Eagle Era

How consumers and industries will be affected in the wake of Warner Brothers’ new patron

By Natalie Tchao

The Warner Brothers Studios, a prolific movie company producing franchises such as Harry Potter, the DCU, and Looney Tunes, was recently under bids by various production and streaming services. By December 5th, the new owner-to-be of Warner Brothers had been announced: Netflix.

This news signals major changes for media industries, including but not limited to movie theaters and streaming platforms. “The main change would be shorter theatrical windows like we’ve already seen with Knives Out, Frankenstein, etc,” said Joshua Tsang (11), the president of Film Club. He also believed that buying movies would become more scarce. “For physical media, I think there will be far less. Warner Brothers without Netflix has already been slowly pulling out of that market.”

Some express concern about the potential of unconventional plotlines with the new ownership. Ryan Gerry, a worker at AMC, said, “Take Stranger Things, for example. I remember in the beginning, it was very small-town and horror-esque, but now it doesn’t feel the same. It felt more like an action trying to be a modern comedy while still being in the 80s.”

Comic franchises could also potentially be affected by Warner Brothers’ change in ownership. “It’s like when Disney bought Marvel. The only change was that Disney was definitely censoring content in those books,” said Alex Johnson, owner of the store Treasure Island Comics.

“I don’t think Warner Brothers has ever been interested in doing that, let alone for DC, so they probably won’t try to censor them or anything like that. What you’ll see is more Netflix TV shows built up around the characters. They’re going to put lots of attention to make sure they can get a lot of money out of the movies.”      

Warner Brothers’ transition to Netflix ownership will possibly make major waves in both the entertainment industry, what people watch, and even how some favorite franchises will be used.