Google is chasing Hollywood AI deals it needs more than studios do

Google has reportedly been courting some of Hollywood's biggest studios for licensing deals that would let it train AI models on their copyrighted content, The Verge reports, citing unnamed sources who spoke to the Los Angeles Times.

• Google has approached Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Universal, though none has agreed to anything officially
• Per the LA Times, Google could pay a studio around $40 million just for the rights to generate outputs featuring a single copyrighted character, with payouts potentially swelling into the billions across a studio's full library
• Studios could also get a cut of advertising revenue Google earns from AI-generated content featuring their characters on platforms like YouTube
• Google's DeepMind arm already struck a $75 million investment deal with A24 earlier this summer
• Lionsgate signed a licensing deal with Runway back in 2024; nothing concrete has shipped yet, though the companies say they're working on AI-generated shorts

The Verge frames the calculation as lopsided in Google's favor. Landing a deal with a major legacy studio would do more than generate licensing revenue. It would give Google a way to reshape public perception of generative AI at a moment when sentiment, especially among younger people, has been trending negative. Getting Gemini to produce Disney-approved images of characters like Darth Vader or Snow White, in the outlet's framing, could make AI look ordinary and sanctioned rather than controversial.

The risk sits almost entirely on the studio side, according to the piece. Fans reacted badly when AI-generated images turned up in the official artbook for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, even though the film still made $2 billion at the box office. The Verge points to that reaction, plus Disney's collapsed content partnership with OpenAI's Sora, as reasons studios have stayed cautious about publicly attaching their names to AI tools even as they explore the technology privately.

The dynamics The Verge describes track a pattern Intokened has covered from other angles this year: AI companies training on copyrighted material without permission, as in the lawsuit accusing Anthropic of using tens of thousands of songs without a license, and public trust in AI eroding fast enough that it now shows up as organized resistance, like the strike at the University of Sydney over AI job protections. Google is trying to buy its way around the first problem and get ahead of the second.

None of this is settled. Google hasn't closed a deal with any of the three studios named in the report, and The Verge's own conclusion is blunt: the AI industry needs Hollywood's legitimacy more than Hollywood needs more AI-generated content. Whether a studio decides that trade is worth the risk of going first is still an open question, not a done deal.

Nothing here should be taken as financial advice — just information to consider.