With worries about WBD acquisition looming, Paramount takes the stage at CinemaCon
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Paramount Pictures is taking the stage Thursday to present its upcoming slate to movie theater owners at CinemaCon in Las Vegas amid its pending deal to acquire Warner Bros.
In late February, David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance reached a deal valued at $111 billion to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, which has been at the center of many discussions at the trade show and convention about what the implications might be for the depleted exhibition business.
No one mentioned Paramount at the over two-hour Warner Bros. presentation on Tuesday, but several of the filmmakers who made appearances were among the thousands who signed an open letter opposing the merger, including Denis Villeneuve and J.J. Abrams. In fact, the only studio to reference it at all was Amazon MGM, itself the product of an $8.5 billion merger, and it was in an irreverent promo for the “Spaceballs” sequel.
James Cameron, who co-directed Paramount’s upcoming concert film “Billie Eilish — Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D),” is one of the few filmmakers who has said he supports the deal and is unbothered by the prospect of a Paramount-owned Warner Bros. In an interview with The Associated Press last week, Cameron praised Ellison as a “natural born storyteller” who “really cares about movies.”
“He’s the right man for the job to run a major studio, and now it looks like he’s going to have two of them, you know, swept under his leadership, which doesn’t bother me at all,” Cameron said.
Paramount, which closed its own $8 billion merger with Skydance just months ago, promised that it would release 15 movies in theaters in 2026, and Ellison has said that goal is 30 theatrical releases a year for a combined Warner Bros. and Paramount. The deal awaits a shareholder vote later this month and government regulatory approval at the state and federal level. The U.S. Justice Department still needs to weigh in on the blockbuster combination that could give Paramount pricing power over movies and other offerings, potentially hurting customers.
In documents filed to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Paramount said, “Our priority is to build a vibrant, healthy business and industry — one that supports Hollywood and creative, benefits consumers, encourages competition, and strengthens the overall job market.”
They’ve also said they would look for ways to save some $6 billion through job cuts in “duplicative operations.”
Executives at Paramount have argued that merging with Warner will allow it to compete with bigger rivals particularly in the streaming space and bring larger content libraries for its customers. The 102-year-old Warner Bros. has a film library that includes “Harry Potter,” “Superman” and “Barbie.”
On Wednesday, Democratic Sen. Cory Booker held a spotlight hearing in Washington, D.C., on the potential anticompetitive impact of the consolidation of two of Hollywood’s big five studios into one.
Actor Mark Ruffalo, who has been one of the most outspoken critics of the merger said, “tens of thousands of workers will be left poorer, along with the audiences we serve.”
David Borenstein, who just won an Oscar for his documentary “Mr. Nobody Against Putin,” noted that it could further erode access to documentary filmmaking, “because a small number of distributors have consolidated power and decided to feed audiences a narrow and politically safe diet of content.” While neither Paramount Studios nor Warner Bros. are particularly well-known for their non-fiction releases, WBD companies CNN and HBO are.
At CinemaCon, however, Paramount may just stick to the upcoming releases. The studio has already had a hit this year in “Scream 7,” which has made over $212 million worldwide.
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