The Battle for Pandora is on the way in “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” but director James Cameron has weighed in on a different war altogether: the bid for Warner Bros. Discovery. In this fight, Cameron has taken the side of Paramount.
In a Monday interview on “The Town” podcast, the filmmaker broke down “Avatar,” AI and Hollywood’s latest massive bidding war as WBD searches for potential buyers. Cameron minced no words in saying that Paramount would be the ideal choice for the situation — and that Netflix would be a nightmare one.
“I think Paramount’s the best choice,” Cameron said. “Netflix would be a disaster. Sorry, Ted, but geez. Sarandos has gone on the record saying theatrical films are dead. ‘Theatrical is dead.’ Quote, unquote.”
Both Paramount and Netflix submitted bids for Warner Bros. Discovery on Thursday. Netflix and Comcast, the third bidder in the mix, are interested in acquiring WBD’s studio and streaming business, while Paramount is vying to take over the entire company.
As Cameron noted, Netflix’s aversion to significant theatrical windows (a quality that filmmakers such as Guillermo del Toro and Rian Johnson have chafed against) would have massive ramifications if it absorbed one of Hollywood’s biggest studios. Cameron specifically pointed to the studio’s use of micro-windows in theaters to gain consideration at the Oscars as a matter of concern.
“It’s sucker bait,” he said. “‘We’ll put the movie out for a week or 10 days. We’ll qualify for Oscar consideration.’ See, I think that’s fundamentally rotten to the core. A movie should be made as a movie for theatrical, and the Academy Awards mean nothing to me if they don’t mean theatrical. I think they’ve been co-opted, and I think it’s horrific.”
“They should be allowed to compete if they put the movie out for a meaningful release in 2,000 theaters for a month,” he said.
But a purchase by Paramount, as Cameron suggests, wouldn’t be without concern either. The studio recently underwent a massive merger with Skydance, consolidating yet another pair of Hollywood brands under the leadership of CEO David Ellison.
Before Nov. 20, Paramount had already submitted three separate bids which ranged from $19 to $23.50 per share and were rejected for being too low. Still, Ellison asserts that his merger would be in everyone’s best interests, as other studios would face “significant (perhaps insurmountable) hurdles given their dominant market positions” that Paramount would not need to overcome.
