Netflicks and kill

Streaming giant's Warner Bros takeover could destroy Hollywood

- BY PETER SHERIDAN in Los Angeles

JANE FONDA calls it "catastrophic" and "destructive". Avatar and Titanic director James Cameron condemns it as "horrific" and a "disaster". And now Leonardo DiCaprio has joined the growing chorus of Hollywood A-Listers fearing that Netflix's impending £64billion buyout of legendary studio Warner Bros may foreshadow the death of cinema-going and the end of Hollywood as we know it.

DiCaprio wonders whether movie theatres are outdated dinosaurs facing extinction as the Netflix asteroid looms or can they be saved? "Do people still have the appetite?" asks the 51-year-old whose latest Oscar front-running movie One Battle After Another was released on subscription service HBO Max last month. "Or will cinemas become silos like jazz bars?"

Indeed, visiting the cinema to share a communal big-screen experience may become as archaic as vaudeville, as Netflix leads a battalion of streaming services keeping audiences at home.

Its insiders claim that cinemas would be given only a two-week window to screen movies to qualify for Academy Award consideration before they are moved to streaming.

Netflix chief Ted Sarandos, leading the takeover bid for Warner Bros, has called going to cinemas to watch films "an outdated idea", something which has outraged James Cameron. "Sarandos has gone on the record saying theatrical films are dead," said the Titanic director. "Theatrical is dead. Quote, unquote."

While DiCapiro's latest thriller is winning critical acclaim, the £130million production is struggling to break even after garnering less than stellar box office earnings, transferring to streaming on HBO Max just two months after its release.

"We're looking at a huge transition," DiCaprio told The Sunday Times recently. "First, documentaries disappeared from cinemas. Now, dramas only get finite time and people wait to see it on streamers."

Cinema owners warn of mass theatre closures and layoffs if the Netflix buy-up goes ahead.