Until a few weeks ago, American movie theater owners would have had little to worry about with Warner Bros. Discovery. Seven of the year’s top 20 box office grossers in the United States domestic market were produced by the media conglomerate, representing 37% of total revenue from ticket sales in this list of the country’s top releases.
But now they are worried. In early December, which the industry has seen in the last decade after Netflix () announced a US$72 billion deal to buy Warner. It would be the first time that a streaming service has purchased one of the sector’s veterans.
Only one release from the streaming service has been among the top 200 domestic box office grossers in the United States in 2025 so far. The musical “KPop Demon Hunters” occupies 65th position in the Box Office Mojo platform ranking, with US$23.3 million raised at the box office. On the other hand, Warner was the producer most present at the top of the release list, followed by Disney (), with six films.
In a video conference shortly after the announcement of the acquisition intention, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos said that the company intended to maintain “everything that is planned to be released in theaters by Warner”. But what then?
Sarandos never hid his vision about the distribution model via movie theaters. In a panel at the Time100 Summit event, the technology and film industry heavyweight treated as “outdated” the concept of cinema that “people grew up thinking”: making films on a gigantic screen, showing for two months, watched by strangers in sessions with “people crying and sold out sessions”.
When a film goes to American cinemas, around half of the ticket price goes to the exhibitors (the part that goes to the producers is usually higher in large cinematographic events). In total, the seven Warner productions among the 20 highest grossing films of the year reached a total box office of US$1.71 billion. The calculations were made by InfoMoney based on data from the Box Office Mojo platform.
Continues after advertising
Michael O’Leary, president and CEO of Cinema United, a trade organization that represents more than 31,000 movie theaters in the United States and Canada, called the potential acquisition “an unprecedented threat to the global cinema exhibition sector” to CBC.
“A Minecraft Movie”, a theatrical adaptation of the popular video game among children produced by Warner, was the highest grossing film of the year in 2025 until mid-December, with around US$424 million. In third place is “Superman”, an important intellectual property from the DC Comics universe under the production company’s umbrella, with a box office gross of US$354 million.
In addition to billion-dollar intellectual properties, such as DC Comics heroes or the Harry Potter franchise, Netflix would acquire one of the most awarded studios in the history of the United States in the acquisition of Warner. “Sinners,” an original directed by Ryan Coogler and released in 2025, was the sixth highest-grossing American domestic box office; The film is emerging as one of the favorites at the Oscar awards.
Continues after advertising
Since the announcement of the deal between Netflix and Warner, however, Sarandos has changed his tone. At first, the CEO said that his main objection was against the exclusivity windows guaranteed by producers to exhibitors — a period during which films are shown only in theaters until they are released on physical media or streaming.
He adopted an even milder stance at an event organized by Canal+ Group in Paris last Tuesday (16), pledging to continue releasing Warner’s films in cinemas following the traditional exhibition windows. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, that window has shrunk from about 45 days to 30 days, says a report published by The Los Angeles Times in April this year.
Paramount Skydance’s entry into the game by making a hostile bid of US$108.4 billion for all of Warner Bros. Discovery’s assets, at first, could be read as a more exhibitor-friendly deal. It is another traditional Hollywood studio whose main business is not centered on technology and video on demand.
Continues after advertising
This year, Paramount only had one film among the top 20 domestic box office grossers in the US, “Mission: Impossible: The Final Score”. The company is the result of a recent merger between David Ellison’s Skydance, son of Oracle’s billionaire founder Larry Ellison, and the traditional studio.
But last Wednesday (16), the board of directors of Warner Bros Discovery rejected the deal. In a letter to shareholders, advisers said Paramount had “consistently misled” Warner Bros shareholders by claiming the $30 per share cash offer would be guaranteed by the Ellison family.
The proposal made by Paramount included not only Warner’s profitable arms — its studios, HBO and HBO Max streaming, but also the linear television arm, which includes channels such as TNT Sports and CNN. These two divisions were recently split, precisely to facilitate the search for investors, such as . Netflix offered US$27.75 per share, in a deal involving only the company’s best assets.
