HOW IT STARTED: Christopher Nolan Slams His Tenet Studio Warner Bros Over HBO Max Windows Plan.
Christopher Nolan, who was doing consumer press interviews today for the DVD release of Tenet, was asked about that movie’s film studio, Warner Bros., and their recent radical windows plan to drop their entire 2021 slate both in theaters and on their struggling frosh streaming service HBO Max at the same time. It was a move last Thursday that blindsided both film co-financiers and talent, leaving them irate.
“Some of our industry’s biggest filmmakers and most important movie stars went to bed the night before thinking they were working for the greatest movie studio and woke up to find out they were working for the worst streaming service,” said Nolan in a statement, kicking HBO Max in the teeth.
Warners and exhibition rushed to reopen movie theaters during the pandemic for Tenet. Some industry sources believed the move was premature during the pandemic, especially with box office capital New York and LA closed, as well as other markets, with the $200M spy noir thriller seeing lackluster global results of $360M, 32% less than Nolan’s previous WWII feature Dunkirk. The theory has been floated by many distribution heads of late that if we didn’t rush to reopen theaters for Tenet than perhaps this HBO Max deal wouldn’t have been floated.
Nolan said that the Burbank, CA lot was “dismantling” an ideal distribution system between theaters and homes “as we speak. They don’t even understand what they’re losing. Their decision makes no economic sense and even the most casual Wall Street investor can see the difference between disruption and dysfunction.”
—Deadline Hollywood, December 7th, 2020.
How It’s Going: Netflix Says Warner Bros. Movies Will Remain in Theaters but ‘Windows Will Evolve to Be Much More Consumer Friendly.’
Ted Sarandos insisted that Netflix has no “opposition to movies in theaters,” as the streamer said it “expects” to release Warner Bros. films theatrically if it completes its $82.7 billion deal for the studio and HBO Max.
On a conference call with investors and press on Friday, the Netflix co-CEO noted that the company has released 30 films in cinemas in 2025, though most of those films have had a far shorter theatrical run than those from a typical studio.
“It’s not like we have this opposition to movies into theaters,” Sarandos said. “My pushback has been mostly in the fact of the long exclusive windows, which we don’t really think are that consumer friendly, but when we talk about keeping HBO operating, largely as it is, that also includes their output movie deal with Warner Bros., which includes a life cycle that starts in the movie theater, which we’re going to continue to support.”
However, Sarandos suggested that life cycle may soon change, or, in his words, “evolve.”
“I wouldn’t look at this as a change in approach for Netflix movies or for Warner movies,” he said. “I think, over time, the windows will evolve to be much more consumer friendly, to be able to meet the audience where they are quicker…I’d say right now, you should count on everything that is planned on going to the theater through Warner Bros. will continue to go to the theaters through Warner Bros., and Netflix movies will take the same strides they have, which is, some of them do have a short run in the theater beforehand. But our primary goal is to bring first-run movies to our members, because that’s what they’re looking for.”
—Variety, yesterday. In another Variety article from yesterday, theater owners did not sound very sanguine about an ever-tightening window of big screen distribution: Theater Owners Worry Netflix Buying Warner Bros. Will Cripple Their Business: ‘Hopefully the Deal Gets Killed.’
“The most ominous words I read were that the windows will ‘evolve,’” says one A-list director. “I know exactly what it means. Netflix wants to put movies in theaters for one week to two weeks then it’s right to streaming. At that point, why put it out?”
During the pandemic, many studios shortened the amount of time that movies screen exclusively in theaters. Before COVID, most films stayed in theaters for 90 days before debuting on home entertainment. Now, some theatrical releases are available to buy or rent within a few weeks. Exhibition executives fear that if Sarandos further shortens windows, the consequences could be dire.
“It has been widely proven that shorter windows would result in lower revenue generation potential for movies,” says Eduardo Acuna, CEO of Regal Entertainment. “These lower revenues would inevitably result in theater closures, which would limit consumers’ ability to see movies in the format that filmmakers originally intended. Furthermore, it would result in job losses and economic harm to surrounding businesses to those theater closings. Ultimately, consumers would be worse off.”
The New York Post reports that Warner Brothers haven’t heard the last of David Ellison: How Warner Bros. Discovery’s CEO decided to sell to Netflix— and why the media giant’s auction may not be over:
In the end, it came down to 75 cents a share – and that means this ain’t over.
On Thursday morning, Warner Bros Discovery received a $30-a-share, all-cash takeover bid for the media giant from Paramount Skydance, sources told The Post. Meanwhile, Netflix offered to buy WBD’s Warner Bros. studio and HBO Max streaming business in a deal that effectively values the whole company at $30.75.
The race looked like a squeaker, but WBD’s board and its CEO David Zaslav announced less than 24 hours later that they had accepted the bid from Netflix. Suffice it to say, Paramount Skydance’s owners – Hollywood mogul David Ellison and his billionaire father Larry Ellison – aren’t happy.
The Ellisons, in fact, are livid – and they are now angling for a counterattack, I am told. They also believe they can win this battle by taking their case directly to WBD shareholders, according to three people with direct knowledge of the matter.
“They are really pissed over at Paramount Skydance,” said a media executive with direct knowledge of the matter. “They think this was a rigged deal process because of the friendship between the CEOs and they’re betting the shareholders will be pissed when they find out what went down.”
Those CEOs would be Zaslav and Netflix chief Ted Sarandos. They have a different view of the events that unfolded over the past 48 hours, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
“(Zaslav) gave them six tries and they still couldn’t beat Netflix’s bid,” said a person close to the WBD chief.
Despite all the static, Zaslav, known as Zas in media circles, is said to be open for another counterbid from the Ellisons. Anything is possible before any merger closes – particularly one like this where the competition was some of the fiercest in recent corporate history, according to people close to the WBD chief.
“If the Ellisons come back with something more than $30 a share, possibly around $35 that pays off the Netflix breakup fee they could be the owners,” said a person at WBD. “And it’s very possible they will, and when they do this is not over. We will have to sit down and think about what to do next.”
Stay tuned. Earlier this week, Christian Toto described 2025 as “The Year Late-Night TV Collapsed.” Far worse, seeing a movie on a big screen with an audience may also be in its twilight as well. But this is what happens when an industry decides to commit ritual seppuku.
John Podhoretz begins a lengthy Twitter/X thread thusly:
So the rap on Netflix buying Warners is this could be the end of moviegoing. That's wrong. Moviegoing is already over.
— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) December 5, 2025
History will record that COVID killed the movie as we had understood it. The trend line of shrinking audience was already there, but the whole industry was ballasted in the 2010s by the blockbuster success of two kinds of films–animated movies and superhero movies.
— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) December 5, 2025
Read the whole thing.
