Deadline day for WBD bids brings reports of potential Netflix theatrical play

As the deadline looms today (November 20) for first-round bids on Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), unconfirmed reports have emerged that were Netflix to succeed in buying the company’s studios and streaming businesses it would release Warner Bros films theatrically.

Netflix had not responded for comment at time of writing. The notion that Netflix would honour Warner Bros’ contractual commitments to filmmakers and release its films theatrically flies in the face of the streamer’s long-held distribution strategy of broadly eschewing theatrical in favour of bringing films to its subscribers first on the service.

The reports have also shaken up a bidding process that, according to reports, WBD CEO David Zaslav hopes will trigger an auction that can be completed by the end of the year. This comes after Zaslav previously said that he will split the company into streaming & studios and linear network components by mid-2026.

Netflix

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos has said on numerous earnings calls that Netflix is a builder not a buyer. Leadership have repeatedly emphasised that the streamer does not engage in conventional theatrical distribution, preferring to use limited releases to qualify films for awards consideration or occasionally accommodate outlier scenarios like KPop Demon Hunters, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, or next year’s Narnia.

And yet while Netflix’s 300m-plus global subscriber count and a churn rate of around 2% are the envy of Hollywood and the streaming community, the idea of a theatrical distribution pivot, first reported on Bloomberg, is not outlandish.

All media companies have their eyes on streaming growth and sources say even a service like Netflix would welcome the kind of world-class IP owned by WBD. A deal with Zaslav presents a mouth-watering stable comprising the re-energised DC Studios pipeline, franchises like Harry Potter, The Lord Of The Rings, It, Conjuring, Final Destination, and Weapons, and corporate partnerships behind box office smashes like Minecraft and Barbie.

There is also the matter of regulatory scrutiny. A combined Netflix and HBO Max, which currently draws 128m subscribers per WBD’s Q3 earnings earlier this month and arrives in the UK, Germany and Italy in early 2026, may capture the attention of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Brendan Carr . So far this year Carr has appeared to be in lock-step with US president Donald Trump.

Comcast

Comcast is also in the mix of potential buyers. As with Netflix, it is said the owner of NBCUniversal only wants the studio and streaming businesses, thereby avoiding potential regulatory scrutiny if it attempted to expand its cable business by acquiring WBD’s networks.

A combined studio business with Universal would create an IP behemoth alongside Universal’s stable of heavyweights like the Jurassic Park and Fast & Furious series, and NBCU-owned DreamWorks Animation franchises Despicable Me/Minions and Shrek.

Observers see the logic in Comcast CEO Brian Roberts using HBO Max to boost his streaming business, where Peacock is a minnow on approximately 41m subscribers. However Trump is not a fan of Roberts and can make life difficult for media owners as he has shown with a string of lawsuits and hectoring remarks. Comcast declined to comment on the bidding process.

Paramount

By contrast, Trump is on good terms with Paramount CEO David Ellison and his father Larry Ellison, the Oracle co-founder and one of the richest people on the planet who partly bankrolled his son’s acquisition of Paramount. New Paramount sweetened the relationship when it paid Trump $16m to settle a lawsuit brought by the president over an edited Kamala Harris interview that aired last year on CBS’s 60 Minutes. Ellison The Younger is believed to be the only Hollywood figure that attended a White House dinner this week for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Paramount is understood to be pursuing all of WBD. David Ellison and his team have been busy forging creative partnerships since the $8.4bn Paramount-Skydance merger closed over the summer and the Warner Bros library would be a gold mine for a well-capitalised company that plans to release at least 15 features a year. The FCC’s Carr has said he does not think a Paramount-WBD deal would require a review.

WBD has reportedly rebuffed three bids from Ellison, who was understood to be making another run before the deadline expired on November 20. This week Paramount denied a report that it was launching a joint bid with Saudi and other Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds to acquire WBD.

There is no guarantee that a bid will be accepted and Zaslav may end up taking his chances and splitting the companies in 2026.

What is certain is Hollywood creatives do not approve of any process that removes a studio buyer from the landscape after essentially losing Fox when Disney paid $71bn to buy most of the entertainment assets of 21st Century Fox in 2019. 

WBD declined to comment on the deadline process on November 20.

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