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Mark Ruffalohas some questions aboutJames Cameron's stance onNetflixacquiring Warner Bros. Discovery.
Days after theTitanicfilmmaker made headlines for pleading with Congress to reconsiderthe Netflix–Warner Bros. merger, Ruffalo urged Cameron to share his opinion on an alternative scenario: Paramount buying Warner Bros.
"So... the next question to Mr. Cameron should be this," Ruffalo began a Feb. 21 post onThreads. "Are you also against the monopolization that a Paramount acquisition would create? Or is it just that of Netflix?"
He continued, "I think the answer would be very interesting for the film community to hear and one that should be asked immediately. Is Mike Lee against the Paramount sale as well? Is he as concerned about that as he is the Netflix sale? We all want to know... Speaking on behalf of hundreds of thousands of filmmakers worldwide."
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Netflixannouncedthat it would acquire WBD in December. Paramount, after making multiple bids to purchase the studio, attempted a hostile takeover after the Netflix deal was publicized. On Tuesday,WBD announcedthat its board of directors continues to "unanimously recommend in favor of the Netflix merger," though the studio re-entered talks with Paramount to allow Ellison's company to make another offer.
In Cameron's letter, which is dated Feb. 10 but made the rounds last week, theAvatardirector voiced concerns about the impact that Netflix acquiring Warner Bros. could have on the moviegoing industry. Addressed to Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), the letter argued that "the business model of Netflix is directly at odds with the theatrical film production and exhibition business, which employs hundreds of thousands of Americans. It is therefore directly at odds with the business model of the Warner Brothers movie division, one of the few remaining major movie studios."
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Prior to penning this argument, Cameronspeculated in Novemberthat David Ellison's Paramount Global would be the "best possible choice" to purchase WBD.
"Netflix would be a disaster," he toldThe Townpodcast host Matt Belloni. "Warner Bros. would just become a streamer. So now you've lost an actual theatrical major, and now you've just increased that avalanche, that downhill trend."
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Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos was quick to fire back at Cameron on Friday and, in an interview on Fox Business Network'sThe Claman Countdown,said, "I'm particularly surprised and disappointed that James chose to be part of the Paramount disinformation campaign that's been going on for months about this deal."
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Sarandos also sent his own letter to Carr, which has been reviewed by EW, in which he corrected Cameron's claim that Netflix would shift films to having a 17-day theatrical window.
"I have never even uttered the words 17-day window. So I don't know where it came from or why he would be part of that machine," he wrote. "Movies go into the theaters for 45 days, a healthy, robust slate of films every year, that is going to continue. This deal is contingent on that for us to — for it to work."
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