JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
The entertainment industry is abuzz with the news that Warner Bros. Discovery is up for sale. The legendary film studio, which has grown into streaming services and cable channels, is accepting bids until this Thursday, according to reports. It has become something of a Hollywood parlor game to guess who will ultimately buy the house that Jack Warner built. One group that has an interest in all of this is theater owners, as NPR's Mandalit del Barco reports.
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MANDALIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE: Warner Bros. has been in business since 1923, founded by four brothers - Harry, Albert Sam and Jack Warner. They owned a movie theater in Pennsylvania before coming to Hollywood to make movies. Warner Bros. Pictures found one of its first silent picture stars in a German shepherd named Rin Tin Tin.
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AL JOLSON: (As Jakie Rabinowitz) Wait a minute. You ain't heard nothing yet.
DEL BARCO: And in 1927, the studio made history with its feature-length talkie picture, "The Jazz Singer," starring Al Jolson.
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JOLSON: (As Jakie Rabinowitz, singing) Toot, toot, tootsie. Goodbye.
DEL BARCO: Over the years, Warner Bros. has made so many iconic films, including "Casablanca"...
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HUMPHREY BOGART: (As Rick Blaine) Here's looking at you, kid.
DEL BARCO: ...From "2001: A Space Odyssey" to "Barbie," to all those "Looney Tunes" cartoons.
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MEL BLANC: (As Bugs Bunny) Eh, what's up, Doc?
DEL BARCO: Over the decades, Warner Bros. had several owners. Three years ago, Warner Media, as it was called, merged with Discovery, and last June, the company announced it would split into two, with film, TV and streaming studios on one side and on the other side, mostly legacy cable channels, including CNN. The split hasn't happened, and a new buyer might get the entirety of Warner Bros. Discovery. As the film industry continues to consolidate, there's speculation that Warner Bros.' old rival, Paramount, could take over.
Having just merged as Paramount Skydance, CEO David Ellison has already made several overtures. The idea of streaming giant Netflix buying the company has raised antitrust concerns on Capitol Hill. Industry watchers suggest other suitors could be Comcast, Amazon or an investor who's not already in the entertainment business. Regardless of whoever does end up buying the company, theater owners say they hope they'll prioritize making movies for the cinemas.
DANIEL LORIA: As long as we have more movies - that doesn't mean the same amount, that doesn't mean less, but more movies - I think you're going to find folks in the movie theater industry support any business decision that gets us there.
DEL BARCO: That's Daniel Loria, senior vice president at The Boxoffice Company, which analyzes data from studios and theaters. He says when Disney purchased Fox and Fox Searchlight, their combined studios significantly reduced the number of films they released in the theaters. That's a problem for theater owners who have been struggling to bring audiences back to cinemas after the COVID-19 pandemic shut them down. They're competing with movie watching on TVs, computers and cellphones, and some fear studios will only greenlight a few big-budget blockbusters. Max Friend is the CEO of Filmbot, the ticketing platform for independent cinemas in the U.S.
MAX FRIEND: The concern is that we're going to see less of that risk-taking, less of that experimentation and less of that embracing new directors, new filmmakers in the future. And it's really important that there are studios that are funding and supporting cultivating that kind of work.
DEL BARCO: Friend points out that this year, Warner Bros. made a string of critical hits, including Ryan Coogler's "Sinners," the horror film "Weapons" and Paul Thomas Anderson's "One Battle After Another." He wonders if the next owner will take similar risks with original creative films. Mandalit del Barco, NPR News, Los Angeles.
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SUMMERS: And a note that Warner Bros., CNN, Disney, Amazon, Comcast, Oracle, 20th Century Studios and Paramount are NPR sponsors, but we cover them as we would any other company.
(SOUNDBITE OF LADY WRAY SONG, "HOLD ON") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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