The &34;Titanic&34; and &34;Avatar&34; filmmaker sent a letter to Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, who serves as the chair for the Senate subcommittee on antitrust. James Cameron blasts Netflix's proposed deal to buy Warner Bros.: 'Disastrous' The &34;Titanic&34; and &34;Avatar&34; filmmaker sent a letter to Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, who serves as the chair for the Senate subcommittee on antitrust. By Wesley Stenzel :maxbytes(150000):stripicc()/WesleyStenzelauthorphoto32b61793a2784639af623f2ae091477e.jpg) Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at . He began writing for EW in 2022.

The "Titanic" and "Avatar" filmmaker sent a letter to Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, who serves as the chair for the Senate subcommittee on antitrust.

James Cameron blasts Netflix's proposed deal to buy Warner Bros.: 'Disastrous'

The "Titanic" and "Avatar" filmmaker sent a letter to Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, who serves as the chair for the Senate subcommittee on antitrust.

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

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February 20, 2026 4:17 p.m. ET

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James Cameron in Paris in 2024. Credit:

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- James Cameron sent a letter to Sen. Mike Lee of Utah arguing that Netflix's potential purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery would be "disastrous" for the film industry.

- Cameron noted that Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos has previously disparaged theatrical filmgoing.

- The *Titanic* filmmaker also said that the "theatrical experience of movies could become a sinking ship."

James Cameron fears that Netflix could terminate the film industry as we know it.

The *Avatar* auteur sent a letter signed with "sincere concern" to Sen. Mike Lee of Utah earlier this month, warning that the streamer's potential purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery could spell doom for theatrical moviegoing. Lee serves as the chair for the Senate subcommittee on antitrust.

"My 44-year directing career has been focused on making movies for theatrical exhibition, and I believe strongly that seeing movies in theaters is an important pillar of our culture, to say nothing of being one of our biggest exports, in purely economic terms," Cameron wrote in his letter, which CNBC published Thursday. "But the cinema marketplace has contracted sharply in recent years, by about 30%, due to media consumption habit-patterns changing as a result of the Covid pandemic and the concurrent rise of streaming."

The *Terminator* filmmaker went on to opine that Netflix buying WBD could be "disastrous for the theatrical motion picture business that I have dedicated my life's work to," pointing to Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos' past comments about cinemagoing as evidence that the streamer would torpedo the big-screen experience.

James Cameron at a press event for 'Avatar: Fire and Ash'.

Pascal Le Segretain/Getty

Sarandos previously said that the theatrical model is "an outmoded idea" and "an outdated concept," arguing that the model of keeping new films in theaters for 45 days is "completely out of step with the consumer experience of just loving a movie."

A representative for Cameron declined to comment on the letter. Representatives for Lee, WBD, and Netflix didn't immediately respond to **'s requests for comment.

In Cameron's letter, he argued, "The business model of Netflix is directly at odds with the theatrical film production and exhibition business, which employs hundreds of thousands of Americans. It is therefore directly at odds with the business model of the Warner Brothers movie division, one of the few remaining major movie studios. [WBD] releases approximately 15 theatrical movies a year and the beleaguered motion picture exhibition community desperately depends on that output."

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The filmmaker also jabbed, "as I like to say, mindful that I directed *Titanic*. I am very familiar not only with ships that sail, but also those that sink. And the theatrical experience of movies could become a sinking ship."

Cameron went on to blast Netflix's reported desire to keep new movies in theaters for just 17 days before their streaming debuts, which many critics have argued would accelerate the downfall of the theatrical business model.

"17 days is ridiculously short," Cameron wrote. "Most people in the feature film business believe the minimum window should be 45 days, many advocate for 60 days. So 17 days is a token window, and grotesquely insufficient."

The filmmaker further speculated that whatever Netflix says in 2026 might be walked back shortly after the WBD deal is approved. "Though a pledge for a theatrical window may be given now in order to assuage critics of this ill-conceived merger, there is no guarantee of how Netflix may run its business in years to come," Cameron said. "Their pledge to support theatrical releases (a business fundamentally at odds with their core business model) is likely to evaporate in a few years."

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos and Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav at the 2026 Golden Globes.

Neilson Barnard/Getty

It's worth noting that during an interview with Matt Belloni on *The Town* posted Wednesday — several days after Cameron sent his letter, but before it was published — Sarandos promised that Netflix would maintain a 45-day theatrical window. "It's going to look like it did last year and the year before that. I'm on the record," he said. "It means 45 days of theatrical exclusivity, which has been the issue that people have been mostly pushing for, which I think has the most impact on exhibition."

Cameron ended his letter with an assertion that a significant portion of Hollywood laborers share his concerns.

"I am but a humble movie farmer. And I see my future creativity and productivity directly threatened by this proposed sale," he said. "I'm sure there are many in the motion picture community… writers, producers, directors, exhibitors, craft Guilds, film crew employees, and service providers who agree with me. Many will choose not to be as vocal as I am, because Netflix is a major employer into the foreseeable future. But I know I speak for many. A vast groundswell, in fact."

Cameron previously speculated that David Ellison's Paramount would be the "best possible choice" to purchase WBD during an interview with Belloni in November. "Netflix would be a disaster," he said. "Warner Brothers would just become a streamer. So now you've lost an actual theatrical major, and now you've just increased that avalanche, that downhill trend."

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Meanwhile, Lee published a list of questions for Sarandos on social media Friday morning, which primarily concerned the anticompetitive implications of a WBD-Netflix merger.

Netflix announced that it would acquire WBD in December. Paramount made multiple bids to purchase the studio, and attempted a hostile takeover after the Netflix deal was publicized. On Tuesday, WBD announced that its board of directors continues to "unanimously recommend in favor of the Netflix merger," though the studio re-entered talks with Paramount to allow Ellison's company to make another offer. *Variety* has also recently reported that most WBD employees favor Netflix over Paramount as a potential buyer.

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Published: February 20, 2026 at 04:38PM on Source: PRIME TIME

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