By LINDSEY BAHR, Associated Press

Netflix’s deal to acquire Warner Bros., one of Hollywood’s oldest movie studios, poses seismic shifts to the entertainment industry and the future of moviegoing.

As one of the remaining “big five” studios, the 102-year-old Warner Bros. is an essential part of movie theater business.

The studio currently boasts three of the top five earning films domestically, including “A Minecraft Movie,” in first place, “Superman” and “Sinners,” as well as the Oscar frontrunner, “One Battle After Another.”

There are more questions than answers about how ownership from a streaming giant would change things for Warner Bros. It’s not even clear if it will pass antitrust scrutiny, or, if it does, what the details will look like.

Here are some things to know, and lingering questions, in the wake of the news.

Will Warner Bros. continue releasing movies in theaters?

Yes, but it might change as well. For starters, it’ll be at least 12 to 18 months before the deal officially goes through and moviegoers can expect essentially business as usual until then. Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said Friday that they will “continue to support” a “life cycle that starts in the movie theater” for Warner Bros. movies. But he also commented that he doesn’t think that “long exclusive windows” are consumer friendly.

With the rise of streaming, and especially in the pandemic era, studios experimented with different theatrical windows. For many years, a 90-day theatrical window was standard, but now it’s closer to 45 days and often a film-by-film decision.

Related Articles

Grand jury transcripts from abandoned Epstein investigation in Florida ordered released

Day 4 of Luigi Mangione’s pretrial hearing is postponed because he’s sick, judge says

Trump administration will expand travel ban to more than 30 countries, Noem says

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, actor who performed in ‘Mortal Kombat,’ has died at 75

Suspect in DC pipe bomb case said to have confessed in interviews with investigators, AP sources say

Netflix and movie theaters

Netflix does release some films theatrically, but not usually more than a few weeks before they hit streaming. Sometimes that’s to qualify for awards eligibility, sometimes it’s a gesture to top filmmakers. This year those releases included Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein,” Kathryn Bigelow’s “A House of Dynamite” and Noah Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly.”

Major chains like AMC and Regal had refused to program Netflix releases until 2022, when enthusiasm for the “Knives Out” movie “Glass Onion” helped break the stalemate.

Earlier this year, “KPop Demon Hunters” unofficially topped the box office charts, earning nearly $20 million from a one-weekend run in theaters two full months after it debuted on the streamer.

Netflix also owns and operates several movie theaters, including the Paris Theater in New York and the Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles.

Upcoming Warner Bros. movies

The studio has a diverse slate of films expected in 2026, with high profile titles including the Margot Robbie-led “Wuthering Heights” in February, “Supergirl” in June, “Practical Magic 2” in September, Alejandro Iñárritu’s untitled Tom Cruise movie in October and Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Three” in December.

Movies planned for 2027 include sequels to “Superman,” “A Minecraft Movie” and “The Batman.”

Earlier this year the company said its target was 12 to 14 releases annually across its four main labels, Warner Bros. Pictures, DC Studios, New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. animation.

What does it mean for movie theaters?

So much of this depends on the details, but Cinema United president and CEO Michael O’Leary said hours before the news broke that it posed “an unprecedented threat to the global exhibition business.”

He added: “Regulators must look closely at the specifics of this proposed transaction and understand the negative impact it will have on consumers, exhibition and the entertainment industry.”

Theatrical exhibition has not fully recovered since the pandemic. Before 2020, the annual domestic box office regularly surpassed $11 billion. Since then it has only surpassed $9 billion once, in 2023, driven largely by “Barbie,” a Warner Bros. release.

How will top filmmakers react?

It’s too early to tell, but Warner Bros. has always prided itself on being one of the premier homes for top filmmakers, this year releasing films from Paul Thomas Anderson, Ryan Coogler and James Gunn. Other longstanding relationships include Villeneuve, who has “Dune: Part Three” coming next year, Clint Eastwood and Todd Phillips. Much likely depends on whether robust theatrical releases will be honored — many of these filmmakers are vocal champions of the theatrical experience and may not stick around if it shifts.

The studio’s controversial decision to release films simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max in 2021 during the pandemic led to a rift with Christopher Nolan, who after making eight major films with the company, including the “Dark Knight” trilogy, partnered with Universal to make his next two films, “Oppenheimer” and next year’s “The Odyssey.”

Will HBO Max and Netflix become one service?

That’s also unclear. If the two platforms remain separate subscriptions, there may be “bundling” options, as with Disney and Hulu. Netflix on Friday said that the addition of HBO and HBO Max programming will give its members “even more high-quality titles from which to choose” and “optimize its plans for consumers.”

By SEUNG MIN KIM, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump was awarded the new FIFA peace prize on Friday at the 2026 World Cup draw — giving the spectacle to set matchups for the quadrennial soccer tournament even more of a Trumpian flair.

Related Articles

World Cup match schedule to come into focus as draw begins at Kennedy Center

A supersized World Cup field begins taking shape at Friday’s draw

How to watch the 2026 World Cup draw

FIFA considered Vegas for World Cup draw but logistical issues helped send it to Washington instead

Trump’s immigration message is colliding with his welcome to World Cup fans

Trump, who has openly campaigned for the Nobel Peace Price, had been heavily favored to win the newly created FIFA prize. He and FIFA president Gianni Infantino are close allies, and Infantino had made clear that he thought Trump should have won the Nobel for his efforts to broker a ceasefire in Gaza.

The U.S. president was awarded the prize that Infantino said was a “beautiful medal for you that you can wear everywhere you want to go.” Trump promptly placed the medal around his neck. The certificate that Infantino handed Trump recognizes the U.S. president for his actions to “promote peace and unity around the world.”

“This is what we want from a leader — a leader that cares about the people,” Infantino said about Trump, who was also presented with a gold trophy with his name on it that depicts hands holding up the world. The FIFA leader said to Trump “this is your prize, this is your peace prize.”

Trump thanked his family, including his wife, first lady Melania Trump, and praised the leaders of the other two host nations — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum — in his brief remarks, saying the coordination with the countries has been “outstanding.”

“This is truly one of the great honors of my life,” Trump said.

Infantino has often spoken about soccer as a unifier for the world, but the prize is a departure from the federation’s traditional focus on sport.

The FIFA president was also on hand Thursday at the newly renamed Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace in Washington, where Trump and the leaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda signed a deal aimed at ending the conflict in eastern Congo.

FIFA has described the prize as one that rewards “individuals who have taken exceptional and extraordinary actions for peace and by doing so have united people across the world.”

The award to Trump came during a week in which his administration has been engaged in shuttle diplomacy to try to end the war in Ukraine, while also under scrutiny for lethal strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and as Trump hardens his rhetoric against immigrants.

The Nobel this year was eventually awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who said shortly after receiving the prize that she was dedicating it in part to Trump for “his decisive support of our cause.”

After more than 100 years in South St. Paul, the massive red brick gates at the former Armour & Co. meatpacking plant are gone.

The deconstruction of the gates, which was approved by the South St. Paul City Council last month, began Tuesday to the dismay of some local residents.

“I had two grandfathers that worked down there for many years. Right now they’re rolling in their graves,” one resident said on Facebook.

The two brick and limestone gatehouses served as the entrance to the sprawling Armour & Co. meatpacking campus. Constructed in 1919, the campus was once the world’s largest and most modern meatpacking plant. It also helped define the city’s way of life.

At its peak, the Armour complex had 4,000 employees who slaughtered nearly 2,000 animals an hour. But changes in the way meat was raised, packed and marketed turned the factory into a relic. It was closed in 1979 and a decade later, everything was demolished except the gates.

“In the 35 years since the Armour plant was demolished, the structures have stood witness,” the city said on its Facebook page. The gates that once welcomed workers to the Armour and Co. meatpacking plant survived long enough to see the site and the adjacent former Union Stockyards transform into a business park with more than 80 businesses.

Decision to demolish

Brick and limestone gates seen in 2009 at the old Armour & Co. meatpacking plant in South St. Paul. The gates were demolished on Dec. 2, 2025. (Ben Garvin / Pioneer Press)

The decision to deconstruct the gates was driven by several factors, including the high price tags to either relocate or maintain the structures.

By removing the gates, the city is making way for Bonfe Plumbing and Heating to acquire the site at Armour Avenue and Hardman Avenue South for an office and warehouse building that could generate up to $175,000 in annual property taxes, the South St. Paul Voice reported.

The demolition of the gates is expected to wrap up this week, but not all bricks will be accounted for.

Related Articles

Facebook parent company plants more roots in Rosemount

Maison Rose, cafe and bakery from Rose Street Patisserie team, coming to former I Nonni spot in Lilydale

New Eagan Police Chief Salim Omari cut his teeth in St. Paul

Rosemount police chief resigns following complaints levied in anonymous employee survey

South St. Paul: Teen charged with dragging 18-year-old with vehicle over vape cartridge dispute

“The city is salvaging intact brick and limestone elements of the structures,” said City Administrator Ryan Garcia on Thursday.

While there is no plan to formally display the salvaged materials, “the high-level discussion to this point has been around providing an opportunity for community members to obtain bricks as ‘keepsakes’ and, to the extent feasible, integrating masonry elements into a public art installation of some sort,” Garcia said.

The details of that potential project would be decided through a public engagement process next year, he said.

“Ultimately, the difficult conclusion was reached that deconstructing the structures and preserving those elements of the structures that remain intact represented the most fiscally responsible and holistically forward-looking approach, all the while recognizing that this approach was not a universally popular one,” the city said on Facebook.

By JILL LAWLESS and JAMEY KEATEN, Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — The Eurovision Song Contest, which aims to be an upbeat celebration of music and unity, is facing the biggest crisis in its seven-decade history after four countries walked out of the competition over Israel’s participation and others weighed whether to join the boycott.

Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland and Slovenia announced they will not take part in the 2026 contest in Vienna in May after organizers declined to expel Israel over its conduct of the war against Hamas in Gaza. Iceland is considering whether to follow suit.

The walkouts cast a cloud over the future of what’s meant to be a feel-good cultural party, dealing a blow to fans, broadcasters and the contest’s finances.

Eurovision expert Paul Jordan said Friday “it’s unlikely we’ll see a mass exodus” but that 2026 will be a “tense year.”

A contest divided over Israel and Gaza

Founded in 1956, in part to help unite a shattered continent after World War II, Eurovision pits acts from dozens of countries against one another for the continent’s musical crown.

Overtly political symbols and lyrics are prohibited, but global tensions have often imposed themselves. Russia, for example, was expelled in 2022 after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Tensions rose again after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which killed some 1,200 people, and Israel’s subsequent campaign in Gaza that has left more than 70,000 people dead. The last two Eurovision contests have seen pro-Palestinian protests both outside the venues and inside, forcing organizers to clamp down on political flag-waving.

A number of performers and countries have called for the exclusion of Israel, which has taken part in Eurovision since 1973, one of a few non-European countries to compete.

Organizers sought a compromise

The Geneva-based European Broadcasting Union — a group of public broadcasters from 56 countries that runs Eurovision — tried to assuage concerns by tightening rules on contest voting and campaigning in response to allegations that Israel manipulated the public vote in favor of its competitor Yuval Raphael. She came second in this year’s contest behind Austrian singer JJ.

The EBU’s general assembly approved the new rules Thursday, but did not hold a vote on Israel’s participation. It said “a large majority of members” felt the contest “should proceed as planned, with the additional safeguards in place.”

Eurovision Director Martin Green told Swedish television that the meeting reaffirmed “the belief that the Eurovision Song Contest shouldn’t be used as a political theater. It must retain some sense of neutrality.”

Some countries walked out

Immediately after the EBU decision, broadcasters RTVE in Spain, AVROTROS in the Netherlands, RTÉ in Ireland and Slovenia’s RTVSLO announced they were pulling out.

RTVE said the situation in Gaza, despite the recent ceasefire, and “Israel’s use of the contest for political purposes, make it increasingly difficult to maintain Eurovision as a neutral cultural event.” RTÉ said participation was “unconscionable given the appalling loss of lives in Gaza.”

Related Articles

EU hits Elon Musk’s X with 120 million euro fine for breaching bloc’s social media law

US raid allegedly killed Syrian undercover agent instead of Islamic State group official

Why Somali migrants may still aim for US despite travel restrictions

Today in History: December 5, Great Smog of London descends

Stress of Houthi combat was a key factor in series of costly Navy mishaps, investigations show

Icelandic broadcaster RUV, which had recommended Israel be barred, said its chiefs will meet Wednesday to discuss whether to join the walkout.

Other countries’ broadcasters, including Norway’s NRK and Britain’s BBC, welcomed the decision to keep Israel in the competition.

“We support the collective decision made by members of the EBU,” the BBC said in a statement. “This is about enforcing the rules of the EBU and being inclusive.”

French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said his country opposes a cultural boycott of Israel.

“I am pleased that Eurovision did not give in to pressure, and that France helped prevent a boycott of Israel in this forum,” he wrote on X. “I deeply regret that several European television channels made a different choice.”

Israel welcomed organizers’ decision

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said on social platform X that he was “pleased” Israel will again take part and hoped “the competition will remain one that champions culture, music, friendship between nations and cross-border cultural understanding.”

Some Israelis said they were glad their country was participating but felt the debate around them was unfair.

“I’m happy but I’m not dancing in the streets,” Izhar Cohen, who won Eurovision in 1978, told The Associated Press in Tel Aviv. “Eurovision should be a meeting and gathering together with no politics of all the people from all nations,” he said.

Tel Aviv resident Bret Katz said “it’s a terrible, terrible thing to ostracize a country and not to understand who was attacked on October 7, 2023.”

A blow for fans and finances

The boycotting countries will not send a musical act to the 2026 contest and will not broadcast it. That will likely cut into viewership of a contest that typically draws more than 150 million viewers.

Fans in the boycotting countries should still be able to watch on digital platforms including YouTube, and another Dutch broadcaster, NPO, said it will air the show in the Netherlands.

The boycotts are a financial blow to Eurovision, which is funded largely by participating broadcasters — and to boycotting public broadcasters at a time when many are under financial pressure from government funding cuts and competition from social media.

The EBU does not disclose how much each country pays, but the pullouts include Spain, one of the “Big Five” large-market countries that contribute the most to the contest.

So far, more than two dozen countries have confirmed they will compete in Vienna, including heavyweights like seven-time champion Sweden. The EBU says a final list of participants will be released before Christmas.

The boycott is offset to an extent by the return of Bulgaria, Moldova and Romania to Eurovision after periods of absence because of financial and artistic reasons.

Jordan said viewing figures would be closely watched, “and if they are significantly down, then that’ll probably raise alarm bells.

“But I think overall the contest is a sturdy thing,” he said.

Keaten reported from Geneva. Associated Press writers Paz Bar in Tel Aviv and Samuel Petrequin contributed to this story.