Backlash Against Paramount-Warner Bros Merger Persists As Critics Say Deal Undermines Film Business.
The merger of Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), two of Hollywood’s biggest and oldest studios, is set to go ahead on October 6th, but the process has been fraught with hurdles and met with widespread criticism from prominent figures in the industry.
“The [movie] business is solid, and to destroy the architecture that made it so in the name of venture capital, it’s tragic,” screenwriter Tony Gilroy said to Variety on Friday, referring to the merger.
Gilroy was not, and has not been, alone in criticizing the proposal.
“This merger will stifle creativity, weaken free speech, and cost people their jobs – it is a bad deal for the country and should never have been approved. This is an incredibly disappointing outcome for the hundreds of thousands of us who stood up to block it,” actor Mark Ruffalo posted on X on Thursday.
Ruffalo, who said the campaign “was about fighting back against corrupt oligarch billionaires trampling the interests of everyday people”, was one of thousands of actors, directors and filmmakers to sign an open letter opposing the merger in April, following Paramount’s initial launch of the $110 billion bid to acquire WBD in February .
The group, which included other A list actors such as Meryl Streep, Javier Bardem and Ben Stiller, claimed that the “transaction would further consolidate an already concentrated media landscape” and result in “fewer opportunities for creators, fewer jobs across the production ecosystem, higher costs and less choice for audiences in the United States and around the world”.
The merger was nevertheless approved by the justice department in June but, in July, California Attorney General Rob Bonta, along with 11 other state attorneys general, filed an antitrust lawsuit to block the merger, arguing that it would harm competition and increase consumer prices.
On September 21st, Bonta announced that a settlement had been reached which would allow the merger to go ahead under certain conditions.
Those conditions included the requirement that the new, will release a minimum of 30 films in theaters a year, commit $1.5 billion over five years to domestic film production and set aside nearly $50 million for workers who may be negatively affected by the merger.
Another key argument amongst the critics of the deal was that the merging of the two historically competitive Hollywood giants represents a damaging form of industry consolidation.
The Paramount acquisition will see the Hollywood “big five” dominant film and production companies – Disney, WBD, Universal, Paramount and Sony – become four, just seven years after Disney acquired 21st Century Fox and reduced the number of major Hollywood competitors from six to five.
The new Paramount-WBD company will go by the name Skydance. The CEO of the combined company is David Ellison, an ally of President Donald Trump who was the primary driver behind the takeover bid.
However, not all in the industry have been critical. Pierre-Antoine Capton, co-founder of European studio that operates nearly 100 production companies across 15 countries, praised Ellison.
“Obviously, a transaction of this size is going to involve synergies, but having spoken with David, I believe his vision is first and foremost an artistic, creative ambition. He wants to build a more powerful group in order to invest in creation, and it’s not only about making cuts. So I believe in his commitment to cinema and to theatrical releases,” Capton told Variety.
