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(Left) Netflix logo. Photo: Netflix. (Right) Warner Bros. logo. Photo: Warner Bros.
Preview:
- Warner Bros. has won the bidding war for Warner Bros.
- The streaming service will acquire the legacy media giant for $82.7 billion.
- Paramount and others were also interested.
If you see someone painting a giant “N” on the iconic Warner Bros. studio lot water tower, don’t worry that it’s David Zaslav having the Animaniacs’ door painted shut because they’re not driving profits enough.
Instead, it represents that, after a heated bidding war, Netflix has sealed a hefty, $82.7 billion deal to buy the media giant.
“He works in mysterious ways.”
Release Date: Nov 26, 2025
Run Time: 2 hr 25 min
Budget: $210,000,000
It’s a momentous, and some might, troubling development, representing further conglomeration between companies and giving Netflix a massive boost in terms of movie and TV output.
Might it also lead to more of the streaming service’s films landing theatrically? We’ll have to see.
Related Article: Paramount and Skydance to Merge Under Big Deal Announced Monday
What does this mean for Netflix and Warner Bros.?
Matt Smith in ‘House of the Dragon’ season 2. Photograph by Theo Whitman/HBO.
Effectively, Netflix is buying the Warner Bros. movie studio and its TV output, which included the WBTV studio (which includes the likes of ‘Game of Thrones’ spin-off ‘House of the Dragon’ and output to other networks including ‘Abbott Elementary,’ which is carried by ABC).
What is not included is the Discovery arm of the company, which is WB had already planned to spin back off into its own service.
We don’t yet know the full impact of the deal in terms of how the movie side of things will work –– Netflix famously doesn’t tend to want to release its movies theatrically, but now it has a whole set up to help with that, and there’s no word yet on whether HBO Max will remain a standalone streaming service or if it’ll be folded into Netflix.
And the biggest loser in all this? Probably Paramount Skydance, which had been making its own intense bid to buy Warners just a few weeks after completing its own merger.
Netflix and WB deal: the companies speak
(L to R): Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers, Natalia Dyer, and Maya Hawke as Robin Buckley in ‘Stranger Things: Season 5.’ Photo: COURTESY OF NETFLIX © 2025.
This was Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos on the deal:
“Our mission has always been to entertain the world. By combining Warner Bros.’ incredible library of shows and movies—from timeless classics like ‘Casablanca’ and ‘Citizen Kane’ to modern favorites like Harry Potter and Friends—with our culture-defining titles like ‘Stranger Things’, ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ and ‘Squid Game,’ we’ll be able to do that even better. Together, we can give audiences more of what they love and help define the next century of storytelling.”
And here’s Warner Bros. President and CEO (for now) David Zaslav:
“Today’s announcement combines two of the greatest storytelling companies in the world to bring to even more people the entertainment they love to watch the most. For more than a century, Warner Bros. has thrilled audiences, captured the world’s attention, and shaped our culture. By coming together with Netflix, we will ensure people everywhere will continue to enjoy the world’s most resonant stories for generations to come.”
(L to R) Josh O’Connor and Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc in ‘Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery’. Cr. John Wilson/Netflix © 2025.
