Netflix to Tentatively Buy Warner Brothers Discovery and Therefore DC Comics as Well

Warner Bros. Discovery has been wanting to sell much of itself for a bit now. Skydance/Paramount had expressed a lot of interest and had been repeatedly rebuffed. Others were rumored to be wanting a piece as well. However, it has been declared that WBD wants to sell to Netflix. Yes, "Overnight, Netflix announced it had entered a, 'definitive agreement,' to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery’s film and television studios, including Warner Bros., HBO, and HBO Max, for $83 billion," with it also mentioned that if the deal falls through, Netflix will still throw five billion Warner Bros. way for their trouble. Another report says 76 billion is the total amount we're dealing with, so the exact number seems to be in flux, but it is a lot of zeroes. Regardless of the full amount, imagine being such a big company that you're cool with tossing away five billion if a deal doesn't work out. I mean, if my chips don't fall out of the vending machine that I put two dollars in, you know I'm not going to just walk away empty-handed for two single bills, never mind five billion.

For those of you into DC comics and their films, this does mean Netflix would now own that film division as well as being in charge of the comic-books, leading multiple sites to ask what happens to DC's movies and especially the comics if this sale goes through? We, obviously, can't know for sure, but based on how the latest DC projects are performing it would seem James Gunn and Peter Safran might be left to their own devices with DC's films/shows. Others and I would wager the comic-books will remain a comparatively inexpensive afterthought out of everything else in the Warner Brothers Discovery catalog that are treated as a source for ideas, but hopefully left mostly alone. I mean, Netflix is after the film/television content and probably shrugged with vague amusement at how a comic-book company comes along with all that, too. Don't get me wrong, ya'll know I love comics, but I also am aware that they are far from the focus of this 83 billion dollar deal.

One comic-book creator who stands to benefit from this deal immensely could be Mark Millar. He has worked closely with Netflix for years and now could very well find himself in a position of power with DC's flicks, shows, and comics. What that would mean for DC, only time could tell. For now, there is a lot of regulatory paperwork to get done, so who knows when this deal will truly be done or if it will get held up by those who (rightfully) see this as the formation of more monopolies/oligopolies. Again, we'll see what the next chunk of months (possibly years) holds. One thing is for sure, however. Theater owners are pissed based upon how Netflix has treated them in the past. That will only get uglier as this possible sale continues. The new Hollywood is buying out the old Hollywood; how could it be anything but messy?

Who Wants to Offer to Buy Paramount Now? Roku? Sure, Why Not?

Paramount has been in flux. Everyone has considered buying it at this point from Warner Brothers Discovery (which then decided to split itself up) to Sony (who backed out) to Skydance which has inked a deal but could still have a shakeup at the last minute. Now Fubo and Roku have considered teaming up and putting in a bid to buy Paramount even though Skydance is already plotting changes for once it (supposedly) acquires Paramount. So many people have considered buying Paramount before changing their minds I'm half-convinced if enough of us pooled our money and threw in a couple bucks here and there we could all offer to buy Paramount! Eventually, the company will have a new owner, and it is likely it will be Skydance. At this moment though, maybe we should pool some dollars as if we were purchasing a pizza and get us a media company!

After All That Merging, Warner Brothers Discovery Might Split Split Itself Up

Warner Brothers Discovery was formed when Warner Brothers bought up Discovery--obviously. The company has slashed and burned everything from a mostly complete, "Batgirl," movie to video-games, and so forth in an effort to save money and not run at a loss. A lot of the, "Thanks," for this goes to David Zaslav and the company still finds itself struggling. The latest idea? Split everything back up because why the Hell not?

As Mary Kate Carr over at the AV Club tells it, "WBD is apparently considering splitting itself up, so that the movie studio and streaming service (Max) would be one company and the linear networks (CNN, TBS, TNT, Discovery Channel, etc.) would be another." Warner Brothers Discovery was recently considering acquiring more stuff with Paramount but now the plan is to do the opposite, it appears. I really feel like WBD is at the point where they spin a wheel with random ideas and do whatever it says. Sometimes the wheel declares, "Shelve a movie," and other times it says, "Reboot the DC Universe." Now it says, "Maybe try splitting up stuff?" Between the aforementioned Paramount having woes (they ended up getting bought by Skydance) and Warner Brothers Discovery struggling, things are rough. Perhaps having a handful of merged megacorporations that try to run everything but fail miserably at it isn't a smart idea after all? Who would've thought an economic dystopia would be bad--besides everyone?