Netflix Backs Out Of Warner Bros. Deal, Paramount Set To Acquire Historic Studio

The contentious battle for the future of Warner Bros., long considered the crown jewel of Hollywood studios, is over. Netflix, which had been in the driver's seat for most of the negotiation process, is bowing to Paramount Skydance. Netflix had its foot jammed in the door with a $2.8 billion termination fee that Paramount Skydance would have to pay in full on top of whatever else they offered. Paramount Skydance swung in with a $31-per-share offer that includes other sweeteners, which Netflix deemed was too rich for their streaming media blood.

According to Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters, WB "was always a 'nice to have' at the right price, not a 'must have' at any price." So, now David Ellison, an ally of President Donald Trump, will control what is currently considered the most talent-friendly studio in Hollywood. What will this mean for production chiefs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy, who just delivered a killer, profitable, politically charged slate for WB with "Mickey 17," "Sinners," "Superman," "Weapons," and "One Battle After Another?" Probably nothing in the neighborhood of "good."

This is, of course, about so much more than movies. If this reportedly $111 billion deal receives regulatory approval, the Ellison family (backed by the world's fourth richest person, Larry Ellison) will control Paramount, Warner Bros. Discovery, CBS, HBO, CNN, and TikTok. That many important voices under one umbrella is, frankly, bad for business and culture alike.

All I can do is speculate as to how this will transform the media landscape, but rather than give you the business perspective (which will dominate the first round of this discourse), let me address how artistically ruinous this merger could be.

If you're curious as to how much the WBD acquisition truly matters to Larry Ellison, know that he recently moved from Lanai, the Hawaiian island he owns, to a Mar-a-Lago-adjacent estate in Manalapan, Florida. Donald Trump prizes acquiescence, and, for a media kingpin on the make, getting in the POTUS' area code was, perhaps, all the inside track he needed to squeeze out Netflix in their pursuit of WBD.

I hold CNN in very low regard as a news organization, but I revere WB as a film studio and believe HBO is the finest cable/streaming outlet in existence. My concern here is that Ellison will kowtow to Trump, who's obsessed with the entertainment industry and would probably be happier running a studio than sleeping through cabinet meetings. And any company in the business of producing news and art has no business being in the pocket of any politician, of any leaning.

Paramount's already appeased Trump by slamming an uncalled-for "Rush Hour" sequel into the studio's production pipeline (which required them to cough up a double-digit distribution fee just to make what will likely be a $100 million movie), and who knows where they'll go from there? Trump is the man who built a television franchise around the term "You're fired!" Again, Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy were nearly canned for taking risks on the aforementioned progressive-themed films. How can they possibly feel secure in this corporate environment?

You could point to Edgar Wright's kinda-sorta radical (and great) "The Running Man" as an example of the Ellisons' politically neutral process, but that film was greenlit before they were fully committed to the Trump appeasement business. Now we have to sit tight and wonder just how compliant the Ellisons will be after Trump cleared the field for their coup of an acquisition – and wonder how aggressively they'll come for Universal and Sony. Or, we could look to one of the greatest WB movies ever made (the final image pictured above), and dream of a better day.