5 takeaways from Netflix's purchase of Warner Bros.

The entertainment world shifted Friday, with the announcement of Netflix's $72 billion cash purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery, expected to be finalized within a year. But what does it mean for you? Five takeaways:

1. Will HBO Max and Netflix remain separate?

There's no obvious reason why not. Announcing this combine Friday, co-CEO Ted Sarandos promised as much, saying both will remain as standalone streaming services. There's no obvious, or compelling, reason for a NetflixHBOMax combine either. Both have separate, well-defined identities, and both have established subscriber bases.

Simply put, Netflix would continue to get two monthly checks from subscribers instead of one. The basic math here is (well) basic: Two checks are better than one. Naturally, this doesn't mean Netflix will not charge more for each; it's one of the age-old problems of a monopoly, or near-monopoly, from a consumer standpoint.

What Netflix is really after here is production — facilities, output and especially massive IP (intellectual property). Really, truly massive: the DC universe, Harry Potter, the "Lord of the Rings" extended universe, while on TV ... where to begin? "Game of Thrones," "The Big Bang Theory," "Succession," "The White Lotus," "Ted Lasso," Looney Tunes ... The list is endless.

Netflix has certainly enjoyed some success in the great IP chase, but it's been limited ("Stranger Things"). Even massive hits like "Kpop Demon Hunters" may prove to be ephemeral. Sure, franchises like "Extraction" and "Knives Out" may prove one day to be endless factory-line products. But IP-buildouts take time. Warner Bros. has a lot of practice at this game.

2. Netflix may be looking at theme parks

You need IP for theme parks, and Disney remains the world leader in IP — hence enormous success in theme parks, like Walt Disney World and Disney Cruise Line. How successful? Disney's theme parks or so-called "Experience" division had a reported $10 billion in operating income just this year. That's well up over 2024. Other than "Six Flags," Warner Bros. Discovery has a few Warner Bros. "World" parks in places like Abu Dhabi and Madrid, but it's been exploring expansion in the United States. With Netflix, those ambitions may have just gotten a big boost.

Netflix has been building so-called "Netflix Houses"; one just opened outside Philadelphia, and others are planned in Dallas and Las Vegas. At these so-called "experiential" venues, people pay (a lot) to have interactive virtual encounters with shows like "Stranger Things," "Squid Game," "Wednesday" and "One Piece." With Warner Bros. in the fold, those "Netflix Houses" could turn into Netflix Castles.

3. And the Oscar for best picture goes to ...

Probably Netflix. The streamer has notched 26 Oscars, according to GoldDerby, since its first win in 2017 for the documentary short "The White Helmets." Just about every year, Netflix puts big money behind an artful project from a marquee name — think Alfonso Cuarón’s "Roma," Martin Scorsese’s "The Irishman" and Bradley Cooper’s "Maestro"— hoping to score the ultimate prize: a best picture Oscar. That hasn’t happened.

Warner Bros., meanwhile, has more than 100 Oscars to its name, going back to the very first ceremony (it won a special award for 1927’s "The Jazz Singer," the first talking picture). Now that the two studios are one, Netflix will likely get that gold one or way or the other.

4. What will this do to movie theaters?

The last thing movie theaters needed was for one of Hollywood’s biggest studios to be sold to a streaming platform. Cinema United, the movie-theater trade group, has opposed the purchase, calling it an "unprecedented threat" to theatrical exhibition. After all, since the dawn of the streaming era, movies have played in theaters for shorter and shorter windows before migrating to home viewing, a pattern that would seem to end with the disappearance of theaters altogether.

That won’t happen immediately, if ever, but Netflix’s Sarandos has already predicted that "windows will evolve to be much more consumer-friendly, to be able to meet the audience where they are quicker."

5. 'We'll always have Paris'

Once upon a time, Warner Bros. was the very definition of Hollywood. Its famous logo has been stamped on "Casablanca,” "A Star Is Born,” "Unforgiven” and the Harry Potter and Superman films. There’s something symbolic about its purchase by the company whose big red N is associated with baking contests and "Emily in Paris.”

As David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, said in an open letter published by The Hollywood Reporter, the merger "reflects the realities of an industry undergoing generational change." That's an understatement. Warner Bros. is about to change — maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.