criterionforum.org

Posted: **Fri Dec 05, 2025 9:08 pm**

Anyway, David Zaslav apparently told staff that the company’s pending sale to Netflix is unlikely to lead to sweeping layoffs:

David Zaslav wrote:I understand that the last couple of weeks have been disruptive, and it’s tough to read about every day. And where are we going to end up, and the idea of coming together with another company, there are going to be some trepidation. I understand that, but it is a good fit. The intention is that they want to keep most people, because they don’t have a lot; they don’t have a motion picture studio, they don’t have a big gaming business. And so the fit feels very good for our employees.

Posted: **Fri Dec 05, 2025 9:17 pm**

They should let Clint decide.

Posted: **Sat Dec 06, 2025 12:22 am**

yoloswegmaster wrote: Fri Dec 05, 2025 2:57 pm I'm guessing that Criterion and Arrow will be signing deals for higher volume of titles very soon.

This has probably started already. I'm sure there were whispers inside WBD that this could happen, and Becker could have been included in the whisper

Posted: **Sat Dec 06, 2025 1:02 am**

Do we have a list of all the WB licenses from Criterion?

Posted: **Sat Dec 06, 2025 1:10 am**

domino harvey wrote: Sat Dec 06, 2025 1:02 am Do we have a list of all the WB licenses from Criterion?

You can search by licensor on the forum, so I think here

Posted: **Sat Dec 06, 2025 1:34 am**

Just to make it easy, here are all the WB titles that Criterion has released, announced or are confirmed

Spoiler

265 Short Cuts
277 My Own Private Idaho
651 Badlands
769 Day for Night (OOP, so I assume WB no longer has this)
796 The Emigrants
797 The New Land
807 Barcelona
823 The In-Laws
826 The New World
827 McCabe & Mrs. Miller
833 Cat People
838 Pan's Labyrinth (WB no longer has this, so it'll probably be going OOP)
842 Akira Kurosawa's Dreams
847 The Asphalt Jungle
857 Before Sunrise (Before Trilogy box set)
858 Before Sunset (Before Trilogy box set)
860 Mildred Pierce
864 Being There
865 Blow-Up
867 Woman of the Year
880 They Live by Night
887 Lost in America
889 The Breaking Point
897 Barry Lyndon
901 The Philadelphia Story
929 Female Trouble
951 True Stories
952 The Magnificent Ambersons
962 Death in Venice
970 A Face in the Crowd
979 Swing Time
982 Hedwig and the Angry Inch
987 Klute
994 Local Hero
995 Polyester
1004 Now, Voyager
1019 Bamboozled
1021 Show Boat
1028 Dance, Girl, Dance
1033 The Cameraman
1036 Enter the Dragon (Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits box set)
1055 Girlfriends
1059 Crash
1071 Defending Your Life
1085 Bringing Up Baby
1086 Deep Cover
1097 Love & Basketball
1098 The Damned
1099 High Sierra
1099 Colorado Territory
1103 Once Upon a Time in China 4 (Once Upon a Time in China: The Complete Films box set)
1103 Once Upon a Time in China 5 (Once Upon a Time in China: The Complete Films box set)
1104 Citizen Kane
1105 Menace II Society
1107 The Learning Tree
1117 Love Jones
1122 'Round Midnight
1130 Shaft
1131 Pink Flamingos
1153 Arsenic and Old Lace
1160 Malcolm X
1185 After Hours
1194 Freaks (Tod Browning's Sideshow Shockers box set)
1194 The Mystic (Tod Browning's Sideshow Shockers box set)
1198 Mean Streets
1202 Lone Star
1208 The Roaring Twenties
1216 Dogfight
1224 Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
1227 Risky Business
1236 I Walked with a Zombie
1236 The Seventh Victim
1238 Gummo
1250 Crossing Delancey
1252 Performance
1255 Night Moves
1265 Thelonious Monk Straight, No Chaser
1267 Sorcerer
1283 A History of Violence
1284 Altered States
1287 House Party
1290 Eyes Wide Shut
1293 Pee-wee's Big Adventure
1297 Captain Blood
1298 Birth
1300 Network
Confirmed but not yet announce: Lolita

Posted: **Sat Dec 06, 2025 2:11 am**

There goes theaters. There goes physical media.

Posted: **Sat Dec 06, 2025 2:13 am**

I'm choosing to remain sanguine about this. There's a slight indication that Netflix believes Warner Bros. is doing well as is and they won't (immediately) begin changing things. Apart from HBO Max being a rival streamer, Netflix is entirely complementary to Warner Bros. Netflix does not have a (real) film or television studio, theatrical and home video arm, or film library. And they don't know how to run any of those things. So maybe everyone involved in those areas will stay put for the near future. And maybe HBO Max will also continue on as is but just be bundled with Netflix like Disney+ did with Hulu up until very recently.

Given the competition from Paramount and Comcast, a Netflix acquisition is the best possible outcome here. If Discovery couldn't kill Warner Bros., nor could AOL nor Time nor AT&T nor Kinney, I can hold out hope that they will survive Netflix as well.

What concerns me most, as always, is Turner Classic Movies. Now that it's the only cable channel in the Warner Bros. portfolio, maybe Netflix will take the step that Discovery never took and make TCM a live streaming channel. If ESPN can flip the bird to cable companies and become a subscription streaming service, so can TCM. The thing to watch is what happens to Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group CEOs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy, who also oversee TCM. If they go, trouble will surely follow.

Posted: **Sat Dec 06, 2025 2:52 am**

dwk wrote: Sat Dec 06, 2025 1:34 am Just to make it easy, here are all the WB titles that Criterion has release, announced or are confirmed
Spoiler
265 Short Cuts
277 My Own Private Idaho
651 Badlands
769 Day for Night (OOP, so I assume WB no longer has this)
796 The Emigrants
797 The New Land
807 Barcelona
823 The In-Laws
826 The New World
827 McCabe & Mrs. Miller
833 Cat People
838 Pan's Labyrinth (WB no longer has this, so it'll probably be going OOP)
842 Akira Kurosawa's Dreams
847 The Asphalt Jungle
857 Before Sunrise (Before Trilogy box set)
858 Before Sunset (Before Trilogy box set)
860 Mildred Pierce
864 Being There
865 Blow-Up
867 Woman of the Year
880 They Live by Night
887 Lost in America
889 The Breaking Point
897 Barry Lyndon
901 The Philadelphia Story
929 Female Trouble
951 True Stories
952 The Magnificent Ambersons
962 Death in Venice
970 A Face in the Crowd
979 Swing Time
982 Hedwig and the Angry Inch
987 Klute
994 Local Hero
995 Polyester
1004 Now, Voyager
1019 Bamboozled
1021 Show Boat
1028 Dance, Girl, Dance
1033 The Cameraman
1036 Enter the Dragon (Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits box set)
1055 Girlfriends
1059 Crash
1071 Defending Your Life
1085 Bringing Up Baby
1086 Deep Cover
1097 Love & Basketball
1098 The Damned
1099 High Sierra
1099 Colorado Territory
1103 Once Upon a Time in China 4 (Once Upon a Time in China: The Complete Films box set)
1103 Once Upon a Time in China 5 (Once Upon a Time in China: The Complete Films box set)
1104 Citizen Kane
1105 Menace II Society
1107 The Learning Tree
1117 Love Jones
1122 'Round Midnight
1130 Shaft
1131 Pink Flamingos
1153 Arsenic and Old Lace
1160 Malcolm X
1185 After Hours
1194 Freaks (Tod Browning's Sideshow Shockers box set)
1194 The Mystic (Tod Browning's Sideshow Shockers box set)
1198 Mean Streets
1202 Lone Star
1208 The Roaring Twenties
1216 Dogfight
1224 Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
1227 Risky Business
1236 I Walked with a Zombie
1236 The Seventh Victim
1238 Gummo
1250 Crossing Delancey
1252 Performance
1255 Night Moves
1265 Thelonious Monk Straight, No Chaser
1267 Sorcerer
1283 A History of Violence
1284 Altered States
1287 House Party
1290 Eyes Wide Shut
1293 Pee-wee's Big Adventure
1297 Captain Blood
1298 Birth
1300 Network
Confirmed but not yet announce: Lolita

Didn't a couple of Boorman's get confirmed? Point Blank and Deliverance I believe

Posted: **Sat Dec 06, 2025 3:25 am**

FrauBlucher wrote: Sat Dec 06, 2025 2:52 am Didn't a couple of Boorman's get confirmed? Point Blank and Deliverance I believe

Strongly rumored, and no doubt they are coming, but they haven't had any official confirmation (unlike Lolita, which has had a screening of Criterion's restoration.

Posted: **Sat Dec 06, 2025 8:03 am**

Wait, you’re telling me Qwikster bought Warner Bros?

Posted: **Sat Dec 06, 2025 12:40 pm**

yoloswegmaster wrote: Fri Dec 05, 2025 3:34 pmI mean Criterion were still releasing Fox titles within a couple years after the Disney-Fox merger happened, so I can't see why they wouldn't be able to get a deal done before the Netflix-WB merger happens.

Oh sure, any deal can be signed before that, but I thought you were saying that after the deal is concluded, they might have to sign only big packages deal to get anything at all, like the Golden Princess catalogue.
If you meant instead "try and sign the biggest deals possible before that door is closed", then yeah, that's be to smartest option.

Posted: **Sat Dec 06, 2025 2:21 pm**

I don’t think the deal will be concluded. Isn’t WB the third largest streamer and Netflix the biggest? It’s the definition of a monopoly. Looks like it was done to block Paramount. If there’s an investigation then there’s going to be 2 year wait where Ellison can’t make another bid and Netflix goes up in value.

Posted: **Sat Dec 06, 2025 4:26 pm**

captveg wrote: Fri Dec 05, 2025 3:03 pm
However, given Netflix's repeated stated goal over the last decade to kill theatrical distribution and their obvious lack of support for sell-through home video, I'd put the odds at Warner staying as an autonomous division with traditional theatrical and home video distribution as very, very low.

I hope I lose this bet.

Wildcard outcome: Netflix gets into the theatrical distribution business for their own content, makes their vast library available for streaming to theaters. Stranger Things’ finale is going to be on big screens.. There’s a path for subscription based moviegoing, Netflix lending its branding to theaters the way IMAX does.. Or imagine smaller screening rooms at the multiplex where you can pop in and watch Sopranos episodes

Posted: **Sat Dec 06, 2025 5:00 pm**

Reminds me of Soderbergh suggesting that the last two episodes of Breaking Bad should have been theatrical events with an audience of fellow fans

Posted: **Sat Dec 06, 2025 5:31 pm**

The 50th anniversary episode of Doctor Who wasn't only shown in cinemas before hitting broadcast/streaming, but was also screened in 3-D!

Posted: **Sat Dec 06, 2025 6:30 pm**

onedimension wrote: Sat Dec 06, 2025 4:26 pmWildcard outcome: Netflix gets into the theatrical distribution business for their own content, makes their vast library available for streaming to theaters. Stranger Things’ finale is going to be on big screens.. There’s a path for subscription based moviegoing, Netflix lending its branding to theaters the way IMAX does.. Or imagine smaller screening rooms at the multiplex where you can pop in and watch Sopranos episodes

This is very possible. Here in NY the very historic Paris Theater is operated by Netflix. They helped is reopen in 2019. I haven’t been there in 15 to 20 years. herethesilence could probably speak to this better.

It would be another revenue stream (no pun intended) for them to get into theatrical distribution to be a complement to their streaming service. My only concern is physical media. If they allow Warner, especially WAC to operate like they have been and allow their catalog to be licensed out, then game over and it’s a win for everyone. Time will tell

Posted: **Sat Dec 06, 2025 7:16 pm**

We all know where this is actually heading: finally fulfilling the Kickstarter perk for a BD or DVD of The Other Side of the Wind.

Posted: **Sat Dec 06, 2025 7:21 pm**

One reason Netflix bought the Paris Theater is because the chains refused to book Netflix movies - that's pretty much why they've only opened at the Paris, Lincoln Center, Angelika or IFC, but it's typically the Paris and one other theater, not all of them. There's no doubt that hurt, say, The Irishman in terms of box office grosses, but it clearly hasn't taken down Netflix. If anything, Netflix won the long game because even before this deal was mentioned, chains like AMC were starting to make exceptions (KPop Demon Hunters, Stranger Things) because they're scrambling to find hits and they can no longer afford to shut out Netflix completely.

But yeah, every Netflix movie gets a run at the Paris Theater and they make them into events, running Q&A's with the directors, cast members, etc. and they fill it out with a pretty good repertory program, albeit one that leans more towards mainstream tastes instead of anything considered obscure or esoteric. They even book a lot of actual film prints, at least some of which they apparently own (like a new 70mm print of Close Encounters).

Again, Sarandos is going to do what's good for Netflix, but I don't think it's a small thing that he actually cares about movies. I rarely got the impression Zaslav did, but Sarandos was good friends with David Lynch for a reason. (This goes back to Netflix's days as a DVD mail service when he wanted to include Lynch's catalog of films - not just Twin Peaks but all of his films - and this was at a time when Lynch's films weren't nearly as popular as they are now, relatively speaking.)

Posted: **Sat Dec 06, 2025 7:46 pm**

hearthesilence wrote: Sat Dec 06, 2025 7:21 pm Again, Sarandos is going to do what's good for Netflix, but I don't think it's a small thing that he actually cares about movies. I rarely got the impression Zaslav did, but Sarandos was good friends with David Lynch for a reason. (This goes back to Netflix's days as a DVD mail service when he wanted to include Lynch's catalog of films - not just Twin Peaks but all of his films - and this was at a time when Lynch's films weren't nearly as popular as they are now, relatively speaking.)

I didn't know this about Sarandos and Lynch. This is nothing but a positive. Of course Sarandos will do what's best for Netflix but I think owning the Warner catalog would be a coup for him as someone who cares about movies. I wouldn't expect this to be a Disney/Fox situation. Disney was tight with their own catalog, vaulting things for years.

Posted: **Sat Dec 06, 2025 8:35 pm**

hearthesilence wrote: Sat Dec 06, 2025 7:21 pm But yeah, every Netflix movie gets a run at the Paris Theater and they make them into events, running Q&A's with the directors, cast members, etc. and they fill it out with a pretty good repertory program, albeit one that leans more towards mainstream tastes instead of anything considered obscure or esoteric. They even book a lot of actual film prints, at least some of which they apparently own (like a new 70mm print of Close Encounters).

Not only do they book a lot of film prints for their theaters, but they also create a lot of film prints for their own films. Within the last couple of months they have sent out prints for Frankenstein, Jay Kelly, Nouvelle Vague, Knives Out 3, and Train Dreams to many theaters around the world. For a streaming distributor, they sure are invested in getting more people to go to the cinemas by doing events like these, at elast compared to the major distributors.

Posted: **Sat Dec 06, 2025 8:46 pm**

The current DOJ is going to try to delay the deal for as long as possible, so we may not see the merger happen until a new administration takes over in 2029, and who knows whether the new government gets serious about ending media and social media monopolies which would affect this kind of deal. But between Sarandos's bond with filmmakers and Netflix's support of The Other Side of the Wind and Roma etc, I really think it more likely that Netflix would be a friendlier home to creatives than Paramount would have been. Just the same, I'd like to have reassurances from the Netflix executives that licenses for the WB catalogue etc would continue in good faith as they have under old Warner.

Posted: **Sat Dec 06, 2025 8:50 pm**

hearthesilence wrote: Sat Dec 06, 2025 7:21 pmAgain, Sarandos is going to do what's good for Netflix, but I don't think it's a small thing that he actually cares about movies. I rarely got the impression Zaslav did, but Sarandos was good friends with David Lynch for a reason. (This goes back to Netflix's days as a DVD mail service when he wanted to include Lynch's catalog of films - not just Twin Peaks but all of his films - and this was at a time when Lynch's films weren't nearly as popular as they are now, relatively speaking.)

I thought Sarandos was the jackass who passed on Lynch's Unrecorded Night (only to greenlight untold piles of shit by the Russo Broheims)?

Posted: **Sat Dec 06, 2025 10:00 pm**

FrauBlucher wrote: Sat Dec 06, 2025 6:30 pm
onedimension wrote: Sat Dec 06, 2025 4:26 pmWildcard outcome: Netflix gets into the theatrical distribution business for their own content, makes their vast library available for streaming to theaters. Stranger Things’ finale is going to be on big screens.. There’s a path for subscription based moviegoing, Netflix lending its branding to theaters the way IMAX does.. Or imagine smaller screening rooms at the multiplex where you can pop in and watch Sopranos episodes
This is very possible. Here in NY the very historic Paris Theater is operated by Netflix. They helped is reopen in 2019. I haven’t been there in 15 to 20 years. herethesilence could probably speak to this better.

It would be another revenue stream (no pun intended) for them to get into theatrical distribution to be a complement to their streaming service. My only concern is physical media. If they allow Warner, especially WAC to operate like they have been and allow their catalog to be licensed out, then game over and it’s a win for everyone. Time will tell

Do we know if Warner Archive has been profitable? Or is it just recouping some of the operating cost for maintaining the film library?

Posted: **Sat Dec 06, 2025 10:11 pm**

Netflix would have a chance to experiment with the movie theater model.. something like the Moviepass thing.. your subscription gets you 2 movie tickets a month at a Netflix-aligned theater, or it’s less expensive to buy tickets if you’re a card-carrying subscriber.. they have leverage to negotiate now..

I’m also not sure why no one has experimented with showing old IP or even tv shows more often.. or with a retro walk-in theater with content on a loop.. you could sell tickets to “Netflix binges”.. maybe Netflix will spark some creativity in the industry..

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