After the announcement of the purchase agreement for Warner Bros. by Netflix, uncertainty began about the future of the studio’s releases. Now, everything seems to indicate that the company led by Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters will release the productions of Warner’s intellectual properties on the big screen, although with an extremely reduced distribution window.
In a recent article that talked about the screening of the final chapter of Stranger Things to the movie theaters, Deadline mentioned having information that confirmed that Netflix is considering bringing Warner Bros. productions to the big screen for only 17 days, which goes against what the large cinema chains think, who would expect to have films on the billboard for approximately 45 days.
This idea does not agree with what Ted Sarandos said at the time the purchase agreement was announced. The CEO of the streaming platform mentioned that the acquisition of Warner Bros. would not affect the distribution plans of either company. “I wouldn’t consider this a change in focus for Netflix movies, or even Warner movies, for that matter,” Sarandos said in a conference call following the announcement. “You can be sure that everything that is planned to go to the cinema through Warner Bros. will continue to come to theaters through Warner Bros. And Netflix movies will follow the same pace as before; that is, some have a brief theatrical run before, but our main goal is to bring first-run movies to our members, because that is what they are looking for,” he added.
Although Netflix’s business model is almost entirely focused on streaming – for obvious reasons – the truth is that they are increasingly entering the world of premieres on the big screen. The company has been releasing productions in theaters for some time so that they can compete in the awards season, although they do so in a very reduced way — this happened in 2025 with films like Frankenstein y Jay Kelly. The company has also experimented with releases that would be sure hits, such as KPop Demon Hunterswhich arrived at the cinema after sweeping the platform in numbers, and Stranger Thingswhere they gave in to pressure from fans and the Duffer brothers themselves, creators of the show.
Regardless of the reasons, nothing said by Netflix or Warner will take effect until the purchase is finalized, for which it is first necessary to formalize the division of Warner Bros. Discovery into two different entities. It is also necessary to have authorization from the relevant authorities, as well as resolve the situation with Paramount, who still believe they are in the game to acquire Warner in its entirety.
Should Netflix actually acquire the film, television and streaming assets that are currently owned by Warner — a transaction that would be carried out for a total of $82.7 billion, intellectual properties such as Harry Potter and the DC universe, which includes characters like Batman and Superman, would become part of the company.
