Would Netflix buying Warner Bros. kill movies in theatres?

When Sonya Yokota William heard that Netflix was poised to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery's TV and film studio — one of Hollywood's oldest and most prized assets — she couldn't help but worry that the future of the moviegoing experience itself was at risk.

Assurances from Netflix that it would maintain the studio's current operations, including theatrical releases for films, has done little to allay industry concerns about the streaming giant's attitude toward theatrical releases.

“I think the proof is in the pudding and what we've seen so far is a total reluctance to put films in cinema,” said William, who is the director of the Network of Independent Canadian Exhibitors, an alliance of independent cinemas.

Though Netflix has agreed to buy Warner Bros. Discovery's TV and film studios and streaming division for $72 billion US, the deal is still subject to regulatory approvals. Meanwhile, Paramount Skydance has launched a hostile takeover bid worth $108.4 billion US.

Industry analysts say that while people do still want to see movies in theatres, the cost of doing so has increased and customers need a more compelling reason to go. Some analysts suggest that theatre companies and studios haven't done enough to market their product as a relatively inexpensive experience.

Netflix's takeover bid “poses an unprecedented threat to the global exhibition business," said Michael O'Leary, president and CEO of Cinema United, a trade organization that represents more than 31,000 movie screens in the U.S. And Canada.

Netflix's business model does not support showing movies in theatres, he said.

The deal would risk removing 25 per cent of the annual domestic box office if films that are "traditionally given a robust theatrical release by Warner Bros., disappear from theatres," he said.

In 2024, the estimated domestic box office was around $8.7 billion, down from $9 billion in 2023, according to media analytics company Comscore.

O'Learly slammed what he called Netflix's "token theatrical release" of a handful of films, which he says is mostly done to ensure they receive Oscar consideration. Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein, for example, was given a limited theatrical release for three weeks starting on Oct. 17, before it was available to stream on Netflix on Nov. 7.

Could Netflix’s Warner Bros. Discovery deal kill movie theatres?

The industry concerns relate not only to the Netflix business model, but statements made by Ted Sarandos, a co-chief executive of Netflix, who has questioned the future of theatregoing.

For example, just this past April, Sarandos, speaking at the TIME100 Summit in New York City, called the concept of people watching movies as a communal experience “an outmoded idea."

“Who wins in that scenario when you remove the choice of being able to watch a movie in the cinema," William asked.

Serena Whitley, program director for the Toronto independent theatre The Revue Cinema, which screens older films, says Warner Bros. Is probably one of their best distributors. But she wonders whether their catalogue will be available for them to exhibit if Netflix takes it over.

“There is a reason why exhibitors are very concerned right now,” Whitley said. "If they just choose to not handle the the catalogue the way that you were able to access it now, it could greatly affect [repertory] cinemas."

Since the bid announcement, Sarandos has appeared to soften his negative tone on theatrical release.

He's said Netflix doesn't oppose movies in theatres, and that his pushback is more about long exclusive windows — the time that movies are available only in theatres — which they don’t believe are consumer friendly.

The Los Angeles Times reported in April that the average theatrical window has shrunk to around 30 days post COVID-19. Before the pandemic, films would typically be in theatres for at least 80 days before they became available for home viewing.

But Alicia Reese, a senior analyst who has covered the media and entertainment sector with the financial services firm Wedbush, says the shorter theatrical window sought by Netflix is the problem.

"You're training moviegoers to skip the theatrical window. And that's the risk of it being too short," she said.

She also says that while Netflix has said it will honour the studio's committments theatrical release — which extends to around 2029 or 2030 — the question is what it will do afterward.

There are also still a lot of movies that haven't been scheduled for release, meaning Netflix could put those movies under its own umbrella and make them available on its streaming platform, Reese said.

Some analysts have argued that movies lose revenue due to short theatrical releases. The Numbers, a website that analyzes the movie industry, released an April 2025 report that found short theatrical windows cost domestic theatres about $100 million US a year.

"My opinion is that while [Netflix] goes about honouring these exclusive theatrical windows, they will quickly learn the value of them," she said. "And they'll probably change their tune."

But the bidding war over Warner Bros. Has just reintroduced questions that have been raised before about the future of moviegoing in general, and whether movie watching at home is just an unstoppable trend.

"For two decades, movie theatres have consistently wrestled with how to get people into seats. Today, that challenge has become an existential threat," according to a new report released before the Netflix bid from the management consulting firm Bain & Co.

The report found that during the pandemic, release schedules collapsed, consumer habits changed and digital platforms gained ground. As well, the cost of going to the movie theatre has increased, and consumers now see the cinema as expensive, according to the report.

Citing figures from The Numbers, the report said that domestic cinema attendance is still just 64 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.

Meanwhile, in Canada, the movie theatre business grew in 2024, but still hadn’t reached its pre-pandemic peaks, according to an August 2025 Statistics Canada report. It found that theatre attendance was also stagnating, at roughly two-thirds the levels seen six years earlier.

The Bain report concluded that audiences haven’t abandoned theatres, they simply "need a more compelling reason to go."

That includes the industry reframing itself "as a premium experience" and that seeing a movie in theatres should be considered "an event, a destination, an experience that is far more affordable than a ticket to a Taylor Swift concert."

"Theaters can deliver on this promise via premium auditoriums, service, and personalization that can’t be replicated at home," the report said.

Reese says studios also have to be more adept at marketing their films.

"It's not that moviegoers don't want to go, because you see they certainly do when there's content that they really want to see," she said.

William, with the Network of Independent Canadian Exhibitors, pointed to the theatrical box-office successes of Barbie and Oppenheimer — known collectively as "Barbenheimer" as both were released on the same day in 2023 — as proof that audiences are still hungry to see movies in theatres.

"The option of watching a movie in the cinema means that you really care about watching that film and you care about making time," William said. "We just think that audiences deserve the choice of being able to have that experience."

Senior Reporter

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