DC Studios in Trouble from Warner Bros Selling to Paramount? | NR AMA

[00:02] Rockstars office hours. I'm Eric Voss and I'm going to be doing a sort of AMA about this terrifying brave new world that we're in

[00:14] of Paramount becoming victorious in this whole plan to buy Warner Brothers whole plan to buy Warner Brothers Discovery. Netflix backed out yesterday. live stream where I really just want to answer your questions. I want to try to

[00:27] realize like oh you guys just have a lot of questions that sometimes are our regular daily video uploads don't fully answer and I want to just have a chance to like, you know, I want to be there for you. I want you to feel fulfilled in

[00:43] the know as best as I can and sometimes the best way to answer those questions is is not in a a 10-minute summary explanation with with amazing editing by our editors. Sometimes it's just in a kind of a loose live stream and office

[00:58] here. So if you're in the chat, please hit us likely to see it if it's a super chat, if you're a member, but if if you're not any if it's not either of those things, it's okay. We'll we'll still try to

[01:12] run the show right now. We got Berg in the room who's in the chat. I just ask you guys to be respectful. This is a pretty fraught political issues where really what I'm going to try to do in this conversation is uh

[01:27] just try to like reassure you and give you guys some important information that I think we should all know going into the weekend. But I see there's like, you know, a few hundred of you joining in the chat right now. I really appreciate

[01:40] technical difficulties earlier in the stream. It's some it's the computer that we use on the other on the other side of the set that's not it's just not as powerful when it comes to live streaming as this computer is that we use for most

[01:53] Uh, see you Christian Unpronounceable. see you Christian Unpronounceable. Uh, Hannah Basso, Nerd Nerd Girl Jean. Uh, Egon for real, Aaron Reese, uh, Zach is in the chat.

[02:08] uh, Zach is in the chat. Uh, we got Muzuri, we got Me Gotti 510, Ickrin 353, uh, Spanky O'Leary. I see Spanky. Uh,

[02:22] we got Tankenstein 42. Uh, some new memberships that courtesy of Christian Unpronounceable. Uh, some new memberships, uh, across the board. Sarah Achadorian. You guys are the best. Thank you for

[02:36] joining us this Friday as we're doing this kind of, um, live discussion about what's really going on with Paramount, Warner Brothers, and Netflix. So, just going on. There's been kind of this bidding war

[02:48] going on for Warner Brothers Discovery. This is a big studio that's overseen by David Zaslav, and it's a studio that contains the multitudes of things like contains the multitudes of things like DC Studios, New Line Cinema. DC Studios,

[03:01] Peter Safran for the past few years. That's the studio behind Superman and all future DCU titles. Uh, it's also the studio that in the past year gave us both weapon, or not weapons. They gave us, well, I think,

[03:14] us One Battle After Another. Basically, they're guaranteed to win the Best they're guaranteed to win the Best Picture award in a couple weeks. a historic studio that's been around for a long time. Uh, but back in December,

[03:27] Netflix surprised a lot of people by saying, "Oh, we put in a bid. We're Warner Brothers seemed pretty cozy with Netflix in the past few months, but there the people who run Paramount, which is another rival studio, historic

[03:40] purchased by Skydance, which is a company owned by the Ellisons. Larry Ellison is the co-founder of Oracle. He cameoed in Iron Man 2. As we're finding, most of the real-world villains we're dealing with all made cameos in Iron Man

[03:54] 2. Uh his son, David Ellison, is like, "Papa, I want to make movies. Buy me a movie studio." And he did, and it's Paramount, and now they they've had an interesting couple years uh with their political relationships.

[04:10] Uh but now they were also very interested in buying Warner Brothers, and part of what they did is uh they've been kind of putting in further offers over the past couple months saying, "We can make you a better deal,

[04:23] shareholders of Warner Brothers." And they made them such a good deal in the past week that Warner Brothers is like, "Okay, well, we we really do have to that they were more culturally chummy with Netflix. Um over these past couple

[04:37] weeks, months really, a lot of people were criticizing Netflix. Um Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos had to go in front of the Senate and try to address some concerns. Uh a lot of the senators were attacking Netflix from

[04:52] uh an antitrust concern that you're too big of a company now. Are you going to big of a company now. Are you going to honor the 45-day exclusivity window for course is a streaming company that

[05:05] interested in the theatrical business. Our biggest competitors are going to be AMC and Cinemark and Regal and saying, "Well, actually, uh 180 here, we do want to get into this

[05:19] business. Uh we want to grow." And it and surprised a lot of people. Um but Ted Sarandos seemed pretty sincere with how much he's actually for their library. Now, part of the Netflix plan was to only buy Warner

[05:33] Brothers and HBO and didn't want all the cable networks that included the Turner Broadcasting Network and CNN and and some other channels that are connected to that. Um that would leave that up for sale for another third party. Now, a lot

[05:45] wouldn't Paramount just buy those cable networks anyway? No, Paramount was not interested in just CNN. Paramount wanted the whole kit caboodle. Um they they really wanted the cinematic library. And then, yeah, but that was

[05:58] a bigger sum for everything, both the film studio, its library, and the stations. Whereas, Netflix only wanted the first part of it, the first chunk of the first part of it, the first chunk of it. Well, um it seemed pretty certain

[06:12] for a while that Netflix was going to win this bidding war. Um Netflix, yes, it it is a streamer, it is a tech company, and a lot of people were worried about both of these. They were like, well, there's no winner here um

[06:24] for for people who work in the film industry. Either way, it means the like Warner Brothers. It means job losses. It means like uh fewer places where you can sell your movie to if you're a director, screenwriter.

[06:38] kind of like, damned if you do, damned if you don't. Uh but, over time, I think people were kind of warming to the idea, maybe reassured by Ted Sarandos's He never really wavered from his assurances. He was doing a lot of media,

[06:51] um a lot of trying to cozy up with politicians to be like, trust us, trust us. We're not We want to keep Warner Brothers studio intact as much as we Um but, then what happened is Warner Brothers finally relented and said,

[07:05] okay, we're going to up our bid. And their bid went up to $31 a share, uh which amounts to a full about a hundred and ten billion dollar hundred and ten billion dollar acquisition offer. For context, Disney's

[07:20] acquisition of Fox in 2018 was 71.3 billion dollars. a huge amount of money for Warner Brothers' library. Um but, that's kind of where the the bidding war took us. So, uh at the start of the week, um

[07:36] Warner Brothers like, okay, we have to admit that this is a superior offer. Ball's in your court, Netflix. Um and then and that was like 2 days ago, and then Ted Sarandos goes to the White House. Throughout the year, he's he's

[07:49] met with President Trump in at Mar-a-Lago a couple times knowing that he was planning on doing this and hoping to get Trump to at least lay off of it. Uh but things have gotten pretty heated on the political front in the past

[08:02] month. Um you had uh Republicans in Congress who were like do are we on bloody soil here? Like he's trying to bait him into like defending

[08:15] celebrities had said. And and Ted Sarandos is like, "I I I don't know what you're talking about." And didn't And Ted Sarandos has tried to maintain that business deal. But basically, cultural forces have made this a political deal.

[08:28] And the Ellisons are pretty friendly with the Republicans in Washington, D.C. They're they're uh Larry Ellison is friendlier with President Trump. Um specific political issues that the Ellisons

[08:41] are um are aligned with the Republicans on. And that's why you may see a lot of political takes on this subject. But I'm I'm telling you I don't have a problem if you want to get into the politics of it, but there

[08:54] are deeper financial issues that are really guiding the forces of all of But basically, when when Teddy went to go talk to Trumpy, uh we don't know exactly what they talked about. But earlier in the week, uh Trump had went

[09:06] on Truth Social and was like, "I will only approve this deal if you fire Susan Rice from your board, Ted Sarandos." And it's just one of the many things that our president uh screams at on

[09:18] referring to the fact that Susan Rice, who used to be part of Obama's board of Netflix. And he was getting pressure from forces on on the right uh that in order to approve this deal,

[09:32] this. Also, I think I think Ted Sarandos is there were some "We're going to look at all everything Netflix is doing to see if like its very existence is a violation of antitrust." Surprise, surprise, as soon as Netflix

[09:47] like, "Oh, just kidding. I'm not interested in that anymore." It'll be really interesting in the coming um months if those same senators who are so worried about the antitrust end of it from Netflix are just as mad

[10:01] as uh at at Paramount. Because it's the same thing. It's the same thing. It's just another big company backed by tech money that is gobbling up a historic film studio. And it will mean job losses either way. It'll mean weird

[10:16] realignments on your home smart TV streaming platform apps. Uh it'll mean fewer opportunities for films to come out. But what David Ellison, CEO of of Paramount, has promised is that, "Well, if if we win,

[10:32] we're going to maintain a release of 30 theatrical films per year." 30. Now, just for context, Paramount, the company he currently oversees, only theatrical films. Uh

[10:46] And then I think Warner Brothers released "If we just merge these studios, we're going to do that." way that's going to happen. Uh Disney made the same kind of promise when it

[11:00] acquired Fox in 2018. And Fox, which used to be a rival film studio to these other studios, is is just basically a division of Disney now. You still have some movies that are released under the Fox label. For example, Avatar,

[11:13] uh Predator Badlands, Alien Romulus, Devil Wears Prada, technically a Fox release. You have Fox Searchlight, a separate studio. But like those releases that would release annually since the

[11:26] the same thing. We're going to see the same thing now that Paramount will probably be owning Warner Brothers. Now, this is not a done deal. you know, it's it's Friday, February 27th, 2026, but

[11:39] there's a lot of things that could happen. Uh for example, here in California, our Attorney General has said, "Uh nope, I'm going to block this. And I'm talking to other AGs in other states. We're all going to block

[11:52] certain judges, certain federal judges in circuit courts, and maybe even the Supreme Court who say like, "Mhm, Paramount buying Paramount buying Warner Brothers is still too big of a company that violates

[12:05] legal argument you could totally make there. So, there is a world here where neither version of this goes forward, and even David Zaslav on a company-wide call today to his employees at at Warner Brothers admitted that that may be how

[12:21] this all turns out. What this means for Netflix in the meantime is um due to the way this bidding war unfolded is they get a $2.8 billion breakup fee that Paramount has to pay. So, that's money in their bank right away, or it's

[12:35] somewhere in there. It's like 2.something billion dollars. Um and if this deal gets broken up by the federal government, then that's like $7 billion that Paramount has to pay

[12:49] to Warner Brothers. So, Warner Brothers comes out ahead either way. but here's the thing, it depends who you are and how you invest in these said that he was backing out of the deal, owners of Netflix stock,

[13:04] shareholders of Netflix stock, were excited by this. They were worried about a bidding war. They didn't know if like the streaming company they invested in should get involved in this type of acquisition. So, at the close of trade

[13:16] uh Netflix's stock value went up like 13%. Um but Netflix still really wanted this. I do believe that they wanted it. This wasn't like a long game play by by Ted

[13:28] Sarandos to like weaken these film studios who are ultimately his competition and and and get a couple billion dollars in change. I I don't was. Um but yeah, there's a version of this

[13:42] where like I don't know. If you really want to 4D chess this, the ultimate long of dollars from the Ellisons as possible. I don't know. Maybe that is Uh but I doubt it. I really do think that our government, the way it's

[13:57] currently set up, it's they're going to let it go through. I think they're going Ellisons are going to say, "We're just we're not a tech company. We're a classic film studio and you should just let film studios merge. If you let

[14:11] Paramount merge with Warner Brothers." And there's going to be enough look the other way. I I that's my prediction of where things are going to go. Uh we're going to get to a place where there are basically

[14:24] even fewer big media giant companies. You have like Disney, you're going to have Netflix, you're going to have Sony, and then rather than having separate Warner Brothers and Paramount, it'll be one big company called Paramount. Uh you

[14:37] won't have HBO anymore. It'll just be Paramount Plus. I I mean, that's one thing that Ted Sarandos did to reassure people. He said, "I want HBO to keep its brand. I want people to be able to um subscribe to HBO, maybe make it

[14:50] cheaper, um but not make it so that it's all merged under one app buried under uh The Challenge and Hey Arnold. I I Uh nothing against Paramount Plus. I watch it for Survivor, but I'm just

[15:05] saying not everyone wants it. Uh that may be tougher now. Uh there's a lot of fears really about CNN. CNN is an owner is is owned by by Warner network of channels. Uh specifically with the way the

[15:20] Ellisons have made some changes internally at CBS in the news division. You've seen a lot of people walk out. Um they put Barry Weiss in charge of it, way in terms of Barry Weiss's politics. The whole the way Paramount settled the

[15:37] um the lawsuit that Trump filed against 60 Minutes really pissed off a lot of people in the news division. Uh the decision to end Stephen Colbert's talk show, The Late Show with Stephen

[15:50] Colbert, really freaked out a lot of people. It a lot of people are worried that the Ellisons are going to just turn any news division and any media company Um I I think those concerns are valid. I

[16:03] about corporate ownership of all media right now. It's it's a scary scary scary time. And and CNN specifically is something that has like caught the ire more so than CBS News. CNN is like number one on people's like target list.

[16:17] were working at CNN, I'd be very concerned. Uh I don't know and that's the Netflix end of the deal. Netflix is not interested in buying CNN. They politics of it. They just wanted the the library.

[16:31] look, there's still a lot to be figured out. This could be blocked and I don't but like how does it affect the James Gunn of it all? I think it's really the Um Brian, is your hand raised for a question?

[16:45] me to read some of them off. >> Yeah, let's do it. Um so one right here. Put it on the screen.

[17:01] We can uh put this here. uh put this here. Uh Sean Villanueva 9958 asks, "Since Brothers, what does that mean for HBO Max, at least in your opinion?"

[17:14] through, Paramount has a streaming platform that I think they're going to want to merge with HBO Max. It doesn't make sense if you're one of these media sense to have two different streaming apps that you have to send people to.

[17:27] Um you could argue that oh well, HBO Max is more of a boutique uh streaming content thing, but like Paramount Plus has their own deals for like, you know, all all the original content, the scripted content that's on

[17:39] Paramount Plus. I think it really what it means is that like if the deal goes through, in a few years you there won't be an HBO thing to subscribe to anymore. I mean, maybe maybe they rename all

[17:52] Paramount Plus is like a dumb name and they just keep HBO as a brand, but it's going to be run according to what the Ellisons' wishes are. now, yeah, uh if the Ellisons win this, it's

[18:09] years. But, I don't know. All of streaming may be completely different in a few years. Netflix may ultimately pick up all the other, and it's just like Netflix or you don't listen to anything. Netflix is

[18:22] still coming out ahead in a lot of ways. But, culturally within Warner Brothers, the employees at Warner Brothers, if they had to pick between the two, would have been preferred to have been bought by Netflix, not Paramount. Now, there

[18:36] may be some there's some cultural and political reasons why, but I think operations of what Paramount does than what Netflix does. Netflix was a tech company that only has a distribution platform of streaming. It didn't have

[18:49] like a lot of brick-and-mortar studio operations, whereas Paramount does. their jobs at Warner Brothers. Um so, HBO I but I understand for all of you and the rest of the world, you may not care about that. I do, cuz we have a

[19:03] lot of friends and close people who work in this industry, and if a ton of people get laid off at a studio, it's just bad for the industry as a whole. Um to talk about the James Gunn of it. Yes.

[19:15] >> another question? >> We do have a question from uh Aiden Zimmerman 8207 uh asking specifically, is it a realistic possibility that Gunn this? Um I

[19:31] possibility that James Gunn could get the boot even if like Netflix bought it or if no one bought it. Um he's a studio head of It's a difficult job and it's an expensive investment to make movies like this. So, I think James Gunn has had a

[19:46] pretty like realistic perspective anytime he's been asked even before this this Netflix deal, the Netflix interest was announced. Um is it more realistic now? I don't think it's more realistic now.

[19:59] you guys. Like the most arguably the most valuable part of any of these companies wanting to buy Warner Brothers is to be the company that profits from future Batman movies.

[20:12] There's there's certainly an argument to be made there. Uh the most profitable film that Warner Brothers made in 2025 was Superman, unless I'm mistaken, money. Uh there might have been some animated movie that I'm forgetting, but

[20:26] movie comes out, that will be like Warner Brothers' most profitable movie of the year. We're talking about a billion-dollar franchise. Um arguably the Harry Potter brand is very valuable to Warner Brothers, especially once that

[20:38] comes out on HBO. Now, it'll be coming out on Paramount Plus. Hope you are excited to see some John Lithgow Dumbledore thumbnails on your Paramount Plus login, cuz that's what we're talking about here. Um

[20:50] I feel like Nathan Fielder just pr- predicted all of this. Really. Um yeah, cuz the thing is if James Gunn is successful with his DC Studios slate, if Supergirl performs modestly, if Man of Tomorrow does as

[21:06] good if not better than Superman did. If this The Batman Part 2 in 2027 makes a billion dollars or does as well as it did the first one did in 2022. If Clayface does similar numbers as Supergirl or even less cuz that movie

[21:20] probably cost a little less, James Gunn's job is going to be secure. Now, in terms of how much of his plan he could enact, like ask yourself when he first announced his plan in 2023 versus now, already that plan has been in flux

[21:34] just based off of the the cadence of scripts and rewrites he's had to oversee, um other shifting narratives and shifting priorities. So, yeah, it may mean that like oh, um we may not get a season 4 of Creature Commandos because

[21:49] Paramount doesn't see a future in adult animation. Yeah, maybe that happens. Uh but ultimately James Gunn is just as talented of a visionary now and just as talented of a filmmaker and a writer now

[22:06] as he was last week. And part of the reason why Paramount wanted to pay 110 because they'd get old Jimmy Gunn as part of that deal. part of that deal. You know? So, he's a valuable gem in

[22:19] they're buying it so they they get rid of him and put like Max Landis in charge of it. Like I don't think that's the plan here. Now, yeah, there's going to be a lot of like discussion over the kind of people that Paramount wants to

[22:32] put in charge of franchises. And we can get into that if you guys want, but I'm not going to bore you guys unless I get a question about it. Um does that answer the question? Uh I think so.

[22:44] What else are people asking about? Yeah, um so this is kind of similar vibes and but uh Sarah Hachadorian asks, "Since HBO used to be a premium channel when cable existed, would HBO Max continue to exist

[22:58] or would everything be moved to Paramount Plus?" Uh Hannah Basso 1398 asking similarly, if you have a Paramount Plus account, do you get what do you What do you think their ultimate plan is with all these apps?

[23:11] Too early to know, right? They're going to They're going to watch all the new Rockstars videos first to see what people are worried about and make for asking these questions. I I really do think

[23:24] it will see one app. There will be one streaming place cuz that's what like the the board of directors and the shareholders of whatever to want. They're going to be like, why

[23:36] here? It's kind of messy, don't you think, that you have to subscribe to Hulu and Disney Plus? It's weird. It's not going to stay that way forever, Um so, I think we're going to get uh more of a simplified place. Um I don't

[23:51] know if it'll be a better experience for you. I and I also don't think, you know, they're going to stick with whatever brand of streaming is the most valuable to the users. Um now, I don't know. Like, 20th Century

[24:06] Fox was a pretty known iconic brand, and I thought when Disney bought them, it became pretty dumb how they just insisted Fox be dropped from the name. Century. Um they just don't want the word Fox on

[24:20] didn't want the word Fox on there is because well, part of the deal in 2018 was to not acquire Fox News. So, when you think of Fox in media, you're you're you're thinking of Tucker Carlson on on on the Fox News channel. But, like Bob

[24:32] Iger back then didn't They already have like a news division at Disney at ABC News. So, they they didn't want Fox News to be part of that deal. And Rupert going to keep Fox News. I think one thing that we all have to I have to

[24:45] things you should be worried about. You should There are There are huge scary things happening in this country right now. Uh specifically with the way media is being censored, uh with the way news is being attacked, and journalists are

[24:59] attacked, it's it's scary. To have a conservative in charge of a media company is also a terrifying world Murdoch decided that he wanted to get into 24-hour cable news. Like Rupert

[25:14] Murdoch is an incredibly conservative nightmarish person running Fox News and running all of Fox. So that doesn't mean we couldn't get The Simpsons, you know, during that time because dollars and cents drive this,

[25:28] and I think the Ellisons ultimately ultimately my my my skeptical laws of capitalism brain are telling me that they're going to go wherever profit can be found. But I'm also terrified that

[25:45] there are certain culture war forces that are going to force their hand, and that they're ultimately interested in using their media empire to help fight those wars. I'm I'm ultimate I'm not I'm not that

[25:58] worried about DC Studios. I am worried about CNN because CNN also hasn't been that financially successful in recent years. And I'm worried that this I I really value CNN's reporting. I value CNN's reporting, and I'm and I'm

[26:12] away. Um we have a super chat from Mr. Gonzalez 96. Thank you so much for the super chat. going to happen to the Disney Plus HBO bundle? At least in your opinion. Good

[26:27] question. I think that's already going away. I think if if you've tried to do this bundle recently, I've seen some reporting to people saying, "Oh, this to renew this. I can't renew it." Those are like specific short-term deals to

[26:40] you know, agreed between these studios to try to get people to sign up for Yeah, I mean, those were already going to go away anyway, and I think now they're going to go away even faster. So we have another super chat from Leon

[26:56] Enriquez saying this might just give us Lobo versus McGregor Joker versus Topera MMA DC League coming. That's the collaboration we've been wanting. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think when

[27:10] people think of like just and really what happened was when Fox or when Disney bought Fox all the headlines were okay, well X-Men can exist in Avengers movies now. By the way, it took like 10 years for

[27:24] that to happen. The it it's deeper than that. It's not joke question, but I think I do have to say this out loud. It doesn't mean that like Optimus Prime is going to be fighting

[27:38] um Darkseid in a movie now. It's I mean I think that's as likely as like Superman fighting Spider-Man in a movie. Like anything can be kind of worked out if the audience wants it. But what you

[27:53] Super Bowl there are these weird promos where like Picard and a Transformer and Hey Arnold are all hanging out. Like you're going to see weird stuff like

[28:07] that. But it's only going to be used in marketing and things like that. marketing and things like that. Another question. Yeah, so this is from N Airman E2D with a $5 super chat. Thank you so much. Saying I think the EU is

[28:21] certain conditions. What do you think those conditions might be? I'm not an expert in I'm not an expert in media law in the European Union. So I do

[28:35] media law in the European Union. So I do Berg has a thought. Get in here, Berg.

[28:47] really big since the GDPR on privacy rights. Their conditions will be that is harvested from the users of these apps and what is done with that these apps and what is done with that data in terms of training um

[29:00] AI models and in terms of how it is used to sway the market. Those will be the EU's terms. They used it. That's why every single time you go to a website, cuz of the EU. They have a ton of sway. That's going to be WHAT THEY WANT.

[29:14] WOW, BERG. BERGUS? Just like he surprises us constantly with how smart he is and how learned and knowledgeable he is. So, question. I I hope you were satisfied by that answer.

[29:29] Um other questions that people might have. Yeah, um so we have Well, this isn't really a question, but um I'm bringing really a question, but um I'm bringing it up because it was a super chat. Um

[29:42] real quick. >> Thanks for your super chat, whoever you were. Uh so this is another super chat. They just had to let you know. Uh forestdemo says, "Sadie Sink is Hope Summers being chased by Bishop through

[29:56] the incursions." That I know not related to what's going on, but you know, they important. Very, very important. Thank you for your super chat. There's It's an AMA. Ask me anything. And you you didn't ask me

[30:10] anything. You just kind of told me what's happening. I I Hey, I hope Hope Summers fun. Um I don't think that's who she's playing in Spider-Man:

[30:22] Brand New Day. I don't think incursions are going to matter in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. I It's a grounded street-level story. I don't think Destin Daniel Cretton would be that excited about this movie if he had to like direct his

[30:34] That's just me. I think she's going to be Jean Grey. Now, you're Some of you are were "Oh, so you're not okay with multiversal incursions, but you're okay with like a random mutant with psionic powers? Yeah, I kind of am. I think we

[30:48] the MCU to set the stage for the mutant saga, but I get if you think my theory is is dumber than that. Okay. Uh, but it's a fun theory. I I I

[31:00] think incursions are too global scale to have a character run through it as if it's like uh uh a challenge uh Hall Brawl challenge,

[31:12] I think we're talking about like, oh, did your horizon line bleed into the ocean of another world? It's like, how do you run through that? That's just my question. Oh, another question. Look at this.

[31:25] Okay, so yeah, this is a question from uh Muckleseth and Brown Kevin 83. Uh, possible outside uh upsides to Paramount's acquisition of Warner Bros.

[31:37] would win it out, uh but part of that, Brown Kevin 83 says, DC might get better. Paramount did do Marvel once. So, your thoughts on that? Um overall upsides, I guess there's maybe

[31:51] an argument that we don't have to worry about the ultimate fear a lot of people had for Netflix that Ted Sarandos was lying to he was committing to. A lot of people worried that Ted Sarandos was just

[32:05] that like two or three years from now he'd be like, just kidding, you get a week and then it's going on Netflix for streaming. We I don't think we have to David Ellison is as interested in building up like a streaming model of

[32:18] Paramount Plus that way. I think we're more likely to see these movies stay in more likely to see these movies stay in theaters with long theatrical windows. Um so, I guess there's an upside there. Um I don't know. I guess if you really,

[32:32] really like what Paramount has been making lately, If you really like Brett Ratner and Max Landis making your movies, I guess that's an upside. Um if

[32:48] they're doing a kind of a bake-off. They're having Danny McBride write one Landis write the other. So root for Danny McBride there. Um I don't really know what the upside is.

[33:01] gobbling up a corner of the industry. And that's what drove me nuts when this lot of friends and colleagues who were just like immediately on it. And I I wanted to I'll tell them like look at the alternative. Like we just

[33:17] lob bombs constantly without looking at the big picture. And the alternative is the Ellisons win using this Saudi money. Like I understand the fears and the distrust you have of Netflix, but ultimately that

[33:31] would have been the better deal for the industry. Netflix Ted Sarandos has been a proven media executive. Netflix has been a successful company. David Ellison has not proven himself in charge of Paramount. I don't I'm not

[33:45] doing. All I'm convinced of is that he and his daddy have a lot of money. Right? I don't know if they have taste. I guess you could say that about Ted Sarandos, but like Ted Sarandos also made decisions that got us Stranger

[34:00] Things, the earlier seasons, Queen's Gambit. He's partnering with people to make things like Don't Look Up, which is a really good movie, Leave the World Um Baby Reindeer, Adolescence, like

[34:14] uh House of Cards, Orange Is the New Black, like are just so-so, but they've proven themselves to make good content that people like and want to pay for. Uh Paramount under the new leadership

[34:29] to me is that they're willing to fire Stephen Colbert. me. Uh oh, another question. We got a Uh oh, another question. We got a question from Hanno Hannavaso 1398 again

[34:42] it at CinemaCon or SDCC or any big they won't talk about it? >> The latter. I don't think it's going to come up at least like not on stage. I they're going to get asked about it a

[34:54] lot. What you're going to see is like a lot of red carpets and events where you'll have like media reporters. Maybe even me if I'm there. We'll we'll be asking this question, but realistically David Zaslav said it will take a minimum

[35:06] approved. You're going to see a lot of attorney generals and and politicians and judges who are going to delay this and try to stop it. Um

[35:19] they might be successful. Uh so in the meantime Warner Brothers and HBO are been operating. DC Studios is not changing their plans. James Gunn is still going to try to make his movies and shows as best as he can. Supergirl

[35:35] come out. So will Clayface. So will The Batman Part Two. So will Man of Tomorrow. All those movies still have enough investors and have enough like commitment to that pot to make as much money as they can. So don't

[35:48] expect any disruption. It's it's not like the DC Studios crown jewel of this about. They're they're An investment was already made in James Gunn and Peter Safran and their vision. And it's going to take a couple like

[36:01] And it's going to take a couple like bomb after bomb after bomb for for any kind of change to happen there. Um and I think even even if like Supergirl and think even even if like Supergirl and Clayface like do disastrously bad, if

[36:14] Man of Tomorrow comes back and and does and makes another $650 million, like and makes another $650 million, like no one's going to be complaining. so Sarah giving us a $5 super chat. Thank you so much, Sarah. Um she asks,

[36:30] "In the AMA spirit, how is everyone at New Rockstars doing? Uh we appreciate all your hard work with how busy things are and are going to get, uh including >> And our pets Darla's doing okay. She's a rescue and

[36:44] people in our family, like me and my wife and my son. Everyone else she she snarls at. Um so I think she's kind of stressed out in general by the mailman.

[36:56] Uh but if you were to ask her I think she likes playing with us and she she's Um I'm doing pretty good. How are you doing, Brian? Uh yeah, I'm doing I'm doing pretty good. I'm chilling. Um and uh my my cats

[37:11] are doing pretty well as well. Uh got three of them and they're all running Um we have a a joint I'm going to put two Um kind of similar. Um Meg Maddie asks uh how will this

[37:26] against the current administration? I'm thinking John Oliver, The Pit, etc. And similar, with South Park already under Paramount and seeing how they get away be able to do the same or would there be a crackdown on content in your opinion?

[37:41] Well, here's the thing. Like the day that the FCC approved the merger in July that the FCC approved the merger in July for Skydance and Paramount, on that day uh Parker and Stone released their their big Trump episode. Uh or or talked about

[37:54] afraid of it. Uh and I think the creators aren't too afraid of who's the someone like Parker or Stone, like you are pretty powerful in the way that James Gunn's pretty powerful. Um and I think if they have the contract

[38:10] and if it's a profitable brand then I I do think the Ellisons will see the do think the Ellisons will see the dollar signs and and not freak out. Um uh John Oliver's a different story. John Oliver's is example of I, you know, I'd

[38:23] be worried if you like the John Oliver show, like his contract is up in the next 12 months. I don't know if his contract gets renewed if it's the it. He's been very critical and his staff does an amazing job. He's kind of

[38:36] terms of like I don't even see it as a comedy show anymore. It's just kind of like educational research and I think there's a lot of political interest right now who feel threatened by people like that. Uh so I'm if if Stephen

[38:49] Colbert's contract is done, I'd be worried about John Oliver, but not just world where like Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon, um I mean we already saw the threat to Jimmy Kimmel. It's really the late night format

[39:02] that just like is not as profitable as it used to be for these media companies. So that's kind of like the financial justification. So if on top of that you difference and you don't believe in free speech or if you don't want employees

[39:18] and if you can't be a big boy and just let that happen uh then yeah, that's that's why you see these late night hosts get Um yeah.

[39:32] Um yeah, another question from CoreyB5233 Asking any fear of the same thing happening to Trek now? Uh I guess they

[39:46] don't like Star Trek Academy. Will happen to DC too if this goes through. happen to DC too if this goes through. Garbage? Star Trek Academy? Garbage? Even even the shows and movies that I really don't like, I wouldn't call them

[39:59] garbage, but that's me. Uh no, I I think Star Trek is another um if anything Star Trek if currently the Ellisons like Star Trek being part of their brand, it's not like this changes that. Like all the Paramount stuff that

[40:13] the stuff that's owned by like the Viacom empire MTV The Challenge. It's not like the acquisition for $110 billion makes that changes anything that was already going to be happening anyway at Paramount.

[40:28] Um and we have a super chat from Christian unpronounceable. Uh just saying meat wife. Yeah, I remember this bit.

[40:42] wife. I hope meat wife is doing well. Yeah. Uh Berg how's meat wife doing? in the >> even in the chat. So meat wife was from our Super Bowl stream, right? Where someone was talking about their uh wife

[40:57] who was preparing meats for them. Yeah, it was like a pulled pork.

[41:11] remember the guy who put in the super chat's name cuz he sent in so many super chats. Supported the crap out of us. At one point sent in a super chat saying shout out to my wife she's making delicious uh pulled pork in the other

[41:25] started blowing up with shout out to meat wife. But YouTube started censoring it cuz they thought it was dirty. And so people had to start like typing weird spellings of meat and weird spellings of wife. Anyways, meat wife wherever you

[41:39] wife. Anyways, meat wife wherever you are, we salute you. I THINK LIKE THERE'S A LOT of uh political hot takes. And I'm not here to try to argue against those political hot takes that you're seeing on social media

[41:54] because like I think people more affected by this and more knowledgeable these claims. And I'm not going to go toe-to-toe with all of them. But a lot of people saying like this means James Gunn is going to get fired. I think

[42:08] that's premature to say that. Um I think if you're saying like oh God, the fears that were actively seen playing out with the dismantling of CBS, that's now going to happen at CNN." Yeah, that's that's going to happen, too.

[42:22] Um, stories we've already seen stories get killed from CBS that's reporting on on the immigration issues in our country, and they killed these stories. And I think all these all this reporting that we would have seen from CNN, if

[42:37] this deal goes through, is gone. And all these free speech senators who were chewing up airtime on the Senate floor yelling at Ted Sarandos about it need to be equally as concerned about this as they were about Netflix buying it,

[42:52] especially since Netflix wasn't buying CNN. I I'm skeptical that they will be as concerned. Ooh, well-rounded mom 6769. >> Yeah, well-rounded mom 6769 giving us a

[43:06] $5 super chat. Thank you so much. Asking us, what do you see as a possible post-TV career for personalities like Colbert and possibly Oliver? Come on, new rock stars, guys. No, seriously, podcasting. I mean, Conan

[43:22] Conan's been doing pretty well with his podcast, and uh, these guys Yeah, I comedian showman, but more than Conan O'Brien was. No, he's going to be he's Both of them will have like top 10 podcasts. Um, don't do the Jon Stewart

[43:38] thing of just kind of like disappearing in the world. I think they both need to week. Every week I want to hear from these guys cuz like I think our culture needs them commenting on things. And I think especially Stephen Colbert as as

[43:52] like I I just think they're both wonderful hilarious people who really inspire great people to do good research and great people to do good research and great comedy, and uh, um, I I don't uh,

[44:04] I who knows? I think they're going to be very valuable to be acquired by a number of other brands. Apple may be interested in in buying one of their shows the way like Jon Stewart worked on Apple for a bit. Um but I

[44:17] don't think so. I think it they're going to see more of a lucrative offer signing some deal with uh like iHeart, like one of these podcast networks and uh I think they'll be fine. It just It just sucks to see this. I know it's premature

[44:32] announced yet, but we've already seen it. I think it's not people like Jon Oliver if we've seen this with Stephen Colbert. All right, so we have a super chat from Ikran 353 or Ikran, not sure. Uh

[44:49] he said, "You said anything >> honest opinion, why does RDJ have to come back as Doom? I know it's off topic, but you said anything." >> say anything and I think it's a good question. I don't know. I I don't know

[45:02] coming back as Doom and I feel like if Avengers: Doom doesn't answer that question we're all going to yell at Disney cuz it's like it's weird. You can't pretend like it's not weird. It'd be one thing

[45:15] playing a Ravager in the first Guardians movie to coming back to play Galactus in happened before. Actors can play different characters. Chris Evans played Johnny Storm in the Fantastic Four movies of the '00s and then he played

[45:30] he played Steve Rogers in the MCU only a few years apart. But we're talking about Robert Downey Jr. He was the face of the MCU and you can't pretend like it's weird or it's not weird that he's playing Doctor Doom. Um

[45:44] that are going around are just like, "Oh, talking about Victor Von Doom's possible origin story as a family man." But like nowhere do I see an explanation Tony Stark. Yes, they'll probably include some prosthetic scarring, but

[45:59] it's still Robert Downey Jr. And his face is that iconic that you can't pretend like people are just going to facial blindness when they see him. So, brothers, just include some scene where someone from the TVA explains what that

[46:12] means. Uh so, we have a super chat from Forest Demo uh giving us two Canadian dollars. Wow. Hey, I'll take this connect bucks. They're saying, "Could this mean DCU

[46:25] equals Warner Brothers?" And I assume Otherworld means Elseworlds equals Paramount. I think if you were to pitch this to the Ellisons, they'd be like, What are you talking about? I don't think they I think these kind of like in

[46:38] universe outside universe distinctions only matter to people like us. I don't people who ultimately like organize these things. Like they barely matter to wants good movies. And I think most audiences just want good movies. So, I I

[46:54] I I don't think so. I I don't know what this means. If you're saying like Brothers, it's all going to be If it's all going to be one company, like they have a certain label where

[47:06] And then this other one is going to be like, "Hey, it's it's in in its own will be clear enough. If you make the movies right, if the script is good, then that distinction won't be that unclear.

[47:23] Um so, we got a super chat from Agent Blackbird 616. Uh unfortunately, uh it message. So, here's just the money, which was $10. Thank you so much. >> Wow, thanks, Agent Blackbird. What did you say?

[47:36] Yeah, what what could they have possibly asked? That's suspicious. But we appreciate you, Agent Blackbird. Hey, sometimes it happens. We have like some content filters that we do just to kind of protect our hosts and live

[47:49] a weird combination of words where just things get muted out. And we're sorry about that. But we just do that to keep it civil. We just have We have to do some moderation. Some moderation. We hope you understand.

[48:02] Um Oh, you know, there was some questions that people asked earlier on the community post, and I want to make sure those people get heard cuz like be able to join, but I want to make sure that you answer

[48:16] you should have joined, and I would have read your questions." Um here we go. Um Someone's asking about Survivor Edge of Extinction specifically the goated M O R M 1 rating. Um M O R M 1 means middle of

[48:33] M 1 rating. Um M O R M 1 means middle of the road. M means moderate, 1 means I Extinction, but I did like the season premiere a lot, and I think Christian's Um Someone's asking, "How's the baby?" He's

[48:47] doing good. I love him. I love him so much. Do you think Someone's asking, uh love from Belgium. We love you, Belgium.

[48:59] said, 'Why isn't there a video on the Paramount WB merger already?'" That's what this is. Uh I think a lot of people unsubscribed for some of the things that I said. That's fine. But sometimes people

[49:13] unsubscribe just for like a Marvel video I did. It's just that Marvel theory like, "I shouldn't subscribe to this channel anymore." Uh Someone's asking, "Why did you think you

[49:25] were cooking so hard with Down the Doomsday Road?" cook. Let me cook. I think it's great. And I think once we get to the Agatha episode, you're going to be like, "Oh, great."

[49:40] Hey, people don't like it when I do jokes on YouTube, and that's I I don't don't like Get 'em, Daddy. Even though on Reddit, I even put a poll, and people who like Get 'em, Get 'em, Daddy won. Can they be

[49:55] it's not like I'm going to do it all the to. Uh Um yeah. >> Oh, someone asked about the Witching

[50:10] Witching Hour channel? I understand there's a lot you guys cover, so please don't take it in a bad way. I love the Dunam C88.

[50:22] working on another Witching Hour video about the Robert Eggers' The Witch. It's going to be coming out, I think, in the next 5 or 6 weeks. Um we're not going to do it all the time because like

[50:35] we do have other stuff we're trying to cover right now. We really want to focus on covering scary content in fall and like September, October. But, yeah, it's just we kind of bit off a bit more we can chew than we could

[50:50] Um just because like we realized the kind of stuff we wanted to do were video the time like are we still going to do horror content on New Rockstars? And we're like, "Oh, I guess we still want to do horror content on New Rockstars

[51:04] subscribed to us. We don't want to like stop doing that." But like once we were had more of a plan for Witching Hour then. And that's on me. That's on no one Um but yeah, we're going to keep it going and uh when we're so inspired to

[51:20] passion projects, uh it'll come out there. Uh we have a super chat from Keenan Karns Karns 6998 uh giving us a $10 super chat in

[51:34] thank you. >> Um we can speculate, but much happens behind the scenes in what art gets made. Billionaires have influence. They always Hollywood. Yet provocative films still come. He won't last forever.

[51:48] Uh that is true. We've always had billionaires Um Yeah, uh what's his name? William Randolph Hearst has owned a lot of newspapers. Um that

[52:01] that is true. We had Rupert Murdoch. Um you had Sumner Redstone that is that is the truth. What's different now is the way politics is really frightening people. Um

[52:15] and and just the way tech is getting involved. It used to be like to be a a media mogul, you kind of at some point had to own a newspaper and work up your way through like I owned this radio station and then I owned these several

[52:28] radio stations and then I was I I worked at this film studio and then these other investors. Now it's just like I invented an algorithm at one point by myself. Or I just had a lot of money

[52:42] from some other things and I bought it. My dad owned a diamond mine in South a controlling interest and then I bullied the lawyers to tell people that I solely was the inventor of this technology and then I just leveraged

[52:58] to this and yes to this and yes to this and then I buy Twitter. And that's just why I think people are frightened is it's just like these people don't really have expertise in the industries that they're buying and they're making huge

[53:10] changes that really do affect people's lives uh specifically in social media and how that is the way people view the world. That's their portal into the rest industry. It's something that affects all industries. So I think that's why

[53:24] people are freaked out. And you can't just tell them not to freak out. Oh, hey Sarah. Uh yeah, we have another uh super chat from Sarah Hatchadorian, Um uh saying your bits have genuinely

[53:38] changed my brain chemistry. I hear get him, daddy and my time to shine, hello, hiya. I have intrusive thoughts more than you'd think. Hey, well, I hope not. of a permanent change on your brain chemistry. If anything, I hope I made

[53:51] you more open-minded for people being silly. That's all I'm trying to do is like I'm trying to liven the mood sometimes and remind everyone that like we're talking about the names of Scoopers in our content. So, I wanted to

[54:06] put a little like avatar next to them and the way I hear of my time to shine, hello, is like that's Miss Piggy cuz they're a little sassy and it's so I'm voice. So, I say, my time to shine, hello, hiya, so that people can kind of

[54:19] think of it and and put a face to it. It'd be different if they were out there but like tell us your name. I I I just I can't take seriously anyone who refuses to share their name uh and wants to be an

[54:34] important person talking about the media uh and be quoted in news articles. I just can't take you seriously. So, you're a Muppet. Uh and get him, Daddy, is just absurd. That was absurd writing in in season 1 episode 4 of Daredevil

[54:46] uh where Jon Bernthal did a great job acting the line, but it is absurd to say that your ghost son stands in the corner and anytime he stop moving tells you to to find peace. He wants you to keep killing. Now, I know, well, it's not

[55:01] actually a ghost son. It's whatever is inside Frank Castle's heart. But that's what ghosts are. Ghosts are our own inner anxieties and paranoias and whatever brokenness reflected in the world that

[55:15] Some kind of voice from beyond that's guiding us. It's not always from beyond. It's from within. So, the idea that Frank Castle is blaming that vengeance on an external voice of a son is absurd to me.

[55:30] that anytime he sits down to to boot up Paramount Plus or something that this and says, "GET UP, DADDY!" AND TELLS HIM TO go kill someone. It's funny to me. Oh, Jared Jared LT78 saying, "Ellison's taking money from

[55:46] Qatar or Qatari and the Saudis should be looked at." That is a concern that people have about the Ellison's purchase is that they aligned with some of these Saudi hedge funds to to have the money. I mean, literally uh Ellison Venmoed

[56:03] David Zaslav $2 billion today. Like, that was just like, "Here you go, you get the first payment right now." Um so, uh imagine just a quick wire transfer of a bill- $2 billion. Um so, but yeah, I think once you get at

[56:18] there's a lot of weird sources where these money uh where this money comes I'm not saying every investor from the Middle East is is evil or anything, but

[56:30] foreign money coming in just makes people a little concerned cuz, you know, they don't always have to disclose their their wealth the way that American billionaires do. We don't always know. Um any other questions? We should

[56:47] probably get moving. Um I but I want to do these uh office hours whenever I can. Oh, I can give some announcements. A lot of you guys were asking about Super Cast if you have been subscribed to that, hopefully you've enjoyed seeing the new

[57:01] couple weeks. A lot of you've been asking, "Where can I find the live show that you did in January?" Uh if you watched that, if you paid for a ticket for that, thank you so much. Um we are going to be putting that

[57:16] on the Inner Underground for people who support the Inner Underground. You'll be support the Inner Underground. You'll be able to watch a version of that uh for you know, whatever your contribution is. Um that's going to be up on Friday,

[57:28] March 6th. So, you'll be able to watch that show that we did in January at the UCB theater. Um and hopefully you'll enjoy it. be doing another one at some point soon.

[57:40] soon about where you'll be able to watch another show. And I kind of want to ask you guys, would you Here's a question. Do you want to see us different special guests or some different scenes from that goofy

[57:53] screenplay, or do you want to see like a sequel of like another example of some other dubious script that we do a stage reading of? Or do you want us to just do I don't know. Some MCU movie or like Batman Forever or

[58:07] want to see? What would you be open to seeing again? I think there's a lot of different ways we could do it. Um do we have any other questions or we're wrapping up, but these are the last two super chats that have come in.

[58:20] So Michael Underwo Michael Underwo Underwood 4595 giving us $5 uh asking, back in Doomsday? Bigger question, will they ever come back? Uh and Leon

[58:34] Enriquez giving us 100 I assume Mexican pesos. Thank you so much. Uh saying, Owen Reese, please Marvel period. Uh so thoughts on these two? First question, I don't think the Eternals are going to be in Doomsday.

[58:47] Eternals are going to be in Doomsday. Um will they ever come back? Maybe also no. It It's possible that never again. But I people working at Marvel Studios who want to bring them back or some of them

[59:01] back in some forms. It's just we need to have another cosmic story. Uh I just I don't know what project is in the pipeline. If anything, like the Josh D'Amaro era of of Disney, they're going to be pressured to just have just

[59:14] tentpole releases that um are not as experimental as Disney as the are not as experimental as Disney as the era Disney was in back in 2021 to 2019 to 2021 at Marvel Studios. Uh Owen Reese, I assume you're referring

[59:28] to Molecule Man, not the guy who had the same character name working for Lucius Fox who tried to blackmail Bruce Man. I I don't think that's going to be the

[59:43] version of Molecule Man that we see in Doomsday. new character that they have to introduce and I just and they'd have to him. So, instead, I think they're going to swap out Molecule Man with Anchor

[59:56] going to do. Hey, did you guys like this? I kind of This was like a very charged Office Hours where we had a big political topic that I, you know, talked about for like 30 minutes, but I do think I'd like to do these more often

[1:00:09] where it's more of an open-ended kind of like seriously ask me anything. I I want to try to be here for you guys to answer any questions. If you have like will there ever be, you know, are we going to get Paradise Lost or is that gone

[1:00:22] Whatever nerdy questions you have or I I read this one crazy scoop about Avengers want to be able to try to answer these questions for you guys when it makes sense to do it. Um, but you know,

[1:00:36] Yeah, we're we're getting a lot of love. Did Yes, I liked it. I like it. Love the stream. Thanks, guys. Thank you all for joining. How many people do we have? Like a thousand people? Holy smokes. Yeah, like 1,100 people currently.

[1:00:48] Yeah, like 1,100 people currently. >> Wow! Guys! Guys, you're the best! I love you guys. This is awesome. Well, I I'm not seeing every chat. Uh, some of you may have been blocked out. Hopefully you've all been pretty chill and civil

[1:01:01] in there. Big thanks to Brian. Brian, you're the best, Brian. Thanks for helping figure everything out. Thanks to you, Berg,

[1:01:14] Oh my god. Uh, thanks to everybody from New Rockstars who helped behind the scenes with this. Um, if you can, we have some really really cool merch I'm wearing is like my favorite shirt ever, the Wayland-Yutani shirt, but we

[1:01:27] have like a lot of cool Doomsday designs. And if you can't support us on really, really fun podcasts that are coming out on there that are exclusive place to be. We really appreciate all the support we get there.

[1:01:41] All right, everybody. Thank you all so much for joining this stream, and we'll see you at some some office hours in the future. Bye, everybody. Bye. Before one more our super chat we just got in kind of Batman for $5 ask Coke or Pepsi.

[1:01:54] All right, that's final. All right, goodbye, everybody. Thank you so much.