James Cameron Warns Netflix’s $72 Billion Warner Bros Takeover Would Be a Disaster

James Cameron does not do subtle. On a recent stop by the podcast The Town, the Titanic and Avatar filmmaker teed off on the idea of Netflix buying Warner Bros. Discovery. His words, not mine:

"Netflix would be a disaster."

At the time he said it, WBD was reportedly being courted by a few different players: Comcast, Paramount/Skydance, and Netflix. The reporting that followed framed it like Netflix moved fastest and struck a deal to acquire Warner Bros. for an estimated enterprise value of about $82.7 billion and an equity value of $72 billion, attributed in that coverage to Netflix. So if you are wondering why Cameron would be less than thrilled, here is the larger point he was making and why it matters to people who actually make movies.

What Cameron is actually mad about

For him, it is not just who owns what; it is what that ownership signals. He called out Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos for pushing the idea that theatrical is over. In Cameron-speak, that is heresy. Movies, he argues, are built for a communal experience. You make them to be seen in a theater first, not as something that shows up next to your true-crime doc a week later.

He is not just talking release windows. He is talking about the culture of going to the movies. Post-pandemic, plenty of people got used to watching everything at home. In his view, handing a major legacy studio to a company whose default is streaming only accelerates that shift and drains the medium of its, well, soul.

His forecast for a Netflix + WB era

Cameron did not mince words about the way he thinks Netflix treats theatrical runs. Short, selective big-screen releases designed to qualify for awards? He called that "sucker bait." He went further and labeled that approach "fundamentally rotten at the core."

His bar for a real theatrical release is pretty clear: if you want to be in serious awards conversations, put the movie in 2,000 theaters for a month. Otherwise, spare everyone the pretend theatrics.

Translation: he thinks awards-chasing, weeklong runs are marketing stunts, not a commitment to the theatrical experience. And for someone whose movies are engineered to be seen on the biggest screen possible, a world where audiences expect every new release to hit the couch days later is not a world he is excited to work in.

The deal talk, explained without the jargon headache

Here is the quick context around the corporate dance. WBD was said to be weighing interest from three directions: Comcast, Paramount/Skydance, and Netflix. The follow-up reporting positioned Netflix as the winner, pegging the transaction at about $82.7 billion in enterprise value (that is the whole thing, including debt) and $72 billion in equity value (roughly what shareholders would be getting). However you slice the numbers, the implication in that coverage was clear: Netflix taking over a crown-jewel studio is exactly the scenario Cameron was warning about.

Why he is so dug in: look at his receipts

Whether you love or hate the blue aliens, Cameron makes movies that eat movie theaters for breakfast. The track record is kind of the point:

• Avatar (2009) — Production: Lightstorm Entertainment, Dune Entertainment, Ingenious Film Partner; IMDb 7.9/10; Rotten Tomatoes 81%; Box office: $2.9 billion
• Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) — Production: Lightstorm Entertainment; IMDb 7.5/10; Rotten Tomatoes 76%; Box office: $2.3 billion
• Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025) — Production: Lightstorm Entertainment — ratings and box office to come

So yeah, you can see why the guy who keeps breaking box office records is not thrilled about a future where the march to streaming speeds up, awards runs feel like technicalities, and theaters get treated like a checkbox. Agree with him or not, the logic is consistent: if you want movies to matter in public, you have to treat theatrical like it matters first.

Where do you land on this? Is Netflix taking the keys to WB the beginning of a great content machine, or exactly the thing Cameron is worried about?