Michael Barbaro

Well, just spell that out, because I think those of us who've come up in the post-theater world imagine the theater to be destined for the dustbin someday anyway.

So just walk us through what this deal would do to the timeline of theater's already pretty big problems.

Nicole, is that a justified fear?

And let me just spell out how that fear has been expressed.

There have been letters written from theater owners saying that the Netflix ownership of Warner Brothers is a disaster for them.

been movie producers and writers, Kyle, correct me if I'm wrong, who've written a note, I believe it was anonymously, saying this would be really bad for them.

The whole world of people who make movies that end up playing in a theater have been talking about Netflix buying Warner Brothers as kind of end times for the theater.

And I'm curious if you think Kyle is right that Hollywood thinks that any assurances to the contrary are meaningless.

I can see Kyle's head exploding.

I know him to be a lover of the theatrical.

Kyle, are you really convinced that a Netflix-owned Warner Brothers doesn't really put any movies in the theater?

I mean, it could in theory very easily do both if for no other reason to create a cultural conversation, to create buzz, to create buzz for the story you end up covering every year, which is awards season, Oscars, Golden Globes.

Right.

And, Carl, you've actually explained this to me.

When you send a movie to the theater, the theater takes a lot of the money.

So if you're Netflix, giving up whether it's 50 or 40 or 30 percent of your revenue to some theater doesn't make a whole lot of sense when your central business is sending a streaming video to my bedroom in Brooklyn.

Okay, so these are the clear downsides of the Netflix Warner Brothers deal for the creative community and the theatergoer.

I want to talk about the upside for a minute.

And if you're a Netflix subscriber, I wonder if you're now going to get more for your money, specifically if you're a Netflix subscriber who also pays for something like HBO Max, which it would acquire in this deal.

And I think it's safe to say, I'm going to do a very quick poll, who among us