As I predicted back when it looked like Netflix would buy Warner Bros Discovery, there have been many twists and turns since early December. Now Netflix has withdrawn its bid in the face of a higher bid from David Ellison’s Paramount as well as pushback from the Justice Department and President Trump.
Shock, grief and anger spread as the news got out yesterday. Ellison’s purchase of Paramount and CBS News has already resulted in massive layoffs and cultural shifts. Wall Street reacted with Netflix and Paramount stock going up and WBD stock going down. Netflix stock price had slid ever since they announced the plan to take over the storied WBD studio, and between that and government opposition, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos cut his losses. After all, Netflix is still the biggest media company out there.
As usual, there will be endless commentary on all of this, so I’ll just focus on one little question: what will this mean for DC Comics and the DCEU? Of course this is all spitballing and speculation. Back when it looked like Netflix would win I wrote:
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.
While it’s true that the new “Warner-mount” will need hits at the box office, the Ellison bid is being financed by the Saudis, who are unlikely to run out of money, so profits may not even be the main concern for a while. Ellison has shown a liking for loud, colorful action movies – the biggest hits at Skydance, his solo shingle, include Top Gun Maverick and the Mission Impossible franchise – so once again, keeping a steady supply of hit DC superhero movies would seem to be a desired outcome no matter who buys the studio.
However, given Ellison’s meddling with tone and content, I would now rate them getting rid of Gunn/Safran as LIKELY in the short term, or Gunn and Safran leaving or some combination of the two. Although James Gunn has toned down his political social media posts since he became a studio head, it’s no secret he’s not a fan of the current presidential regime and he’s already been targeted by MAGA once.
But as some have pointed out, Warner Bros. has been a poisoned chalice for everyone who bought it – AOL, AT&T, Discovery. Paramount is taking on $60-70 billion of debt for this deal. What to do with the superheroes has perplexed studio heads for decades. With the installation of James Gunn and Peter Safran running DC Studios, and their reveal of a well thought out long term plan, it seemed that the problem had finally, FINALLY been solved. If Warner-mount does go through, I predict an eventual return to chaos and confusion.
And what about DC Comics? I was told that Ted Sarandos actually had a very upbeat meeting with some of the top brass at DC Comics, so things looked quite positive there.
With the Ellison coalition….who knows? Ellison seems sets on becoming a massive conglomerate and publishing may be of more interest to him that it was to Netflix. Paramount has more IP in its library than Netflix (Star Trek, Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, South Park) but they are getting a treasure chest with WBD: DC Comics, Looney Tunes, Hrry Potter (loathed but lucrative), Game of Thrones, Scooby Doo, Peter Potamus….a goldmine.
But change could take a while: Warner-Mount’s number one goal will be dismantling and redirecting CNN, and that will keep them busy for a bit.
Overall, this news has spread anxiety everywhere – according to Puck News, the mood inside WBD was “bleak” when the news got out. You only have to look at the tumult and misery that the Bari Weiss takeover at CBS News has wrought to project your own doom scrolling narrative here.
It’s not a done deal yet. There could be even more twists and turns to come. In fact….I’m pretty sure here will be. That’s the nature of the world in 2026.
Finally, no matter what happens….this sucks. Even setting aside political machinations, the consolidation of one of the great Hollywood Studios into another is an incredibly sad story. It wouldn’t have been much happier under Netflix, truthfully. The only comforting thought – if you can call it that – is that all moguls eventually fade as new industries arise. 100 years ago, rail, steel and automotive tycoons ruled the world. Now they are just brands and faded names. Someday the lone and level sands will stretch far away over the name of David Ellison.
Kudos to Ms MacDonald for a very grounded, informed article on a matter very important to this community!
This is definitely bad news, and agree with your projections – not only the likely tearing down of CNN, but Last Week Tonight is cancelled sooner after acquisition, based on what happened with Stephen Colbert. Can’t imagine the new owners will love the tone of many other HBO shows, past and present, either.
And as far as Ted Sarandos “cutting his losses” – I’d love to come out of a negotiation where I lost and got $2.8 billion for my trouble…
This is a dumb article, it says absolutely nothing concerning what’s going to happen to DC comics, lol! All the author is saying is they don’t know. Talk about Clickbait.
Of course, whatever happens to CNN is irrelevant to Netflix pulling out because they were NEVER going to buy Discovery, and thus, as a freestanding company of its own, Paramount was probably going to get it either way. The redundancy contractions of employees is what mergers are always about–and WB has gone through with Time, AT&T and Discovery buying them–WB has always been the company that constricts. (In fact, WB was bought by DC’s parent company Kinney National service in ’71, not the other way around, so in terms of purchasers, DC is historically WB’s parent!) I’m not sure I foresee the disaster to the movie business that you see–why would Paramount NOT want WB’s successes? The DC Studios question is something else–NONE of Gunn’s upcoming projects except SUPERMAN 2 look to me like certain successes, and in fact, some of them (SUPERGIRL, specifically) sounds like a loser to me. Where I wonder what the outcome of all this is DC COMICS–will the influx of outside enthusiasm bolster the publisher’s budget and support or will corporate interference that we’ve seen three times this century mean new leadership in the Javan and Lee offices? Will Paramount’s legal team mean alteration of WB’s current very conservative attitude toward copyrights and character acquisitions (the recent NEW HISTORY project was thwarted from using Fawcett and Quality (and, oddly, Charlton) characters who are both their property by definition and also public domain anyway, for example). In terms of DC using Paramount IP that remains of commercial value, will DC have any interest in reacquiring the rights to the STAR TREK franchise, or will they continue on with the Zaslov/WBD viewpoint that the licensing of properties owned by the conglomerate to outside parties is more profitable than self-exploitation by the company itself (DC has allowed its sister company’s H-B/Cartoon Network properties be taken over by others, and at present, they’re no longer publishing either LOONEY TUNES or SCOOBY-DOO; Would they even be interested in ANY licensed properties anymore except as one-shot “specials” a la SONIC and KING KONG/GODZILLA?) Assuming, of course, that P-WB sees the real value of creation of exploitable original IP by their publishing wing, as Disney clearly has with Marvel, should we expect ANY real change in the comics? It remains to be seen.
You know what it means? It means that each DC comic book published from this day forward MUST include a mandatory Donald Trump cameo pictured as a orangutan, up in a tree, pulling down bananas, picking at all his scabs and then eating his boogers. Effective immediately in the next Justice League Vs. Godzilla Vs. King Kong mini-series.
That’s all I’ve got.
~
Coat
When you outbid someone you would think a plan is in place or at the very least being devised. Sal.
I’ve cut everything to do with the Ellison name for years. I’m forced to work on some of the media stuff due to my job, but if this deal closes I’m dropping every DC title from my list, even if I really like the creators.
I’m with you in spirit but let’s see what happens
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