On the heels on its first Best Picture Oscar nomination for Roma comes news that Netflix is reportedly preparing to continue to up its film game. According to Variety, the streaming giant is in “advanced talks” to join the Motion Picture Association of America, which currently represents the six major film studios of Hollywood. That’d be Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., Sony Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Universal Studios, and Walt Disney Studios, each of which pay annual dues of somewhere between $15 million to $20 million per year.
As Twentieth Century Fox prepares to merge assets with Disney, however, the MPAA would be losing one of its legacy studio members thus leaving an empty space for Netflix to wiggle in. Should Netflix be successful in the negotiations, this would all but cement its status as a studio heavyweight:
With the growth of streaming services and other content businesses, the MPAA has in recent years faced questions of whether it should expand its membership. According to sources, there has been some disagreement among the board members as to whether to take such a step.
While the tech industry has often been at odds with the MPAA on issues like copyright and trade, their sentiments could start to align as Netflix, YouTube, Amazon and Apple make greater investments in content, and as major media companies The Walt Disney Co., WarnerMedia and NBCUniversal prepare to launch their own subscription streaming services.
Netflix has already been dominating on the television front for several years now, so expanding the company’s film offerings is clearly the next logical step. And with the recent critical success of Netflix originals such as Roma, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, and the highly buzzed-about Bird Box, it seems that Netflix is going to be a major contender whether the traditional studios like it or not.
(Via Variety)
