On Oct. 21, 2025, Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. declared it would re-evaluate plans to split its streaming and studio business into Warner Bros. and its cable assets under Discovery Global. 

The move came after outside companies expressed interest in buying or investing in the business, with some showing interest in just Warner Bros. and some in the entire company.

Netflix, Comcast and Paramount Skydance all threw their hats into the ring. After a weeks-long bidding war, Netflix announced Dec. 5 a definitive agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. under which it will acquire Warner Bros. and its film and television studios, HBO and HBO Max. The deal holds an enterprise value of approximately $82.7 billion and is expected to close mid-2026 when Discovery Global is separated from Warner Bros. into a new, publicly-traded company.

What will the merger mean for the entertainment industry?

“Nothing that good,” said William Lancaster, a film and TV producer, writer, journalist and Northeastern professor. “It’s a consolidation of power — just raw power.”

Lancaster owns and operates Boston-based media production company Video Blender, which produces everything from documentaries to scripted comedy and drama features. Among a laundry list of issues a conglomerate of Netflix’s scale presents, Lancaster anticipates major spinoff fatigue. 

“There’d be no impetus for any diversity,” Lancaster said. “Suddenly, you own ‘Star Wars,’ or ‘Succession’ or ‘Game of Thrones,’ and shows can be made from that indefinitely.”

Lancaster also doubts that new intellectual property will push the boundaries of cinema.

In terms of Netflix originals, “a system like this is very risk-averse,” Lancaster said. “They’re not going to be that interested in [producing films like] ‘Everything, Everywhere All at Once’ or ‘Nomadland.’”

On the consumer side, Lancaster predicts a subscription price increase and an aggressive push toward bundles. Beyond that, he worries the theatrical experience will be jeopardized.

“It doesn’t bode well for people who like to sit in the theatre with a box of popcorn,” Lancaster said. 

At the 2024 Time100 Summit, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said that cinema is “an outmoded idea” and even argued that Netflix “saved Hollywood.” Now, he says that Netflix is “fully committed to releasing Warner Bros. films in theaters, with a traditional window, so audiences everywhere can enjoy them on the big screen.”

Jason Marcaida, a fourth-year film art major at Emerson College, is exactly the kind of person who prioritizes the silver screen. Marcaida is a physical media junkie and serves as co-chair of cinematic literacy at Delta Kappa Alpha, a professional cinematic society and co-ed fraternity at Emerson. 

“Netflix, as it’s perceived in the general film world, is kind of seen as the antithesis of cinema,” Marcaida said.

With films needing a theatrical qualifying run of at least seven consecutive days for Academy Awards consideration, Marcaida predicts that Netflix will maintain the theatrical experience in “a capacity that’s satisfactory” — nothing more, nothing less.

Netflix showed a penchant for these kinds of “qualifying” theatrical runs last year with films like Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein,” Kathryn Bigelow’s “A House of Dynamite,” Noah Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly” and Rian Johnson’s “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery,” all of which ran in select theatres for only 17 days before hitting the streaming platform. 

“A lot of the things that are being delivered to us make the consumption of art very convenient,” Marcaida said. “I love my HBO Max account. I do like my Netflix and Hulu accounts. I love my Disney+ account. But I’m still going to the cinemas.”

Neil Macartney, a fourth-year media and screen studies and communication studies combined major at Northeastern, has been following the merger since talks first started. Contrary to most film aficionados, when Macartney learned about the Netflix deal, “My knee-jerk reaction was happiness,” he said. “I think I was relieved that it wasn’t going to Paramount.”

On Dec. 8, Paramount Skydance launched a counter offer against Netflix at an enterprise value of $108.4 billion, which, having status as a legacy studio built on theatrical release, reassured some film buffs but raised political concerns for others.

David Ellison, son of Larry Ellison, centibillionaire co-founder of Oracle Corporation, acquired Paramount Aug. 7 in an $8 billion merger with family-backed company Skydance Media. The merger’s federal approval hinged on two key concessions: Paramount acquiesced to President Donald Trump in a $16 million settlement over a “deceitful” edit of a “60 Minutes” Kamala Harris interview, and Skydance promised in writing to eliminate preexisting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at Paramount as well as “undertake a comprehensive review of CBS” to ensure unbiased reporting.

The Ellison-Trump alliance dates back to 2020, when Trump gave Oracle his “blessing” for a partnership with TikTok to keep operations afloat in the U.S.

“I was worried about Warner Bros.,” Macartney said. “They’ve been having an incredible year with such incredible content and diverse things that they’ve been putting out. I didn’t want all of that to end up in Trump-allied hands.”

Macartney and Marcaida named “Sinners,” “One Battle After Another,” “Weapons” and “Superman” as the kinds of works that might not be able to exist under a Warner Bros. friendly to the Trump administration, with Marcaida calling “One Battle After Another” “anti-facism and pro-democracy” and “Superman” an “anti-imperialist” film.

“If Paramount were to acquire Warner Bros., it might be very much possible that those types of topics, those types of themes, are completely silenced and repressed,” Marcaida said. 

Warner Bros. rejected Paramount’s offer Dec. 17, 2025, citing “inadequate value” for shareholders. Paramount challenged the rejection with a guarantee that Larry Ellison would back $40.4 billion in equity financing, but Warner Bros. rejected the offer for the eighth time Jan. 7. Marcaida called the Netflix and Paramount mergers a question of “the lesser of two evils.” 

“It’s difficult because having films released in theatres is extremely important to me as a moviegoer. It’s extremely important to me for the continued health of this art form,” Marcaida said of Paramount’s tendency toward theatrical release. “But it also is important that those films that are shown in theatres are politically challenging.”

Behind the scenes, industry professionals are worried about the practical consequences of a Netflix-Warner Bros. merger.

“The potential Netflix/Warner Bros transaction is a consolidation … which raises many serious questions about its impact on the future of the entertainment industry, and especially the human creative talent whose livelihoods and careers depend on it,” wrote SAG-AFTRA in a Dec. 5 statement. 

Young professionals are already anticipating the fallout. 

“I think about it literally everyday,” Macartney said. “With the merging of these super-powered studios, I think more than anything, it’s just stressful thinking about the literal amount of jobs decreasing, especially entry-level stuff.”

Marcaida aspires to be a writer and director. Now, that dream feels steadily less and less attainable. 

“We’re only getting big, massive budget, blockbuster tentpole films … Those films are great, and they have a right to exist, and they make up a pillar of film culture, but that cannot be the only avenue of filmmaking,” Marcaida said. “The industry that I would prefer to see is an industry that, alongside major blockbusters, also emphasizes mid-budget films and low-budget films. It emphasizes a wider variety of genres and who’s in the director’s chair. It takes a lot more chances.”