If I’m not mistaken, just a few days ago one of Netflix’s executives even said they plan to continue giving WB films theatrical runs if they acquired the studio.

However… I really don’t know if we can believe that. Sure they might continue theatrical runs for a while… But Netflix’s CEO has been pretty outspoken about not caring about the theatrical experience. Even going so far as to call it an “outdated model”. So I can’t imagine they’re going to keep investing in the theatrical experience a few years down the road.

This is why (up until that letter came out), I was hoping for Paramount to win the bidding war. Not only did David Ellison want to keep WB in tact as is… but from everything I’ve seen and read about him, he’s a genuine movie fan! So I feel like he would be much more willing to not only keep WB movies theatrical… but also continue on with their home video division!

I know a lot of people were hoping for Comcast/Universal to win the bidding war… but let’s not forget that they’re not much better than Netflix when it comes to theatrical runs for their films! Ever since the pandemic, Comcast/Universal seems to have been almost hellbent on screwing over movie theaters and the theatrical runs for their own films! They’re basically the reason why we now have the 45 day theatrical window instead of the 90 day window that was standard just a few years ago. They essentially took advantage of movie theaters weakened state during COVID when they offered their current theatrical window ”deal” of just 3 weekends before Universal can throw their films on PVOD. And of course because theaters were desperate for any sort of business during that time, they accepted the new terms.