The Warner Bros.-Netflix merger could doom Hollywood film workers

In the months following 2023’s Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) strikes, film industry workers adopted a refrain: “Survive ‘til ’25”—a meager goal reflecting industry reality. The strikes came shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic ground production to a halt. The dream factory had become a nightmare.

The pandemic-inflicted production pause bled workers’ savings, forcing many to seek income outside the industry. Once work restarted, those who wanted to return to work—grips, camera operators, writers, directors, administrative staff, the Teamsters who ferry cast and crew to film sets—found some of those jobs never came back. The new normal of a smaller, leaner Hollywood had arrived. While union members voted almost unanimously in favor of the twin writers’ and actors’ strike, it dragged on,  and the industry contraction continued. Two years after the end of those strikes, production is still down.

When news broke that Netflix sought to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery for $83 billion, a deal that includes its sprawling Burbank studio lots, and HBO Max (WBD’s cable channels would be spun off into a separate entity), the industry’s workers were quick to voice their opposition. 

“The world’s largest streaming company swallowing one of its biggest competitors is what antitrust laws were designed to prevent,” the WGA-West and WGA-East said in a statement urging the deal to be blocked. “The outcome would eliminate jobs, push down wages, worsen conditions for all entertainment workers, raise prices for consumers, and reduce the volume and diversity of content for all viewers.” 

The Directors Guild of America (DGA) released a similar statement. James Cameron frankly warned that the buyout would be “a disaster.” SAG-AFTRA was slightly more measured. “A deal that is in the interest of SAG-AFTRA members and all other workers in the entertainment industry must result in more creation and more production, not less,” the union said in a statement.

Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos sees only the upside, describing the merger as “pro-consumer, pro-innovation, pro-worker,” as well as “pro-creator” and ”pro-growth.” Prospects for the streaming giant appear rosy: On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that WBD is rejecting Paramount Skydance’s attempt at a hostile takeover, stemming in part from concerns over the deal’s financing. Netflix’s bid, the board believes, still offers greater shareholder value. David Ellison, the CEO of Paramount Skydance, has tried to assuage criticism of his proposed takeover by stating that a combined Paramount-WBD would have more than 30 theatrical releases per year, a slight increase over the current output of the two studios. 

But skepticism among the industry’s workers comes from precedent. When companies merge, it means job losses and fewer projects. The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), the union of “below the line” film workers—camera operators and technicians, makeup and costume artists, grips, electricians, and the like—noted the deleterious consequences that follow from such deals in a recent issue of its bulletin. 

“Unfortunately, when large entities merge, they don’t continue producing the same amount of content as when they were two separate companies,” the union wrote. (IATSE has not yet commented on the Netflix-WBD deal.)

Bleeding jobs

In April 2020, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) recorded a loss of 217,000 jobs in the motion-picture and sound-recording industry—its biggest single-month drop ever. Even as the pandemic receded, production didn’t return. FilmLA, a nonprofit set up by the City and County of Los Angeles, found the L.A. metro area lost nearly 19.7% of its share of first-run scripted television projects between 2022 and 2023, one of the largest drops since the organization began tracking the data. The number translates to thousands of lost jobs.

In 2023, workers struck to secure more sustainable wages and benefits and protections against the threats posed by artificial intelligence. But strikes are an economic disruption (indeed, therein lies their power), and the studios’ decision to downsize following the recent ones may prove permanent. A 2025 report from the L.A.-based Otis College of Art and Design found that California’s film, television, and sound sector is roughly one-quarter smaller than in 2022. FilmLA’s 2025 Q2 report logged 5,394 on-location shoot days, down 6.2% from the previous year and more than 30% below the five-year average. Productions continue chasing tax incentives abroad (you might be surprised how much unscripted television is shot in Ireland for this reason), further cratering domestic production. 

By the end of 2024, the BLS recorded 100,000 jobs in the industry in the greater Los Angeles area, down from 142,000 two years earlier. When one considers freelancers and adjacent industries—the city’s service sector, for instance, is inextricably tied to cinema—the losses are even higher. 

There is plenty of evidence to support that contention. When Disney merged with 21st Century Fox in 2021, 3,000 people lost their jobs amid downsizing, delayed or permanently shelved projects. Disney shuttered Blue Sky Studios (best known for the Ice Age franchise) the same year, eliminating 450 animation jobs. WBD’s merger with Cartoon Network Studios eliminated axed departments. NBCUniversal, Lionsgate, and Netflix have all carried out company-wide layoffs in recent years.  

Ellison, son of billionaire Larry Ellison, laid off 1,000 people at Paramount after purchasing the company earlier this year. The CEO has stated that he plans to reduce the workforce by a further 2,000—numbers that are sure to weigh on WBD employees’ minds should Ellison’s attempted hostile takeover of WBD succeed. 

Uncertain future

The Netflix-WBD deal is expected to face regulatory scrutiny over its potential consequences for consumers: Netflix is already the leading streaming-video-on-demand (SVOD) company, with 300 million subscribers; adding HBO Max to its base would make that 430 million. Antitrust regulations require investigation for any deal that would allow a single entity to control more than 30 percent of a market; this one would give Netflix a 43 percent share of the SVOD market. 

But it’s not only the potential for subscription price hikes and the continued decimation of the moviegoing experience that are at issue. Worker opposition can also cause the Department of Justice to block the merger, as it did with Penguin Random House’s $2 billion bid to purchase Simon & Schuster. Authors, including Stephen King, testified that the merged super-publisher would mean lower advances for their books, with dire consequences.

A combined Netflix-WBD poses the same risks. A writer or director hoping to get a project greenlit by a studio will have one fewer potential buyer. The megacorporation may ultimately constitute a monopsony employer, able to dictate the standards of employment across the industry by dint of its size. The imperious studio executive declaring “You’ll never work in this town again!” to an underling is a familiar trope in Hollywood; Netflix-WBD executives will hold such power. Fewer companies means fewer people deciding what art you can see, what options the viewer has. It means greater sidelining of visionary work, the type that executives dismiss as too weird, not marketable, or politically inconvenient.

It’s too soon to say how this will all shake out. Netflix and WBD believe it will take eighteen months to complete the deal and clear all regulatory hurdles. WBD’s rejection of Ellison’s counter-bid may not put an end to hish campaign to turn the public and regulators against Netflix’s purchase. Yet Ellison’s proposed purchase of WBD has its own problems, from its conglomeration of financial backers whose ties to the Trump administration will alarm many in the industry, to its own possible antitrust obstacles.

For Sarandos, Ellison, and WBD CEO David Zaslav, making quality films that pay workers enough to keep them in the industry, is of course, not the goal. Maximizing shareholder value remains the priority. No matter what the executives say, neither potential merger is likely to be good for the worker. And so it’s up to them to look out for their own—and by extension, film itself. Even in the most unfavorable labor market, there is power in such clarity of vision.