{"id":191524,"date":"2026-02-24T15:33:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T15:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/191524\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T15:33:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T15:33:07","slug":"how-the-warner-bros-deal-has-divided-hollywood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/191524\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Warner Bros. deal has divided Hollywood"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The pitched battle for Warner Bros. took yet another turn Monday night as Paramount Skydance enhanced its bid<\/a> for the storied studio.<\/p>\n

The decision by Warner Bros. Discovery to leave the door slightly ajar for Paramount came after weeks of pressure from its leader, tech scion David Ellison, and his billionaire father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.<\/p>\n

The media company has been vying to acquire Warner since late last year, and that fight only increased after the \u201cCasablanca\u201d and \u201cHarry Potter\u201d studio chose Netflix as the winning bidder back in December<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The bidding war has divided Hollywood\u2019s creative community, with filmmakers, producers and unions all staking positions on the deal.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re reading the Wide Shot <\/p>\n

Samantha Masunaga delivers the latest news, analysis and insights on everything from streaming wars to production \u2014 and what it all means for the future.<\/p>\n

By continuing, you agree to our Terms of Service<\/a> and our Privacy Policy<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The latest to weigh in was \u201cAvatar\u201d and \u201cTitanic\u201d director James Cameron, who reportedly described Warner\u2019s sale<\/a> to Netflix as \u201cdisastrous for the theatrical motion picture business\u201d in a Feb. 10 letter to Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), chair of the Senate subcommittee on antitrust, competition policy and consumer rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am very familiar not only with ships that sail, but also those that sink,\u201d he wrote. \u201cAnd the theatrical experience of movies could become a sinking ship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Actor Mark Ruffalo shot back at Cameron: \u201cAre you also against the monopolization that a Paramount acquisition would create? Or is it just that of Netflix?\u201d he posted on Threads over the weekend, adding that he was \u201cspeaking on behalf of hundreds of thousands of filmmakers worldwide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless of which bidder prevails, consolidation in the industry is a major fear, particularly after waves of job cuts due to the pandemic and pullbacks in production spending amid streaming losses. And for the theatrical exhibition business, any merger revives concerns about an even greater decrease in films headed to theaters \u2014 particularly if the winning bidder is Netflix.<\/p>\n

The health and future of cinemas is an especially sensitive topic in Hollywood. Box office revenue still has not returned to pre-pandemic levels, and some fear it never will, leaving theaters scrambling for alternative ways to fill their auditoriums. <\/p>\n

Paramount has positioned itself as a champion for theatrical films, and David Ellison has said a combined Paramount and Warner Bros. would release 30 films a year.<\/p>\n

But theater owner trade group Cinema United and the Writers Guild of America have warned that further consolidation would further concentrate the entertainment business, bringing more layoffs and theater closures. <\/p>\n

Netflix co-Chief Executive Ted Sarandos has since tried to temper these concerns.<\/p>\n

In a recent Senate subcommittee hearing, he pledged to maintain a 45-day theatrical window<\/a> for Warner Bros. films, while also saying the deal would increase production investments going forward. In a recent letter to Lee responding to Cameron\u2019s missive, Sarandos said he had previously spoken with the director in December about Netflix\u2019s plans for Warner Bros., and that he had been \u201cvery supportive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the politics of it all.<\/p>\n

My colleague Meg James has written about Paramount\u2019s efforts to use its political influence with the Trump administration<\/a> to push its deal \u2014 and undermine Netflix\u2019s. Paramount has declined to comment on the matter.<\/p>\n

To put it mildly, Trump is a deeply unpopular figure in liberal-leaning Hollywood.<\/p>\n

Creatives have feared a chilling effect on speech<\/a>, particularly after Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr has aggressively tried to enforce long-dormant rules that require broadcast TV stations to give equal time to opposing candidates. The free-speech matter came to a head last year, when Carr warned that ABC could lose its TV station licenses after late-night host Jimmy Kimmel made a remark about slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk.<\/p>\n

More recently, the equal-time rules resurfaced when CBS late-night host Stephen Colbert blasted his own network over its handling of his interview with Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico<\/a>. Colbert said that CBS told him he could not air the interview because it would require giving equal time to Talarico\u2019s opponents in the Senate primary and that he was instructed not to talk about the issue on the air, which he refused. CBS has disputed Colbert\u2019s comments, saying he was not prohibited from airing the interview.<\/p>\n

News industry insiders also raised concerns after the installation of Bari Weiss as editor in chief of CBS News. Two months into her tenure, she made the decision to pull a \u201c60 Minutes\u201d episode that investigated the alleged abuse of detainees sent from the U.S. to an El Salvador prison, a highly unusual step that critics interpreted as a decision to placate the Trump administration. <\/p>\n

CBS News, which aired the episode in January, denied the claim, saying the piece had only been held for additional reporting.<\/p>\n

On the film side, Paramount continues to make deals with creatives, including the irreverent South Park creators<\/a>, who have churned out parodies of the Trump administration, \u201cWicked\u201d director Jon M. Chu and writer, producer and actor Issa Rae, who in a statement earlier this year vowed to \u201ctell stories for and by the diverse communities that have supported my work over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the Warner Bros. deal drama unfolds, we\u2019ll see how the lines continue to form in Hollywood\u2019s creative class.<\/p>\n

Stuff We WroteFilm shoots Number of the week \"seventeen <\/p>\n

Sony Pictures Animation\u2019s \u201cGoat\u201d led the domestic box office this weekend with an estimated three-day total of $17 million, beating out the Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi-led \u201cWuthering Heights.\u201d<\/p>\n

The film, which was also produced by Warriors star Stephen Curry\u2019s production company, has bucked the trend for original animated movies, which have largely faltered at theaters in recent years.<\/p>\n

What I\u2019m watching<\/p>\n

Last week, I watched more Olympic figure skating (who didn\u2019t watch Alysa Liu\u2019s joyful, gold medal-winning performance<\/a>?), but I\u2019m also now re-watching 2000s teen detective drama \u201cVeronica Mars.\u201d I\u2019m not Gen Z, but my newfound zeal for comfort TV is not unlike the story my colleague Stephen Battaglio wrote last year about young people\u2019s interest in nostalgic shows<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The pitched battle for Warner Bros. took yet another turn Monday night as Paramount Skydance enhanced its bid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[30410,57588,1804,890,3588,48,52,51,47,50,49,63,57586,57587,9233,34814,1086,24397,4747,1925,2328,430],"class_list":["post-191524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-beatles","tag-bob-chapek","tag-company","tag-coronavirus","tag-disney","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-marvel","tag-moviepass","tag-netflix","tag-new-contract","tag-pandemic","tag-photo-illustration","tag-service","tag-star-wars","tag-union","tag-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}