In early December, 2025, Netflix publicly announced their plan to buy Warner Bros. for approximately $82.7 billion. Although the transaction is not yet finalized—taking around 12-18 months to complete—this business proposal caused major controversy. If it were to go through, Netflix would own all of Warner Bros. films, HBO and HBO Max and DC studios. Netflix would become an even larger corporation and have vast control over Hollywood, which reduces competition and could even reshape the way movies are made. Companies such as Paramount have also tried to bid for the Warner Bros. studio, but the board is reportedly more interested with Netflix’s offer. Although this business plan can allow for more funding towards big series and shows that Warner. Bros was previously struggling to produce, the negative impacts are far more significant.

With the largest number of global streamer subscribers and a wide international audience, Netflix already dominates the streaming industry. They successfully generate a higher revenue than other rivals, allowing them to hold a majority of the power. This power gives them the ability to set price expectations, decide what—and how—shows and movies get made, as well as create popular release strategies. In response, other companies will often copy what Netflix does. If the deal to buy Warner Bros. goes through, this will add even more weight to the already dominant business in the industry. As an effect, they will have less competition than they already do. This limits the amount of diversity and choice that occurs with films, as competition helps to keep prices down but the quality high. If one streaming service releases a unique and enjoyable movie, but the cost of tickets is too high, another studio can use a similar idea but lower the cost to attract a larger audience. Without this vital competition, expect to see a decrease in quality content and an increase in the cost to see the movie (tickets or renting the film).

Larger companies also have more pressure to draw in profit and audience compared to smaller ones. This is because the goal is no longer to make art, but to maintain financial growth. Shareholders, who help invest in the company to make more in return, hold influence in what the company produces. This leads to less risky films being created, which can often become repetitive and boring to audiences. Additionally, smaller studios can afford to take creative risks and fail as they normally have a smaller budget to begin with, causing them to lose less money if things don’t go well. If a larger studio takes the same risk but invests a large amount of money, this can be catastrophic for them as they would lose much more. Although both Netflix and Warner. Bros are larger companies, combining them together will reduce the already low amount of creative films they produce. Netflix is already notorious for this, canceling highly rated shows like “Shadow and Bone,” “Designated Survivor” and “1899,” because they did not meet the engagement standard. They also produce a substantial amount of sequels and spinoffs, as these guarantee to bring back a previous audience. HBO has historically taken more risky films, going against popular themes that draw in a larger audience. Popular examples are shows like “The Sopranos,” which have no character arcs and go against common themes of the time. “The Wire,” which had a low number of viewers due its purposeful slow pacing and complex plot, was still renewed and finished despite this. Netflix’s plan to buy Warner Bros. will strip the previous creativity shown in the studio, and replace it with less risky sequels or spin offs.

Mergers of companies also commonly lead to mass layoffs, and with a studio as large as Warner Bros., the impact within the industry will be significant. The film industry is one of the hardest to land a job in and a lot of it comes down to connections or nepotism. The number of jobs in this industry has even decreased from 142,000 to 100,000 between 2022 to 2024, shrinking an already small and competitive industry. This means there is already a large amount of workers compared to the small amount of jobs, which will create a huge increase in unemployment for previous Warner Bros. employees. Due to natural overlap that will occur, as Netflix already has members of their staff like executives, marketing teams and production staff, employees will most likely be cut to maintain efficiency. Additionally, projects in the works may no longer fit Netflix’s brand strategy and become abandoned. Writers and directors of these films will be left with no work, even if their idea was previously in production.

Although the chance that this deal will succeed is extremely high, there is still a possibility that it may not happen. If regulators in the U.S, Europe and other nations believe that this could create an unfair monopoly, then they can block the deal. Additionally, public backlash and scrutiny can encourage these regulators to reject the deal. Hollywood unions can use their influence to speak out against the unfair merge, drawing media attention to the topic. Due to the decrease in competition which will lead to worse quality but more expensive films, the increase in predictable works like sequels and the enormous lay offs that will occur if this plan goes through, this merge has shown it will have a huge negative impact. It will change the way films are made and destroy the creativity within film, which is why all of these aforementioned groups need to speak up against it.