\n<\/p>\n
In the eyes of many in Hollywood, the battle for control of Warner Bros Discovery boils down to two unappealing options: the winner will either be the company that broke the foundations of the movie business or the one they believe is openly bending a knee to President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
Netflix, which offered $83bn for WBD\u2019s streaming and studio assets last week, has for years angered the movie industry for refusing to widely release films in cinemas. Ted Sarandos, Netflix co-chief executive, called cinematic releases an \u201coutmoded idea\u201d earlier this year. <\/p>\n
And Paramount, whose chief executive David Ellison launched a $108bn hostile bid for Warner Bros this week, is viewed by some Hollywood liberals as too eager to accommodate Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s just a lot of frustration out there right now about these two buyers,\u201d said Tom Nunan, an Oscar-winning film producer and lecturer at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. <\/p>\n
The sale of the century-old Warner studio has raised anxieties about thousands of job cuts and the loss of a major buyer of television and film projects \u2014 which stands to impact virtually every other segment of the industry, including talent agencies, producers, actors and directors. <\/p>\n
Paramount this week said it would seek $6bn in cost savings over three years if it is successful in acquiring Warner. Netflix estimates $2bn-$3bn in cuts, mostly in overlapping technology capabilities and support. <\/p>\n
When it comes to Paramount and the Ellisons, Hollywood executives say they are most concerned about cost cuts and politics<\/span> \u00a9 AaronP\/Bauer-Griffin\/GC Images\/Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n The sale\u00a0has also heightened anxieties about the future of Hollywood following a tough few years marked by strikes, thousands of job losses, shrinking audiences at the cinema and the rise of artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat you\u2019re seeing is shock \u2014 Hollywood is shocked,\u201d another award-winning producer said of the Warner Bros sale. \u201cHollywood\u2019s having a meltdown, like, \u2018Oh shit, this is really happening.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Ellison\u2019s dealmaking has the financial support of his billionaire father Larry Ellison, a Trump supporter. The latest Paramount bid for Warner Bros also included Jared Kushner, Trump\u2019s son-in-law, as one of its financial backers, along with Gulf investors.<\/p>\n \u201cThe second you see that Jared Kushner is involved, you know [the Warner deal] is a fait accompli<\/em>,\u201d said one longtime entertainment executive, a frequently expressed view in Hollywood this week. \u201cIt tells you everything you need to know.\u201d<\/p>\n The Netflix bid has roused a sense of dread among some of Hollywood\u2019s filmmakers, including Avatar<\/em> director James Cameron, at the thought of the streaming service taking control of Warner. Speaking on the industry podcast The Town<\/em>, Cameron called Sarandos\u2019s pledge to continue releasing Warner Bros films in cinemas \u201csucker bait\u201d. <\/p>\n Hollywood fears the sale of WBD could mean the loss of a major buyer of TV and film projects \u2014 which could impact virtually every other segment of the industry<\/span> \u00a9 Jill Connelly\/Bloomberg<\/span><\/p>\n Sarandos has tried to tamp down such concerns. \u201cWe\u2019re deeply committed to releasing [Warner Bros] movies exactly the way they\u2019ve released those movies today,\u201d he said this week.<\/p>\n \u201cThe theatrical business we\u2019ve not talked a lot about in the past\u2009.\u2009.\u2009. because we\u2019ve never been in that business,\u201d Sarandos said. \u201cWhen this deal closes we are in that business.\u201d<\/p>\n Some in the movie industry remain sceptical, saying Netflix has tended to only release films for short \u201cwindows\u201d without marketing support \u2014 mostly as a way to qualify for award consideration. Cinema United, a trade group, calls the company\u2019s offer an \u201cunprecedented threat to the global exhibition business\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe movie people feel betrayed,\u201d a producer told the Financial Times. \u201cThey sound defeated, like they haven\u2019t been able to beat Netflix. They keep talking about Netflix like they\u2019re the nouveau riche<\/em>, like they\u2019re new money and they\u2019re trashy and they don\u2019t respect our traditions.\u201d<\/p>\n Netflix has also dramatically changed the way talent is paid in Hollywood, replacing \u201cback end\u201d profit participation that enriched generations of agents and talent with healthy upfront payments. Many expect those old-style pay arrangements to continue to flatten out, especially with less competition among studios. <\/p>\n The latest Paramount bid for Warner Bros also included Jared Kushner, Trump\u2019s son-in-law, as one of its financial backers, along with Gulf investors<\/span> \u00a9 Ethan Swope\/Bloomberg<\/span><\/p>\n When it comes to Paramount and the Ellisons, Hollywood executives say they are most concerned about cost cuts and politics. Unlike Netflix, Paramount is seeking to buy Warner\u2019s cable TV assets, which include CNN, a longtime target of Trump.<\/p>\n Since taking control of Paramount in August, the Ellisons have appeared to cater to Trump\u2019s concerns and tastes. They installed \u201canti-woke\u201d journalist Bari Weiss at the top of CBS News, and greenlit a revival of the Rush Hour<\/em> buddy cop franchise that is a favourite of the president\u2019s, according to a report by Semafor.<\/p>\n Nunan said: \u201cThe mix of the Ellisons so aggressively seeking Trump\u2019s approval, accepting that he\u2019s going to have a say, and then collecting Saudi investors along with his own son-in-law to help pay for the whole thing has left a lot of folks feeling uncertain about the editorial process, in particular when it comes to CNN.\u201d<\/p>\n At the Kennedy Center awards ceremony on Sunday, Trump said he would be \u201cinvolved\u201d in the decision about the Warner Bros sale, adding that he had hosted\u00a0Sarandos at the White House the previous week. The president also suggested Netflix\u2019s market share might be too high for regulatory approval of the Warner acquisition. \u201cIt could be a problem,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Netflix estimates up to $3bn in cuts if its WBD bid succeeds <\/span> \u00a9 Ethan Swope\/Bloomberg<\/span><\/p>\n Despite the criticism, people who have worked with Ellison and Sarandos describe them as movie lovers who sincerely want to help Hollywood grow again. Yet those who respect Ellison worry he needs to digest the Paramount acquisition before attempting to take on a second Hollywood icon. And they credit Sarandos for his role in building a company with a market value of more than $400bn.<\/p>\n Recommended<\/p>\n \u201cThe calculus is around what management team will be better, and I think that\u2019s kind of an indisputable argument just based on history,\u201d said a senior Hollywood executive. \u201cThat\u2019s not a knock on David \u2014 he\u2019s very impressive. But nobody can say that he created Netflix.\u201d<\/p>\n Another high-ranking studio executive, an avowed lover of the cinematic experience, said the hand-wringing about the idea of Netflix owning a major studio is already starting to look dated.<\/p>\n \u201cWith Netflix and people\u2019s objections to it, they\u2019re mourning something that has already happened,\u201d he said. \u201cI think theatrical film is superior in a thousand ways to things that are released online. But if people aren\u2019t going, people aren\u2019t going.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the eyes of many in Hollywood, the battle for control of Warner Bros Discovery boils down to two unappealing options: the winner will either be the company that broke the foundations of the movie business or the one they believe is openly bending a knee to President Donald Trump. Netflix, which offered $83bn for<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[2036,2037,830,274,4849,545,20508,2035],"class_list":{"0":"post-36868","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-bros","9":"tag-discovery","10":"tag-hollywood","11":"tag-netflix","12":"tag-paramount","13":"tag-sale","14":"tag-shudders","15":"tag-warner"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}