Name: Netflix to buy Warner Bros for $82B
Uploaded: 2025-12-07T00:32:36.450Z
Duration: 5 min 24 s
Description: The entertainment industry went through a massive shake-up early today when Netflix announced it had entered into an agreement to buy Warner Bros. Discovery for a massive $82.7 billion dollars. WBD had been shopping itself to prospective buyers in recent weeks, with rival Paramount also bidding.

The entertainment industry went through a massive shake-up early today when Netflix announced it had entered into an agreement to buy Warner Bros. Discovery for a massive $82.7 billion dollars. WBD had been shopping itself to prospective buyers in recent weeks, with rival Paramount also bidding.

Hollywood

Netflix has officially agreed to acquire Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion, a deal that includes Warner Bros.' film and television studios, HBO, HBO Max, and a vast library of intellectual property such as Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, and the DC Universe. The acquisition is anticipated to be finalized in the third quarter of 2026, subject to standard closing procedures.

The agreement will give Netflix control over Warner Bros.' century-old content catalog and its associated gaming studios, though the impact on WB Games remains unclear. Netflix has stated that upcoming Warner Bros. films will continue to receive theatrical releases before streaming, and future titles are expected to arrive on Netflix more quickly. The entertainment industry is closely watching for further developments as the deal progresses.

Netflix to buy Warner Bros for $82B

Happy Friday, everybody! Max here with your fix of gaming and entertainment news. Coming up, Netflix is set to acquire Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion, data miners think that they've uncovered Mario Kart World's first DLC, and sadly, Mortal Kombat star and prolific character actor Kari Hiroyuki Tagawa has passed away. Let's get into it. We've been hearing rumblings about the sale of Warner Bros. for a while now, and today it is official. Netflix has made a deal to buy WB, including its film and television studios, HBO and HBO Max, for $82.7 billion. It'll take some time to go through, and there's always the possibility that something falls through, but I will tell you what we know right now. The deal is expected to be finalized in Q3 of 2026. Once it goes through, Netflix will have control of WB's massive hundred-year-old back catalog of movies and shows, including classic films like Casablanca and Citizen Kane, TV favorites like Friends and Big Bang Theory, as well as a mountain of beloved and extremely lucrative intellectual property. This includes Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, everything under the Cartoon Network umbrella, including Adult Swim, and of course, the DC Universe. After being Warner Bros. for a very long time, Warner Bros. merged with Warner Bros. Discovery, but those two split into separate entities earlier this year, which has made Who Owns What almost as confusing as to what their streaming app is called. It was HBO Go, and then HBO Now, and then HBO Max, and then Just Max, and I think now it's HBO Max again, and who knows what they're going to call it in the future. As for what this means for movies, Netflix has recently dabbled in theatrical releases for some of its originals, like K-Pop Demon Hunters and the upcoming Stranger Things 5 finale, but the company has no plans to move away from its streaming-first business model. However, alongside the WB news, Netflix issued a statement saying that all upcoming Warner Bros. feature films planned for a theatrical release will still get one before coming to streaming, though obviously, this deal probably means that future WB movies will be coming to Netflix a whole lot faster. We'll have to wait and see if and how that changes. One big question right now is how this will affect WB Games. WB owns NetherRealm, the studio behind Mortal Kombat, as well as Avalanche, which recently gave us the massively successful Hogwarts Legacy. There's also Rocksteady, best known for the Batman Arkham series, and TT Games, the studio that's given us decades of great LEGO games. Netflix has its own gaming division, and in addition to publishing some original games, the streamer also offers a solid lineup of mobile titles to subscribers, including pretty big third-party titles as well, like, for instance, Red Dead Redemption, which just hit iOS and Android earlier this week for Netflix subscribers. So if you want to play that game on the go, check your Netflix app, I guess. This is definitely one of the biggest bombshells to drop in the entertainment world this year, and it'll be interesting to see how it shakes out. We will definitely keep you posted. Moving on, a key character from Donkey Kong Bonanza might be coming to Mario Kart World in the near future. Though if you haven't finished Bonanza, you might want to go do that, or at least cover your ears until we get through this story, because we're tiptoeing into spoiler territory. Data miners poking around in the Nintendo Today smartphone app discovered that Donkey Kong Bonanza's surprise, but also unsurprising last boss, King K. Rool, is set to appear in the app's daily intro animation on December 15th. Considering the Game Awards is slated for December 11th, the current theory is that's when Nintendo will announce a DLC drop for Mario Kart World. So why do they think it'll be for World in particular? Well, King K. Rool and Void Kong's voice actors are both listed in the game's credits, despite not being anywhere to be found in its current state. Bonanza got some post-launch content back in September with the DK Isle and Emerald Rush DLC, but Mario Kart World, which launched way before that, has been disappointingly light on updates. In any case, the Game Awards are next Thursday, December 11th, and you can watch them live along with pre- and post-show coverage right here on IGN, so if you want to find out if King K. Rool is coming to Mario Kart World, tune in for that! And also probably a whole bunch of other game trailers and announcements and fun stuff along those lines. And finally, some sad news. Actor Kari Hiroyuki Tagawa passed away yesterday. Tagawa was a prolific actor with memorable appearances in The Last Emperor, License to Kill, Showdown in Little Tokyo, Pearl Harbor, and Memoirs of a Geisha, just to name a few. However, he's an icon to many gamers for his performance as Shang Tsung in the original 1995 Mortal Kombat feature film, a role that he reprised several times after that, most recently in Mortal Kombat 11. Though it's not quite as well-known, he played another fighting game great when he portrayed Heihachi in the 2009 live-action Tekken movie in its sequel as well. Deadline reports the cause of death was complications from a stroke, and Tagawa passed away in his Santa Barbara home, surrounded by his children. So throw on one of his many films this weekend and pour one out for a legendary entertainer. I just rewatched Mortal Kombat this last weekend. It still rips. That is your fix for Friday, December 5th, 2025. And before we go, just a heads-up about an awesome gift for any Fallout fans in your life, a 1-to-1 screen-accurate replica of the Pip-Boy 3000 Mark V, designed by The Wan Company using the actual geometry from the Fallout TV series. It's got a die-cast metal faceplate, hand-weathered finish, memory foam cuff, a working TFT LCD screen that displays over 45 in-universe screens, and it's also a fully functional alarm clock and FM radio. It comes with a premium display stand that turns it to the ultimate desk or nightstand centerpiece, and whether you're collecting, cosplaying, or just living your best Wasteland life, this is the perfect Pip-Boy. So grab yours at store.IGN.com before they're all gone. Thank you all for watching. Now that you're caught up, go pass some time until Terminator 2D No Fate drops by learning about the best, worst, and weirdest Terminator games ever made, courtesy of yours truly. And as always, for everything gaming and entertainment, keep it locked to IGN.

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