Hey, look at that — Netflix is already backtracking on its prior commitment to give Warner Bros. titles decent theatrical rollouts.
This morning, Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos kicked off his conference call with investors by saying that Netflix has no “opposition to movies in theaters,” as the streamer said it “expects” to release Warner Bros. films theatrically if it completes its $82.7 billion deal for the studio and HBO Max.
What’s funny about it all is that Sarandos used as an example Netflix having released 30 films in cinemas in 2025, though he failed to mention that most of those films had very short theatrical windows.
“It’s not like we have this opposition to movies into theaters,” Sarandos said. “My pushback has been mostly in the fact of the long exclusive windows, which we don’t really think are that consumer-friendly, but when we talk about keeping HBO operating, largely as it is, that also includes their output movie deal with Warner Bros., which includes a life cycle that starts in the movie theater, which we’re going to continue to support.”
Of course, Sarandos is somehow backtracking now, suggesting that these theatrical windows will, in his words, “evolve” to be much shorter. He’s just using the term “more consumer friendly” to make his point.
“I wouldn’t look at this as a change in approach for Netflix movies or for Warner movies,” he said. “I think, over time, the windows will evolve to be much more consumer friendly, to be able to meet the audience where they are quicker … I’d say right now, you should count on everything that is planned on going to the theater through Warner Bros. will continue to go to the theaters through Warner Bros., and Netflix movies will take the same strides they have, which is, some of them do have a short run in the theater beforehand. But our primary goal is to bring first-run movies to our members, because that’s what they’re looking for.”
During its bid against Paramount and Comcast for Warner Bros. Discovery, Netflix assured company executives it would uphold existing agreements requiring theatrical movie releases if the deal went through. No surprise, looks like he lied.
So, as Puck’s Scott Mendelson states, the payoff for Warner Bros.—a studio coming off an almost unprecedented strong year both commercially and artistically in theaters—is getting swallowed by Netflix, the one company with the most desire to erase theaters altogether? At this point, it almost feels like things would be better if “Conjuring: The Last Rites,” “Minecraft,” “Sinners,” and “Weapons” had all flopped.
If you have a real feeling of dread about this, your suspicions are correct — you’re not wrong. This feels like the end to everything. Theatrical is truly f*cked unless the DOJ puts a full stop to this deal.
It’s a bleak and devastating day for the theatrical movie experience and for cinema as an art form.