where it doesn’t just continue to get smaller, it crumbles,” he continued. “And at that point you don’t have an ecosystem that can support it.”
Netflix released a few titles in theaters, but typically its for short periods of two weeks. AMC Theatres, Cinemark Theatres and Regal Cinemas, and other theaters are currently refusing to play Netflix’s latest KNIVES OUT movie because it’s on the service.
Cinema United CEO Michael O’Leary said Netflix’s potential acquisition of WB “poses an unprecedented threat to the global exhibition business. Cinema United stands ready to support industry changes that lead to increased movie production and give consumers more opportunities to enjoy a day at the local theatre.”
“But Netflix’s stated business model does not support theatrical exhibition. In fact, it is the opposite,” he continued. “Regulators must look closely at the specifics of this proposed transaction and understand the negative impact it will have on consumers, exhibition and the entertainment industry.”
The Ellisons assured theaters that if they win the bid, Paramount and WB would release more movies per year—30 or more—than Netflix would.
“We’re going to satisfy the appetite of the moviegoing public,” they said.
The Guardian’s Jesse Hassenger said, “It indicates how little a studio’s actual success matters in terms of sustaining itself—because on those terms, Warner Bros had a spectacular year in 2025. They captured the youth audience with A Minecraft Movie, posted huge grosses for original and auteur-driven genre hybrids… In the hands of the Warner Bros Discovery CEO, David Zaslav, though, these hits aren’t evidence of how the movie business can flourish. They’re valued insofar as they can help goose the possibility of a sale.”
But the situation may be lose-lose either way. In 2016, Disney and 20th Century Fox released 26 theater titles. This year, it’s only 14. That’s a rough 46% decline.
USA TODAY reports consumers will certainly lose out on more titles, and it’s not just fewer movie choices but also fewer opportunities for Hollywood workers, higher ticket prices, and less diversity in movies.
O’Leary assessed, “The negative impact of this acquisition will impact theatres from the biggest circuits to one-screen independents in small towns in the United States and around the world.”
Read Next: Is Netflix Going to Snag Warner Bros. Discovery?
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