Netflix Will Soon Have Its Own Movies, All of Sony’s Movies, and (Maybe) All of Warner Bros.’ Movies

Netflix struck a new Pay-1 deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment that will make Sony's films available on Netflix globally by 2029.

A big part of the concern over the (likely) impending merger between Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery is that when all is said and done, Netflix will be by far the biggest streamer out there by a huge margin, with more subscribers and more time spent on the platforms than any other streamer, not including YouTube. The latest deal Netflix made today poses to make it even bigger.

Netflix and Sony Pictures Entertainment on Thursday announced a new global Pay-1 licensing deal. All of Sony’s feature films will now stream on Netflix globally after their full run in theaters and PVOD. Sony’s movies already stream on Netflix in the U.S. and in a few other territories, but this new expanded deal means all of Sony’s new releases (including Sony Pictures Classics movies, but not Crunchyroll movies) will be available around the world, and it also gives Netflix access to some other older library and TV titles. Sony won’t reach fully global until 2029 though as it waits for other rights to become available.

Titles like “Anyone But You,” the “Venom” movies, “Uncharted,” and “It Ends With Us” have done quite well on Netflix after big theatrical runs. And Netflix already confirmed that this deal means some of Sony’s biggest upcoming movies, including Nintendo’s “The Legend of Zelda,” “Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse,” and even Sam Mendes’ four Beatles biopics, will all eventually be available on Netflix.

To clarify, this is a Pay-1 window, which generally lasts 18 months, so it doesn’t mean that Sony’s movies will be on Netflix in perpetuity. After that 18 months (Sony currently has a Pay-2 deal with Disney), because Sony does not have an SVOD streaming service of its own, it can keep doing other licensing deals and creating value for its titles way down the road.

And now with this deal, why would it want a streamer of its own? It could be leaving some money on the table when you see something like the disastrous “Madame Web” implode at the box office but then reach the Top 10 on Netflix months after the fact. Or in the case of “KPop Demon Hunters,” that movie was never released in theaters and was always intended to be direct-to-Netflix and instead is now Netflix’s biggest movie of all time. Sony got a sweeter deal with Netflix for the sequel.

Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but IndieWire understands that because this is a global deal with Netflix rather than just for the U.S., the value Sony is getting from its theatrical movies in that Pay-1 window is significantly more than it has in the past. It’s a win-win for both.

But perhaps what’s most exciting — and startling — about the arrangement is if the Warner Bros. deal goes through (not if Paramount has a whole lot to say about it), Netflix would have access to its own movies, all of Sony’s new movies, AND all of Warner Bros.’ movies and shows. It’s a behemoth. And Netflix still of course licenses films like the Illumination animated movies from NBCUniversal and countless others. Most of those aren’t available globally the way Sony’s movies will be, but a deal like this opens the door that maybe Netflix can do the same with another film company.

When you have access to that much from so many different sources, it really helps in the war for the attention economy. We wrote not long ago about Amazon Prime Video adding Peacock as a channel you can subscribe to via its platform, one of the last few holdouts to Prime Video Channels, and it makes it such that a savvy viewer can get virtually everything they care to watch from one service, rather than clicking through various apps and guessing where to find things.

Now Netflix will in theory be able to offer all of it with just a single subscription.