The Scoop
US antitrust regulators appear ready to approve Paramount’s $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery after a two-hour meeting Tuesday at the Justice Department, where Paramount CEO David Ellison reiterated a commitment to releasing movies in theaters, people familiar with the matter said.
DOJ antitrust staff members grilled Ellison on whether the combined company would be less inclined to send movies to big screens — a concern channeled by Hollywood talent and raised by California’s attorney general, who could try to block the merger.
DOJ staff attorneys — nonpolitical employees who have privately broken with Trump-appointed DOJ leadership over merger approvals in recent months — seemed swayed by arguments from top Paramount executives that the deal would not hurt other studios and creative talent, people briefed on the meeting said.
The discussions, which included acting antitrust chief Omeed Assefi, touched on the fact that after Disney acquired Fox in 2019, it sent fewer films to theaters in favor of showing them on Disney’s own streaming service. Paramount officials, including Ellison, told the department that the data had been skewed by the pandemic years, when studios prioritized at-home streaming over theatrical release, the people said.
Talks remain ongoing, and the department’s analysis could change.
A representative for the DOJ didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Paramount declined to comment.
Know More
Hollywood is worried that Paramount’s takeover of the storied studio would mean fewer movies get made, fewer of them land in theaters, and fewer jobs are generated as a result, as the combined company shifts more titles to its streaming services.
Critics remain skeptical of Ellison’s promise to release 30 movies annually once Warner and Paramount merge, more than the two studios have been releasing in recent years. States can challenge deals on anticompetitive grounds and California attorney general Rob Bonta has promised to investigate the merger.
“Theaters will continue to be an essential part of the moviemaking business and social fabric,” Paramount legal chief Makan Delrahim, a former Justice Department antitrust regulator, wrote to Bonta earlier this month.