Netflix’s agreement to acquire Warner Bros for $72bn was the talk of the industry Souk at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival weekend, as guests considered the ramifications for the international business.
“I wouldn’t say Netflix so far has given the theatrical business what it truly needs to navigate this moment of crisis, which is a minimum exclusivity windowing system,” said Gaëtan Bruel, president of France’s Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée (CNC), speaking on a panel titled ‘Futureproofing our industry’, hosted by Library Pictures International CEO David Taghioff.
“When you release Frankenstein with just one week in movie theatres in the US, how can you expect them to survive?” said Bruel. He referenced comments by Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos that windows will evolve to become “more consumer-friendly”.
“We should ask in return – what about making cinema windows more exhibitor-friendly,” said Bruel. “So they can keep existing and doing what they do.”
“As we say in English, you cannot have your cake and eat it,” said Bruel of the streamer.
“Netflix has always been a disrupter,” said Julie La’Bassiere, chief strategy officer at communications firm DDA, who was more positive about the potential acquisition. “Out of disruption comes opportunity.”
“My hope is that independent filmmakers will look at this as an opportunity to do something a little bit different,” said La’Bassiere. “Be a bit more scrappy, a bit more creative, and provide the alternative voice to what we think will be this big, consolidated behemoth of content.”
MBC Studios producer Ali Jaafar noted that the deal is some distance from completion. “We’ve all gotten very excited with the news, but there’s a long road ahead in terms of it actually becoming real,” said Jaafar, who is executive producer on Kaouther Ben Hania’s festival title The Voice Of Hind Rajab.
Jaafar also saw opportunity for local content if regional providers of HBO titles – such as OSN in the MENA region - can no longer lease those works. “If that content is no longer available to it, how can OSN maintain its premium offering for audiences? The answer may be in local original content, which becomes an opportunity for Arab producers.”
“Protecting those windows is important, because cinemagoing is a question of habit,” said Diane Ferrandez, SVP of worldwide sales & distribution at US firm AGC Studios. “The two models [streaming and theatrical] will have to exist.”
Isabella Sreyashii Sen, co-producer on festival New Visions title Early Days, identified “opportunity and responsibility” in the acquisition.
“Opportunity in the unprecedented reach such consolidation brings; and responsibility in ensuring that films continue to be nurtured as cultural legacies.”
Netflix is holding a social event at Red Sea this evening (Sunday, December 7). Company executive Imane Mezher Gibran, who is nonfiction content lead for the Middle East and Africa, is then coming to Jeddah to speak on a Souk panel about non-fiction storytelling on Thursday.
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