by Jesse Hudgins
In October of 2025, it was announced that Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) had become open to selling the company after interest from certain parties, specifically Paramount owner David Ellison. WBD turned down the offer from Paramount as well as a subsequent return offer when Paramount joined with Apollo Global Management and Middle Eastern investors. Comcast had also joined the conversation, but they didn’t seem to get far.
Cut to December 5, 2025, and it was announced that Netflix won the bidding war. Agreeing on a deal that values up to $82.7 billion, the companies have shared their excitement about this deal and what it would mean going forward. Netflix did state that they don’t plan to change the operations of WBD, which includes the theatrical releases. While the deal isn’t fully finalized, there are rumors of interference from the U.S. Department of Justice due to antitrust concerns.
Reactions to the news have been mixed thus far. Many are glad that Paramount wasn’t the one to secure the deal, but there are plenty of concerns about what this means for theatrical releases as well as the future of HBO Max. While Netflix claimed they don’t plan to mess with the current theatrical operations, there’s potential that this could mess with how long certain movies stay in theaters, something WBD has been struggling with already. Movies like Furiosa and even Superman ended up on streaming quite early after their initial release dates. This isn’t necessarily a WBD exclusive problem, as even Disney is guilty of it. It’ll be interesting to see whether the Netflix deal will change any of the current theatrical strategies.
On the streaming end, the question of what happens to HBO Max arises. There are a few options that could be considered when talking about the future of the streaming service. The first option is the easiest; Netflix just leaves it alone and uses it as another stream of revenue. The second option is that they start bundling the two services together in the same way that Disney has done with Hulu and ESPN+. The final option could be that they merge the two services together under Netflix and increase the price of the subscription again. There could even be other options, but it really is too early to say what the outcome is going to be due to the recency of the deal and the fact that it isn’t fully finalized yet.
It’ll be interesting to see where this goes in the coming months. On December 8, Paramount put in a counter bid that’s valued at over $100 billion. On top of that, backlash has set in all across the entertainment industry with many groups looking to stop the merger from happening at all.
