Media-streaming giant Netflix (NFLX 2.89%) used to be a pariah in Hollywood. Media rivals and giant studios always seemed quick to dismiss the upstart with the red DVD mailers. Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD +6.17%) subsidiary HBO was often first in line with skeptical quips.
Well, the times, they are a-changin'. Netflix is buying Warner Bros. Discovery's content studio and streaming services in a blockbuster $82.7 billion deal.
Let's take a look at the timeline of Netflix-related quotes that led up to this potentially game-changing buyout.
NASDAQ: NFLX
Key Data Points
Netflix quips over the years
- 2000: The $50 million laugh
When Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph offered to sell Netflix to Blockbuster for $50 million, Blockbuster executives "had to suppress laughter" at the proposal. Today, that $50 million would represent 0.06% of what Netflix is paying for Warner Bros. alone. It's also 0.01% of Netflix's $423 billion market cap as of Dec. 5, 2025. - 2008: "Not even on the radar"
Speaking to fellow Fool Rick Munarriz, Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes declared, "Neither RedBox nor Netflix are even on the radar screen in terms of competition." Two years later, Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy, while Netflix's value crossed $13 billion. - 2010: The Albanian army can't be a threat
Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes delivered perhaps the most infamous dismissal in business history: "It's a little bit like, is the Albanian army going to take over the world? I don't think so." The Albanian army is now buying the meat (studio) and potatoes (streaming services) of Bewkes' former empire. - 2013: The battle cry
Netflix's Ted Sarandos fired back with his own declaration of war a few years later: "The goal is to become HBO faster than HBO can become us." Twelve years later, Netflix doesn't need to become HBO anymore -- they're buying it instead. Chalk that up as a slow win. - 2017: HBO's confidence
Variety celebrated HBO's then-CEO Richard Plepler in 2017, focusing on the successful launch of HBO Now. "We're not trying to be Netflix. They're trying to be us," Plepler said at Variety's awards show. Eight years later, Mission: Impossible has become Mission: Accomplished. - 2019: The Hollywood establishment fights back
Movie-making legend Steven Spielberg argued that Netflix films shouldn't qualify for the Academy Awards, calling them "TV movies" that might deserve Emmys instead. Netflix's Roma was nominated for 10 Oscars that year. It won three titles, including the prestigious Best Director award. So far, Netflix hasn't won the top statue for Best Picture, but the awards shelf is bending under 26 Oscars. - Dec. 5, 2025 (today): The Albanian army plants its flag in the Hollywood Hills
"By combining Warner Bros.' incredible library with ours, we'll be able to [entertain the world] even better," announced Sarandos, now co-CEO, as Netflix acquires the studio and streaming services of the company that mocked them most.
Image source: Netflix.
This ain't your grandpa's media industry anymore, and Netflix keeps pushing the changes
I could keep going, but you get the gist. Hollywood's leaders were quick to dismiss Netflix's newfangled business ideas in the early years, and they didn't grow much more respectful as the streaming service expanded around the world.
These skeptical epigrams are amusing now, as Netflix's market cap eclipses that of the next seven largest names in the entertainment industry combined. If and when the Warner buyout passes regulatory reviews to close in third-quarter 2026, Netflix will stand even taller atop the reformed Hollywood hills. This stock has been very good to longtime shareholders, at least partly because Netflix doesn't mind trying new ideas.
I'm unsure whether this is the best possible way forward for Netflix or Warner, but one thing is crystal clear: Netflix remains unafraid to take sharp turns with industry-changing implications. From dominating the video rental market and launching the new digital streaming paradigm to taking tentative steps back into the real world and securing legendary content catalogs, you never really know what Netflix will do next.
