Over the past century, Warner Bros. has become one of the defining movie studios, with its logo opening up films in households all over the world. CEO and owner David Zazlov has new plans, though, and has put the company up for sale.
On December 5th Variety announced that Netflix won the bidding war with an $82.7 billion offer. The deal is officially set to take place in Q3 of next year which means Netflix will own and control the rights to all of WB streaming and service rights and intellectual property.
Before Netflix won the bid, numerous other companies made their offers.
The massive amount of intellectual property that Warner Bros. owns is very intriguing to many, and includes Hanna-Barbera, Wizarding World, DC Comics, TCM, and HBO. According to an article by Variety on July 28th of this year, WB announced it would be splitting the company into two separate divisions: streaming and studios, and global networks. Streaming and studios would consist of Warner Bros. Gaming and all of the film and television library that WB owns. Global networks would consist of all the TV and sports channels WB owns.
On November 21st, the first day of bidding opened up with three major companies submitting bids: Paramount, Universal, and Netflix. Paramount, which was recently bought by the Ellison family, wants both of the divisions. The Ellisons have already bought Skydance Media and all the property that comes with the studio. Worth noting, the Ellisons have a great relationship with the Trumps, as Larry Ellison and Donald Trump used to be old business partners. A deal of this size is dependent on federal government approval, and is complicated further by Paramount’s December 8th hostile offer of $108 billion, despite the Netflix deal.
Universal wants the IP to increase its streaming service and also expand on its new theme park, Epic Universe, which has been widely successful for them. According to Travel Weekly, in the third quarter of the theme park’s opening, total revenue soared by 18.7%, totaling a giant $2.78 billion. This is great for the studio; the only problem is that in due time, customers will begin to grow bored with attractions and demand more unique products.
Netflix is interested in bringing its content to the theaters and wants WB to be the theatrical section of Netflix and run and manage which content belongs in theaters. Barbie director Greta Gerwig is currently in the process of making a Chronicles of Narnia film for Netflix, with the hopes of releasing the film in theaters. Frankenstein and KPop Demon Hunters made limited releases, and according to Deadline, KPop Demon Hunters made $19 million in their limited run, so Netflix is very interested now in the theatrical space.
The sale of Warner Bros. will leave a lasting impact on Hollywood. The iconic studio has been a landmark, and the entertainment world is watching very closely, anticipating the after-effects of the deal once a complete contract has been signed.
