{"id":432071,"date":"2025-12-08T00:06:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T00:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/432071\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T00:06:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T00:06:19","slug":"filmmakers-need-to-put-foot-down-to-netflix-warners-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/432071\/","title":{"rendered":"Filmmakers Need to Put ‘Foot Down’ to Netflix\u2013Warners Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tMulti-Oscar winner Sean Baker<\/a> has some straightforward structural advice for how the film industry should respond to Netflix\u2019s seismic acquisition of Warner Bros.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe should actually be expanding theatrical windows, not shortening them,\u201d Baker said Sunday during a public appearance at Saudi Arabia\u2019s Red Sea International<\/a> Film Festival, where he is serving as head of the event\u2019s competition jury this week.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI mean, you can\u2019t wait an extra three months to get your streaming money or your VOD money?\u201d he added. \u201cFilmmakers have to put our foot down.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tBaker appeared at a packed career conversation event in Jeddah on Sunday night, drawing an enthusiastic crowd of festival attendees and regional filmmakers.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe director was responding to a moderator\u2019s question about how he thought the Netflix\u2013Warner Bros. deal might affect the future of the movie business and what support was necessary for theatrical filmgoing. He declined to comment directly on the acquisition, saying he didn\u2019t yet know the details of Netflix\u2019s plan or \u201chow the deal is going to play out.\u201d But he was unambiguous about the importance of movies getting a healthy run on big screens.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen you\u2019re going directly to streaming, or day-and-date, it diminishes the importance of a film,\u201d he said. \u201cThe theatrical experience elevates that importance. The way you present it to the world is a very important thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBaker said he intends to insist on an exclusive 100-day theatrical window for the distribution of his next movie, suggesting other directors should do the same.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat\u2019s a little bit over three months, and I think that feels like a good amount at this moment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe filmmaker also suggested that film lovers shouldn\u2019t take the existence of movie screens for granted.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe have to actually support it. Audiences have to be reminded that they will lose their theaters if they don\u2019t go,\u201d he urged.<\/p>\n

\n\tNetflix\u2019s planned $72 billion takeover of Warner Bros. has sent shockwaves through Hollywood, promising to consolidate vast industry power under a single streaming giant. Following co-CEO Ted Sarandos\u2019 recent dismissive comments about the value of theatrical windows \u2014 in April, he called movie theaters \u201can outmoded idea\u201d \u2014 the move has raised urgent questions about the future of the collective big-screen experience and how traditional Hollywood businesses will function in the shadow of a vertically integrated streamer of such immense scale.<\/p>\n

\n\tDespite the widespread gloom in the industry about what Netflix\u2019s swallowing of Warner Bros. might portend for cinema, Baker said he\u2019s feeling hopeful about the form\u2019s future. He noted that Anora, his four-time Oscar winner, drew its biggest audience among Gen Z \u2014 contradicting recent assumptions about young people\u2019s lack of interest in moviegoing.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s just not true,\u201d he added. \u201cIn L.A., when I go to movies, it\u2019s usually Gen Z that I see. I love that younger people are seeing the value in a communal experience \u2014 and also one in which their focus is entirely on the film and not being distracted by everything else in the room.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBaker, who is widely viewed as an indie-cinema hero for his consistently low-budget, auteurist approach, also said he has no intention of changing the way he works in the wake of Anora\u2019s historic critical and commercial success earlier this year. The film finished its theatrical run with a worldwide box office total of about $57.4 million, including roughly $20.5 million domestically and $36.9 million internationally.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe opportunities are there \u2014 whether I take them or not, that\u2019s the question,\u201d he said when asked whether he was seeing more generous financing offers as a newly minted Oscar recipient.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile acknowledging that some of his filmmaker friends truly need large budgets to tell the stories they want to tell, he said he didn\u2019t expect to \u201cgo for the $150 million studio thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tInstead, Baker said he plans to return to working at roughly the same scale as his previous feature, which was famously made for just $6 million.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe got to a place with Anora where I was working with such an incredible team that gave it their all and believed in the guerrilla way of making a film,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd the outcome was incredible, so why not just try to repeat that?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Multi-Oscar winner Sean Baker has some straightforward structural advice for how the film industry should respond to Netflix\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":432072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[171,1801,199280,200626,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-432071","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-international","10":"tag-red-sea-film-festival-2025","11":"tag-sean-baker","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115681033135761223","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}