The response across Hollywood to the news that Netflix was in its early stages of negotiations for a groundbreaking licensing deal with Warner Bros. wasn’t excitement — it was panic. Not long after, everyone was buzzing over the same question: wait … does Netflix now own some of the most iconic titles in entertainment history?
The answer is complicated, but the short version is: yes, a whole mess of classics might fall under Netflix’s umbrella if its deal with Warner goes deep enough and Warner agrees to let out enough library titles. And that is precisely why insiders are buzzing — because these are not mere throwaway catalogue movies. These are generational touchstones.
Just to give you a sense of the scope, here's 30 major movies and series Netflix could potentially land streaming rights for from this alliance — as in, the kind that would make its library feel instantly more must-see than anyone else's.
- Casablanca
- The Wizard of Oz
- Singin’ in the Rain
- Gone With the Wind
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- The Shining
- Superman (the classic era)
- The Dark Knight
- The Matrix
- The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy
- Harry Potter series
- Blade Runner
- Gremlins
- Lethal Weapon
- Mad Max franchise
- Ocean’s Eleven
- The Goonies
- Beetlejuice
- A Star Is Born (multiple adaptations)
- Goodfellas
- The Departed
- The West Wing
- Friends
- The Big Bang Theory
- ER
- The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
- The Wire
- Big Little Lies
- True Detective
- Six Feet Under
These are not just hit albums — they’re cornerstones of American entertainment. Some built the Hollywood identity. A few even served as around for a decade with cable TV. Some influenced entire generations of movie fans. And if Netflix winds up carrying them all, even for a while, it shifts the balance of power in the streaming world overnight.
That, within studios, is all the more reason that this deal feels so destabilizing. Warner Bros. has long maintained one of the richest, most valuable libraries in Hollywood. The up side for Netflix of letting it make these titles is that two things can happen at the same time: Netflix gets stronger, and every rival platform looks weaker.
If you’re Netflix, this is a dream scenario — a bottomless well of classics, prestige TV and blockbuster franchises that appeal to nearly every slice of the demographic pie. If you’re a competing streamer, it’s your worst nightmare. And if you’re a certain flavor of die-hard Warner loyalist, it’s simply viewing the studio cede decades of legacy over to the company that not so long ago was looking like an existential threat to its business model.
People inside Hollywood are already debating whether this is a shrewd financial move for Warner or a legacy mistake that could degrade its brand over the long term. But one thing is for certain: if even half of those titles or so land on Netflix, the streaming wars are being rewritten in real time.
