Paramount Skydance

On Monday, the attorneys general of twelve states, including California and New York, filed a lawsuit to stop Paramount Skydance’s proposed $110-billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, which would dramatically reshape Hollywood by uniting two of the largest film and TV conglomerates into a single behemoth. The suit claims that the historic merger would “extinguish competition between Paramount and Warner Bros. ” The merger wouldn’t just be bad for business, according to the suit; it would actually violate the law — specifically, the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 , legislation that was created to prevent monopolies and encourage competition in the marketplace.

It would also impact the kinds of stories that get told and the viewpoints that reach a mass audience, something that should trouble anyone who cares about movies, TV, and American popular culture (and doesn’t want to pay more for lousier entertainment choices). ” “Film and television are not commodities; they are a principal means by which Americans encounter stories, ideas, and perspectives beyond their own experience,” reads the suit, which cites classic movies produced by Warner Bros. and Paramount, two of Hollywood’s oldest and most storied studios.

It includes Titanic, The Matrix, The Godfather, and Casablanca . ” The event was staged in front of the Hollywood sign, a symbolic backdrop that spoke to just what’s at stake: the future of one of the country’s most important industries. Concerns over the creative vitality of the industry were voiced during a town hall Tuesday with Bonta, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and leaders of the Block the Merger campaign , which has gotten more than 5000 members of the industry to sign an open letter denouncing the merger. Bonta said that movies and TV shows “are not widgets,” but are “critical stories.

They expose people to different perspectives. ” James, one of eleven Democrats joining Bonta in support of the lawsuit, spoke about how filmmaking personally affected her. “I can recall seeing documentaries about African American attorneys, about the Civil Rights movement, that inspired me to go to law school,” she said. ” David Borenstein, the Academy Award-winning director of Mister Nobody Against Putin , which followed the chilling events in a small-town Russian school in the wake of the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, also spoke about the difficulty of getting funding for the documentary.

Borenstein and his team had to go to Europe to find the money to make the film, which was deemed too risky for American distributors. “Thankfully, we found financial support there that would take a risk on us. And so for our team, it’s really striking. I’m an American director, and we couldn’t find American financing for an Academy Award-winning film,” he said. ” Much of the opposition to the merger thus far has centered on the fate of CNN, which has endured numerous mergers since it was founded by Ted Turner in 1980 and is currently controlled by Warner Bros.

Discovery. This concern is understandable, given the precipitous decline of CBS News under Bari Weiss , who was handpicked to run the division by Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison (and who hosted a dinner “ honoring the Trump White House ” in April). David’s father, Larry, the centibillionaire co-founder of the technology company Oracle and a friend of Trump’s, has reportedly discussed specific personnel changes with White House officials. ”) The merger would no doubt have an enormous effect on the television news landscape just a few months before the midterm elections that the president is already trying to undermine with claims of voter fraud.

But the lawsuit is more focused on the merger’s potential impact on the entertainment industry, and the likelihood that less competition in Hollywood would be bad for consumers and rank-and-file workers who have been hit hard by years of cutbacks. The takeaway? If you care about movies, TV, or American popular culture — arguably our greatest export — then you should be deeply troubled by this merger. Combining Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery — two conglomerates formed through years of unchecked consolidation — would unite a vast array of networks, studios, and brands under a single corporate behemoth, including: two of the five remaining major film studios, Paramount and Warner Bros three major streaming services, HBO Max, Paramount+, and Discovery Plus more than 50 cable channels, including TLC, Turner Classic Movies, Discovery, HGTV, and Food Network (all part of WBD) and MTV, Paramount, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, VH1, and BET (Paramount) The lawsuit focuses on three sectors of the marketplace that would be affected by the merger and likely see a decrease in competition.

Major Studio Movies in Wide Release The merger would combine two rival studios and leave just four film distributors (Disney, Sony, Universal, and Paramount-Warner Bros.) in control of roughly 86 percent of major film releases. This would give Paramount-Warner Bros. a huge advantage in negotiating with thousands of theaters around the country to secure the best screens and release dates. , a cost that will almost certainly be passed along to the consumer. Theatergoers will “likely face higher prices and degraded quality,” the suit predicts. , blockbusters and tentpole releases, which are controlled almost exclusively by Hollywood’s existing distributors and are essential for driving audiences to theaters.

If the merger goes through, Paramount-Warner Bros. alone would control 30 percent of this market, according to the suit. All of this means that moviegoers would have fewer choices, especially if they want to see something creatively risky that isn’t part of an established franchise. David Ellison has vowed that Paramount-Warner Bros. would release 30 films a year , which is close to the combined current output of both studios, but Bonta dismissed such promises. ” He pointed to the Disney-Fox merger in 2019, which resulted in fewer movies getting made and the elimination of much of Fox’s development slate.