What does Netflix buying Warner Bros mean for DC Comics?

The Warner Bros. ownership sweepstakes seemed to reach the end of the beginning last night as Bloomberg broke the news that Netflix had entered into talks to acquire the legendary studio. 

Netflix was one of three bidders; the other two included the telecom Comcast, owner of NBCUniversal, and Paramount, itself recently acquired by Skydance Media’s David Ellison. The Netflix offer is only for the studio, including HBO Max. As planned, WB’s cable channels including CNN, TBS and (most worryingly in this household) Turner Classic Movies will still be spun off to another buyer. 

I’m sure tomorrow’s news, social media posts and pundits will be consumed with analyzing this move, which would reshape the entertainment world forever, but I’ll cut to the chase for Beat readers: what does it mean for DC Comics? 

The deal itself has many hurdles to overcome – looming largest, government concerns over antitrust violations, although they didn’t seem too concerned about Paramount acquiring another studio, especially after the pot got sweetened by the promise of Rush Hour 4. 

Evidently WB head David Zaslav and company were not as swayed by the appeal of Chris Tucker coming out of retirement, but preferred Netflix’s $28 a share offer, reportedly including a $5 billion breakup fee if the deal doesn’t go through.

Honestly, maybe just selling to a company that can throw around $5 billion like petty cash is all the answer you need for why they went with Netflix.  

Anyway, back to our central question. There’s no doubt that the success (finally!) of Superman greatly raised the value of the DC IP library in the halls of Warner Bros. Zaslav spoke glowingly of DC Studios and James Gunn/Peter Safran in his recent earnings calls. Netflix loves successful movies, so it seems counterintuitive that they would cut off this boffo relaunch of DC as a movie brand just as it’s getting going. I rate them getting rid of Gunn/Safran as unlikely in the short term. 

On the other hand, perhaps the main reason that Netflix is buying WB is to remove another rival to staying at home to chill. The philosophical battle over releasing films in non-home theaters is currently playing out with Wake Up Dead Man, Rian Johnson’s third Benoit Blanc movie. After a one week run in art house theaters, you’ll find it only on Netflix starting today. Filmmakers have been chafing against Netflix’s no theaters method for a while. Del Toro’s Frankenstein got a whole three weeks. And god bless Greta Gerwig for insisting on a theatrical opening for her Narnia reboot for two weeks. 

On the OTHER other hand, acquiring Warner Bros. would give Netflix something it doesn’t have, as I alluded to just the other day when talking about Stranger Things: a whole glorious library of majestic, beloved IP. And certainly, DC Comics is a huge, sparkling gem encrusted section of that library. 

Netflix is obviously no stranger to content based on comics: The Umbrella Academy, Sandman, The End of the F****** World, The Old Guard. Then there was the whole Millarworld business way back in the day, but that didn’t amount to much. Back around that time there were rumors of Netflix starting its own line of comics, but ultimately they made a deal with Dark Horse instead, which has mainly resulted in a steady stream of Stranger Things comics. 

Just based on my own observations over the Netflix Era, I would say they are not that interested in publishing. And DC Comics itself remains a strange little appendix in the larger studio system. Back when Time Warner had a whole publishing company right in its name, DC always stayed with the movie studio, avoiding getting sold off. There’s a whole complicated reason for this that deserves its own examination, but I’ll leave that for another time.

DC Comics has also been tossed around like a chew toy left at the dog park during the whole miserable saga of WB’s own acquisition history, from the disaster of AT&T to the uncertain days of the Zaslav/Discovery regime. Probably the one thing DC had going for it through all of this was, oddly enough, the massive success of the MCU over at Disney. With the superheroes across the street (literally) sitting atop the entertainment world, whoever owned WB was set on making sure their own superhero universe got a shot at capturing the same audience. With that in mind, DC Comics couldn’t get killed completely, although some executives did their best to whittle it down to a skeleton crew, and moved it to an office they had to share with animation. 

That said, in recent days, I’m told DC Comics is held in high esteem within the halls of Zaslav world. Certainly their appearance at this year’s NYCC – from Jim Lee’s fiery anti-AI speech to the huge, impressive mural in their booth, to the fact that they had a booth at all – showed a lot of confidence in the division. 

At any rate, it will probably take a year for this deal to go through – IF it even goes through. Will the James Gunn DC film reboot remain a winner? Will Lanterns be a hit? IF they are still riding high when the deal goes through, DC Comics won’t be the first WB division cut. 

But we’re living in the Netflix Era. With a $438 billion market cap, they are the biggest player in entertainment, they are very good at what they do, and they don’t have to change a thing for anyone. The entire movie going experience is fighting for its very survival, and Netflix remains committed to its home streaming strategy because that’s just what they do. How will controlling IP, licensing and even a tiny comic book publishing business fit into that strategy? 

The answer to that lies months or years in the future. But it will certainly be fascinating to watch. 

My own gut level feeling? As long as movies, series and animation based on DC Comics characters make money, DC Comics, the idea factory, will have a place doing something somewhere. But by the time this deal is finalized, after the dust settles, we might have an incredibly different landscape for publishing itself. 

There’s tons more to think about – what will happen to HBO Max? What will happen to HBO? If you’re reading this in the morning, surely you’re being bombarded with similar essays attempting to answer those questions. We’ll keep you updated with the news and speculation as it happens.