Economic boycotts work! We saw it with Disney when the Jimmy Kimmel thing happened. You should absolutely protest with your wallet. That's the only language they understand.
Your essays are so connected with the fabric of human life it’s palpable through the phone. The depth in which you article anger professionally while raging aggressively at what’s going wrong is unique. One day we’ll look back at this era and find your words as a snapshot of the times and historians will say a few stood against the giants, and this piece will find resurgence.
As for Ted, and this merger, if it must happen I vote for paramount to win. Maybe then they’ll be a chance. I see now the future depicted in Wall-E is a certainty and it’ll be made by Netflix.
Omg Ivan, this is the most encouraging comment I could have received after my short break 😭😭😭😭 Thank you so much!!! I think this whole ordeal has infuriated me so much, I had pent up frustration/anger that just needed to be let out.
Let's keep fighting the good fight and hope that something good comes out of it...but till then...it's all wrath and fury. Appreciate you so much. It's great to be back with you all!
To many Netflix is their default tv option, it’s the must have streamer next to Disney+, this whole thing is creating reputational damage within the industry but i don’t know that’s its even on the radar of the average American. The Kimmel stuff broke containment since he’s been around forever and is a known quantity and it came after the Colbert stuff and people generally feeling uneasy about political censorship. Also it’s so weird they want to buy a movie studio when they seem generally disinterested in movies as medium given how they treat their own Netflix originals and how hard it is to find the movies they do distribute to on that platform.
I do think you’re onto something re: AI and WB’s IP.
Go go go Sophie, thank you!!!! With you 110%! We all need to speak up like Sophie and do something. What would happen if we all just cancelled our Netflix subscriptions? What message would that send? Could I live without seeing the rest of Stranger Things, in order to possibly save cinema? Would enough folks really do it? Would it matter? Hmm?
Yes, yes, yes, a thousand times yes to all this. Netflix cannot be allowed to buy Warner Brothers. Anyone but Netflix. Even Paramount. But ideally, Warner Brothers should not be up for sale at all.
They don't care. You got to support the new crop of filmmakers springing up who are making their own thing. We are going to start touring with our movies, like the way bands do.
WHOA AND HOLY FUCK!!! You just dropped the mic so hard it blew a hole in the floor. I don't know why it hadn't occurred to me that Ted was buying up the core history of film just so that A.I.-generated Superman could use Daffy Duck as a rectal suppository in Oz.
That said: in an era of historic overreach -- where we're witnessing Trump's power-mad cankled sprint toward the tar pits in horror, even as it's doomed to fail -- I'm wondering if this isn't just another mad gamble that won't pay off for Ted in the way that he hopes.
Because the antidote to this may be that PEOPLE DON'T WANT IT, and rise up in droves to build a world where we aren't just quivering in the shells of our homes. Coming back to theaters that, as you've suggested before, become centers of reemerging community. Where we remember that we actually need each other. Where connection, not alienation, is key.
Either that, or we're just screwed, and THE MATRIX winds up being a documentary we've all been cast in, as dripping faceless meatbags in an endless series of tubes. Consumered into oblivion. I GUESS WE'LL FIND OUT!
Either way, and once again, thank you for your brilliance. You are my favorite writer on the subject of film, and what it means, and why it matters. What you do is important AND fun. And it don't get any better than that. So PLEASE DON'T STOP!!!
Hell yeah, and then some! Thank you for this Sophie. There is no question this possible consolidation is illegal -- but as we are living in our corrupt times, that won't stop it. It might make good business (however you interpret that term) sense for both, but it 100% will make it worse for everything that is great about being alive. The key thing -- which you capture so well -- is whatever that Ted says now: CAN NOT BE TRUSTED. Any plan put forward, any promise given, the first thing we have to remember: THAT IS A LIE.
I think this is the most depressing article I have read (on culture) in 2025. Cinema is my safe place; in the pandemic I remember thinking - if I can just have cinemas opened again - it’s all I miss. In my town we have an old art deco cinema. Two bars. An old owner guy who speaks before every film. It’s magic. Cinematic storytelling is magic. The experience is magic. To lose it is devastating.
And we're here to fight for it! I already saw this morning Sarandos is taking some of his words back on what he aims to do. Pushback and pressure works so let's keep pushing. Sarandos wouldn't want to lose the industry, he enjoy that bit way too much, so anything we can do to demonstrate the value of cinemas is imperative at the moment 🫶🏼
A big, resounding YES! to everything you said. I rest easy knowing that I'm playing my part in helping to keep traditional cinema alive by going as often as I can, which has been weekly this year, and discussing film at length on here with likeminded individuals. Thank you for fighting the good fight and giving us a voice.
Too many great quotes to quote here, and your AI insight is fire. Why is Warners being sold at all?? David Zaslav and the shareholders need to make a quick buck? It's extractive capitalism in action, and the question where all this reporting should start, yet I hardly ever see it asked.
Economic boycotts work! We saw it with Disney when the Jimmy Kimmel thing happened. You should absolutely protest with your wallet. That's the only language they understand.
I’m at a loss for words.
Your essays are so connected with the fabric of human life it’s palpable through the phone. The depth in which you article anger professionally while raging aggressively at what’s going wrong is unique. One day we’ll look back at this era and find your words as a snapshot of the times and historians will say a few stood against the giants, and this piece will find resurgence.
As for Ted, and this merger, if it must happen I vote for paramount to win. Maybe then they’ll be a chance. I see now the future depicted in Wall-E is a certainty and it’ll be made by Netflix.
Welcome back Sophie!
Omg Ivan, this is the most encouraging comment I could have received after my short break 😭😭😭😭 Thank you so much!!! I think this whole ordeal has infuriated me so much, I had pent up frustration/anger that just needed to be let out.
Let's keep fighting the good fight and hope that something good comes out of it...but till then...it's all wrath and fury. Appreciate you so much. It's great to be back with you all!
Fantastic Sophie.
You hit bullseyes every single time: the deflection, the gaslighting, stone walling, the narrative puppeteering every single
point was important.
Thank you so much!!
To many Netflix is their default tv option, it’s the must have streamer next to Disney+, this whole thing is creating reputational damage within the industry but i don’t know that’s its even on the radar of the average American. The Kimmel stuff broke containment since he’s been around forever and is a known quantity and it came after the Colbert stuff and people generally feeling uneasy about political censorship. Also it’s so weird they want to buy a movie studio when they seem generally disinterested in movies as medium given how they treat their own Netflix originals and how hard it is to find the movies they do distribute to on that platform.
I do think you’re onto something re: AI and WB’s IP.
Agreed!!
Go go go Sophie, thank you!!!! With you 110%! We all need to speak up like Sophie and do something. What would happen if we all just cancelled our Netflix subscriptions? What message would that send? Could I live without seeing the rest of Stranger Things, in order to possibly save cinema? Would enough folks really do it? Would it matter? Hmm?
Phenomenal!
❤️
Yes, yes, yes, a thousand times yes to all this. Netflix cannot be allowed to buy Warner Brothers. Anyone but Netflix. Even Paramount. But ideally, Warner Brothers should not be up for sale at all.
Feeling passionate about this too 😭
“Beloved franchises like Casablanca”??? What??
Oh Tom I thought you'd heard of Casablanca: A Revenge Story 🤣🤣🤣
Honestly how long before Ted & co announce “Paris: A Casablanca Prequel”?
They don't care. You got to support the new crop of filmmakers springing up who are making their own thing. We are going to start touring with our movies, like the way bands do.
Dear Sophie --
WHOA AND HOLY FUCK!!! You just dropped the mic so hard it blew a hole in the floor. I don't know why it hadn't occurred to me that Ted was buying up the core history of film just so that A.I.-generated Superman could use Daffy Duck as a rectal suppository in Oz.
That said: in an era of historic overreach -- where we're witnessing Trump's power-mad cankled sprint toward the tar pits in horror, even as it's doomed to fail -- I'm wondering if this isn't just another mad gamble that won't pay off for Ted in the way that he hopes.
Because the antidote to this may be that PEOPLE DON'T WANT IT, and rise up in droves to build a world where we aren't just quivering in the shells of our homes. Coming back to theaters that, as you've suggested before, become centers of reemerging community. Where we remember that we actually need each other. Where connection, not alienation, is key.
Either that, or we're just screwed, and THE MATRIX winds up being a documentary we've all been cast in, as dripping faceless meatbags in an endless series of tubes. Consumered into oblivion. I GUESS WE'LL FIND OUT!
Either way, and once again, thank you for your brilliance. You are my favorite writer on the subject of film, and what it means, and why it matters. What you do is important AND fun. And it don't get any better than that. So PLEASE DON'T STOP!!!
Yer most appreciative pal in the trenches,
Skipp
Hell yeah, and then some! Thank you for this Sophie. There is no question this possible consolidation is illegal -- but as we are living in our corrupt times, that won't stop it. It might make good business (however you interpret that term) sense for both, but it 100% will make it worse for everything that is great about being alive. The key thing -- which you capture so well -- is whatever that Ted says now: CAN NOT BE TRUSTED. Any plan put forward, any promise given, the first thing we have to remember: THAT IS A LIE.
I think this is the most depressing article I have read (on culture) in 2025. Cinema is my safe place; in the pandemic I remember thinking - if I can just have cinemas opened again - it’s all I miss. In my town we have an old art deco cinema. Two bars. An old owner guy who speaks before every film. It’s magic. Cinematic storytelling is magic. The experience is magic. To lose it is devastating.
And we're here to fight for it! I already saw this morning Sarandos is taking some of his words back on what he aims to do. Pushback and pressure works so let's keep pushing. Sarandos wouldn't want to lose the industry, he enjoy that bit way too much, so anything we can do to demonstrate the value of cinemas is imperative at the moment 🫶🏼
A big, resounding YES! to everything you said. I rest easy knowing that I'm playing my part in helping to keep traditional cinema alive by going as often as I can, which has been weekly this year, and discussing film at length on here with likeminded individuals. Thank you for fighting the good fight and giving us a voice.
Too many great quotes to quote here, and your AI insight is fire. Why is Warners being sold at all?? David Zaslav and the shareholders need to make a quick buck? It's extractive capitalism in action, and the question where all this reporting should start, yet I hardly ever see it asked.