James Cameron, director of the Avatar franchise, has issued a sharp warning about Netflix’s potential acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, calling the scenario a looming disaster. The media conglomerate is currently entertaining major offers from Netflix, the newly merged Paramount Global Skydance, and Comcast.
According to IndieWire on May 1, Cameron appeared on the podcast The Town last week, aligning with industry voices who believe that David Ellison’s Paramount Global should become the next owner of Warner Bros.
Cameron did not hold back, labeling the prospect of a Netflix takeover as catastrophic. He directly criticized Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, rejecting Sarandos’s long standing stance that theatrical movies are dead and that theaters have no future.
The director also condemned Sarandos for describing in theater viewing as old fashioned, and he blasted Netflix’s practice of giving prestige titles such as Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma and Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog only brief theatrical releases solely to remain eligible for Oscar consideration.
Cameron questioned Sarandos’s assurance that Netflix would continue releasing Warner Bros films in theaters if the acquisition went through. He dismissed the claim as bait, arguing that any theatrical window would likely be limited to a week or ten days, just enough for Academy eligibility.
He called the approach fundamentally rotten, stressing that films should be created with theatrical release as a foundational principle. Cameron added that the Oscars lose their meaning if they are not honoring theatrical cinema, asserting that the award’s purpose has become distorted.
In other news, Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water is set for release on December 17. The sequel follows the Sully family as they confront a new crisis on Pandora, mourning the loss of their eldest son Neteyam while facing the ash covered clan led by Varang.
