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Google reportedly seeks Hollywood AI licensing deals

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Google reportedly seeks Hollywood AI licensing deals

Google has reportedly been reaching out to several of Hollywood's biggest studios, including Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Universal, to pitch licensing deals that would let it train its AI models on their copyrighted libraries. The outreach comes from Google executives directly, according to unnamed sources who spoke to the Los Angeles Times, and no studio has yet agreed to anything officially. The numbers involved are large. Per the LA Times, Google could pay a studio like Disney or Pixar around $40 million just for the rights to generate AI outputs featuring a single copyrighted character. That figure could grow into the billions depending on how many characters a deal covers, and studios might also secure a share of whatever advertising revenue Google earns from AI generated content built on their IP on platforms such as YouTube. The deals would give Google more than training data. Being able to show Gemini producing Disney approved images of characters like Darth Vader or Snow White would help the company reshape public perception of generative AI at a time when sentiment, especially among young people, has turned negative over job losses and unchecked AI content. Google's DeepMind unit has already moved in this direction, striking a $75 million investment deal with the studio A24 earlier this summer. Hollywood has moved cautiously so far. Lionsgate, described as notable but not a major studio, struck a licensing deal with the AI video company Runway in 2024; the companies say they are still working toward releasing AI generated shorts, but nothing concrete has shipped. Disney had a separate plan with OpenAI to allow user generated AI content on its platforms, which collapsed before launch. Caution also stems from a recent backlash: fans were dismayed to find AI generated images in the official artbook for Spider Man: Brand New Day, a film that made $2 billion at the box office. It is not known whether earlier awareness of that AI use would have hurt ticket sales, but studios appear wary of being the first legacy player to attach their name to Google branded AI output.

Key facts

  • Google has reportedly pitched Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Universal on licensing their content libraries for AI training, per unnamed sources cited by the Los Angeles Times; none has agreed officially.
  • Google could pay a studio like Disney or Pixar around $40 million for the rights to generate outputs featuring a single copyrighted character, with payouts potentially reaching billions across more characters plus a cut of related YouTube ad revenue.
  • Google's DeepMind arm already struck a $75 million investment deal with the studio A24 earlier this summer.
  • Lionsgate signed a licensing deal with Runway in 2024 to make AI generated shorts, but the partnership has not produced anything concrete yet.
  • Fan backlash over AI generated images in the official artbook for Spider Man: Brand New Day, which grossed $2 billion, is cited as a reason studios may be hesitant to move first.

Why it matters

For Google, these deals are as much about narrative as data. Attaching its name and technology to Disney approved AI output would help legitimize generative AI in the eyes of a public that has grown skeptical of the industry's promises, and would let Google frame the entertainment business itself as an AI adopter rather than a victim of it.

Who it affects

Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Universal are the studios reportedly being courted; Lionsgate and A24 are examples of smaller studios already doing AI deals, with Runway and Google's DeepMind as their respective AI partners. Studio employees and audiences sit on the other side of the trade: writers, artists and production crews whose jobs could be affected if AI tools cut into production work, and fans who reacted badly the last time AI use surfaced in a major release.

How to use it

As reported, the economics would work per character: roughly $40 million for the rights to one copyrighted character's likeness, scaling toward the billions as more characters are added, with studios potentially also taking a cut of ad revenue from AI generated content featuring their IP on platforms like YouTube. None of this is confirmed by Google or any studio, and no terms have been finalized.

How solid is it

The reporting rests entirely on unnamed sources speaking to the Los Angeles Times, relayed here by The Verge. Google has not confirmed the outreach, and Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Universal have not agreed to any deal; the piece explicitly frames this as still in the pitch stage.

Risks and caveats

The prior AI backlash over Spider Man: Brand New Day's artbook shows how quickly goodwill can curdle once fans learn AI was involved, and Disney's collapsed AI content plan with OpenAI is a reminder that studio AI partnerships do not always survive to launch. The piece argues studios have more to lose from allying with Google's AI ambitions than Google does, since a botched rollout risks alienating both workers and audiences.