Hollywood Has Not Yet Sold Google Characters for AI

According to the Los Angeles Times, Google held confidential negotiations with Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. Discovery about licensing characters and film libraries for AI models, but no deals have been finalized yet, and a license for a single character is estimated at approximately $40 million.

Compiled by Sergey KostenchukPublished 2026-09-01Updated 2026-09-18

2026-09-01 Coding OpenAI

🛠 Hollywood Has Not Yet Sold Google Characters for AI

According to the Los Angeles Times, Google held confidential negotiations with Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. Discovery about licensing characters and film libraries for AI models, but no deals have been finalized yet. According to one source, a license for a single character costs around $40 million, and a hundred would already amount to billions.

🌍 The industry is moving from confrontation to trade: Disney and Universal are suing Midjourney, and Disney previously sent Google a cease-and-desist. YouTube offered studios likeness detection, but hit a wall with the requirement to drop lawsuits against Google.

👤 If the deals are made, legal video with recognizable characters will appear at Google, and studios will receive revenue and a share of YouTube advertising. For now, NBCUniversal denies the negotiations, and the companies are silent — this is an early stage of trade.

Source 1: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2026-08-31/how-google-is-courting-hollywood-to-use-its-ai-tools

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