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Hollywood history was made this week. Paramount Skydance bought Warner Bros. Discovery for a whopping $101 billion. The megadeal upended Netflix's previously accepted offer. NPR's Mandalit del Barco reports on how some in the film industry are reacting.
MANDALIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE: Film producer David Ellison is the son of one of the world's richest men. Last August, he completed his purchase of Paramount Pictures and merged it with his company, Skydance. If this new deal gets approved, he would also control Warner Bros. legacy film studio, its TV, cable and streaming assets, including CNN. That kind of concentrated power has some in Hollywood quite worried.
GREGORY ORR: The Paramount deal is like a shotgun wedding with your dumb cousin. I worry about the health of the children.
DEL BARCO: Documentary filmmaker Gregory Orr is the step-grandson of Jack Warner, who founded Warner Bros. in 1923 with his brothers Harry, Albert and Sam.
ORR: They're going to struggle, and I wish them well. I hope things work out.
DEL BARCO: Orr says he would've preferred Netflix over Paramount, the dumb cousin in his analogy. He says he came to respect Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, who promised to release Warner Bros. films exclusively in theaters before offering them on his streaming platform. That 45-day theatrical window is something cinema owners count on. Orr says he saw Ellison as being too pushy compared to Sarandos.
ORR: He insisted. He kept raising the price. So I saw one being irresponsible in this almost emotional pursuit, and another being a cool head of a corporation who loves movies.
DEL BARCO: Like members of the Writers Guild of America, Orr says he fears that Ellison's team will slash jobs. He also worries that Paramount won't do enough to protect the film catalog his family started more than a century ago.
ORR: I just see them raiding Warner Bros. in whatever way they need to to boost Paramount and Skydance.
DEL BARCO: In a statement, Ellison has also pledged to keep the 45-day theatrical window, and he promised the merged studios will put out 30 films a year, but there are many skeptics.
DANIEL LORIA: You'll forgive me if I'm not quite buying that statement at face value. That's a big leap. I'm not sure that's going to happen anytime soon.
DEL BARCO: Daniel Loria is senior vice president at the Boxoffice company. He says last year, Paramount released just eight new movies and Warner Bros. only 11. Loria notes that in less than 10 years after Disney merged with Fox and Searchlight, the combined studios have released only half of what they once did independently.
LORIA: That's why a lot of folks in the business are cautious right now. We still have those hard lessons we learned, despite the best intentions from Disney.
DEL BARCO: Cinema United, the trade group representing theater owners, says, historically, studio consolidations have led to fewer movies being made. That's a red flag for Chris Randleman. He's chief revenue officer for Flix Brewhouse, which operates 15 theaters, mostly in the South and Southwest.
CHRIS RANDLEMAN: Paramount has pledged that they do love theatrical. I don't really doubt that at all. The bigger question, I think, is, can they keep up with the 30 films a year that they've promised? You know, as long as they make them, we're ready to show them.
DEL BARCO: But at least one theater owner is happy about the Paramount Skydance deal.
TIM RICHARDS: We really like David Ellison and his team and Paramount and what they're going to do for our industry.
DEL BARCO: Tim Richards is CEO of Vue cinema, the largest private cinema chain in Europe. He says David Ellison is a highly respected filmmaker, responsible for some of the highest-grossing movies. And Richard says a more efficient operation will be good for the industry, which is still recovering from production halts from the COVID-19 pandemic and the writers' and actors' strikes.
RICHARD: Yeah. There definitely are concerns, concerns about losing jobs, which is never a good thing. There's concern about the number of movies that are going to be released and concern generally with consolidations, but looking at it objectively, this is probably the best fit that we can get for right now.
DEL BARCO: The saga is not over yet. The deal still has to get past regulators in the U.S. and Europe, which Richard says he thinks will happen. But Paramount Skydance will also have to pass muster in California, the fourth-largest economy in the world. State leaders say they'll challenge the merger.
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ROB BONTA: Not a done deal.
DEL BARCO: California's attorney general, Rob Bonta, told Bloomberg that his office is looking at the potential impacts.
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BONTA: We know that corporate consolidation tends to increase prices, lower wages, lower competition, lower quality and limit choice.
DEL BARCO: This Wednesday, Paramount Skydance faces senators in an antitrust subcommittee hearing in Washington.
Mandalit del Barco, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF SHOOK'S "CLOUD SYMPHONY") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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