“Superman” (2025)

Netflix wants to buy Warner Bros., which would beef up its IP.

It hasn’t been able to launch a movie franchise like the legacy studios have.

But is Netflix willing to put those movies in theaters for a meaningful run?

The first half of the final season of “Stranger Things” debuted on Netflix this week. It will probably be huge, as the previous seasons were. The show was probably the first, and still best, example of how big a TV show can get on Netflix and launch a worldwide phenomenon.

Emphasis on TV show.

Sure, the streamer has released some very popular movies, but they haven’t exactly lived on in the zeitgeist. Nobody is talking about “Red Notice.” It wasn’t until this year that a Netflix movie showed potential to launch a full-blown franchise.

“KPop Demon Hunters” was a bonafide global event, sparking Halloween costume anxiety, a toy deal with Hasbro and Mattel, and a sequel is already in the works. I even just saw the song “Golden” performed during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.

But nobody, least of all Netflix, expected that, let alone for it to become the company’s biggest movie of all time.

Movies that Netflix has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on, likely with the hopes of sequels and universe building, have failed, from Zack Snyder’s “Rebel Moon” movies to The Russo Brothers’ “Electric State.” Neither entered Netflix’s top 10 movies of all time list. They have largely been forgotten.

So, it makes sense in that regard why Netflix would want to buy Warner Bros.

The company, along with Paramount and Comcast, has submitted a bid. Netflix has mostly avoided acquisitions up to now, except for small ones, like a game studio and the comics company Millarworld (which resulted in the canceled series “Jupiter’s Legacy” and nothing more). But this would be by far its biggest purchase, one that would swallow a legacy movie studio.

Why would Netflix want to buy WB? Taking a studio off the board would hurt the theatrical business, which would help Netflix (though Netflix has apparently promised it would still release WB movies in theaters, the specifics of that promise are unclear). It would also beef up its content library with a classic archive it would own.

But for the purposes of this newsletter, it would also beef up Netflix’s IP. Buying WB (and HBO, if it goes for the whole thing), would mean taking over DC rights, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and more. It would certainly be an admission that its movie strategy could use some help.

But one would argue (I certainly would), that Netflix’s movie franchise strategy has flailed because it doesn’t release the kinds of blockbuster movies that people would watch in theaters, and watching them on streaming simply isn’t as memorable an experience in the first place.

Yeah, “KPop Demon Hunters” is an outlier, but Netflix still gave it a theatrical release, which likely grossed around an estimated $25 million in the US over just five total days after it had already been on Netflix for months.

And if Netflix undercuts WB tentpoles by limiting or eliminating their theatrical releases, then it also undercuts their franchise longevity.

Sure, a lot of people watched “Superman” after it hit HBO Max. But I saw plenty of those people regret that they didn’t see it in a theater. The sequel, 2027’s “Man of Tomorrow,” will probably be huge in theaters because of the added exposure (unless Netflix gets in the way). And there’s plenty of data to show that a theatrical release also helps boost a movie once it lands on streaming.

Fifteen of the top 20 most-watched streaming movies in the US in the first half of this year, according to Nielsen, debuted in theaters first. That includes movies that were watched on Netflix, including “Kraven the Hunter” and “The Super Mario Bros.” movie.

Even Netflix’s own global data showed that seven of its top 20 most-watched movies worldwide in the first half of this year were animated movies from Universal that were first in theaters.

So yeah, I think Netflix buying WB would be a catastrophe for some of the most beloved IP on the planet, unless it makes some drastic changes.

Happy Thanksgiving!

In a rarity these days, picked up a Marvel comic that isn’t an Ultimate title this week: Infernal Hulk, which is like “Hulk, King of the Monsters,” so I’m sold.

Apple’s “Pluribus” continues to be the best thing on TV right now.

Two Oscar hopefuls, “Train Dreams” (on Netflix) and “Hamnet” (in theaters, expanding next week) will shatter you.

🚗 In another sign that we live in the dumbest timeline, Trump is pressuring Paramount into making “Rush Hour 4.”

🧙 “Wicked: For Good” is tearing up the box office, so of course Universal is considering how to continue the franchise.

✝️ Scarlett Johansson will star in Mike Flanagan’s “Exorcist” movie.