Director James Cameron, creator of Titanic and Avatar, evaluated the acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery by Netflix as a “disaster”. The criticism was made in an interview with the podcast The Townled by Matt Belloni, in November – weeks before the purchase was made official, which was announced this Friday, the 5th. Rumors about the operation were already circulating.
“I think Paramount would be the best choice. Netflix would be a disaster. Sorry, Ted [Sarandos, diretor executivo da Netflix]but damn. Sarandos has already publicly declared that films shown in theaters are dead,” Cameron said at the time.
The filmmaker also criticized the streaming giant’s strategy of showing its productions on the big screen for the minimum time necessary for them to be eligible for the Oscar. For years, the company has been trying to achieve a victory in the main award category.
“It’s muggle bait. ‘Let’s release the film for a week or 10 days. Let’s qualify for the Oscars.’ You see, I think this is fundamentally rotten. A film should be made as a film for the cinema, and an Oscar doesn’t mean anything to me if it doesn’t mean cinema. I think they were co-opted, and I think that’s horrible,” Cameron said.
For him, Netflix should only be able to compete “if it releases the film in 2,000 cinemas during a month, in a significant distribution”.
Netflix adquire a Warner Bros.
Netflix closed this Friday, the 5th, an agreement to acquire the Warner Bros. studio. Discovery and its streaming service HBO Max, in an operation valued at US$82.7 billion, including debt. The movement, which involves payments in cash and shares, should be completed after the spin-off of Warner’s cable TV business – a stage expected to be completed by the third quarter of 2026.
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The negotiation marks a historic turning point in Hollywood. With the acquisition of Warner, Netflix, which expands its power as a global streaming leader, takes control of multimillion-dollar franchises, ranging from superheroes to literary phenomena, fantasy sagas, classic animations and sitcoms.
