{"id":2026316,"date":"2025-09-16T14:04:28","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T14:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2026316"},"modified":"2025-09-16T14:04:28","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T14:04:28","slug":"what-it-means-for-hollywood-if-paramount-and-warner-bros-merge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/what-it-means-for-hollywood-if-paramount-and-warner-bros-merge\/","title":{"rendered":"What it means for Hollywood if Paramount and Warner Bros. merge"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Ellison era of Paramount was barely a month old when another major potential Hollywood merger appeared on the horizon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last week the share prices of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery surged following reports that the former was preparing a bid to take over the latter with a mostly cash offer backed by the Larry Ellison family. This would come a remarkably short time after Skydance Media, the production company founded by Larry\u2019s movie producer son David, combined with Paramount in an $8-billion deal.<\/p>\n

A merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery would have profound ramifications for the media and entertainment industry.<\/p>\n

It would consolidate two of Hollywood\u2019s oldest studios, Paramount and Warner Bros., in the most significant movie business merger since Walt Disney Co. devoured the entertainment assets of 21st Century Fox in 2019. The film industry has still not recovered from having the 20th Century Fox studio effectively taken off the board.<\/p>\n

Additionally, a merger would put two mass-market streaming services, Paramount+ and HBO Max, under the same roof, probably leading to the eventual melding of the two. The Ellison clan\u2019s move would also bring Warner Bros. Discovery\u2019s linear TV networks, including celebrity.land, HGTV, Food Network and TNT, together with Paramount\u2019s Comedy Central, MTV and BET.<\/p>\n

All of this would lead to substantial \u201csynergies,\u201d meaning cuts and layoffs, at a time when the job market in entertainment and corporate media is already fraught as the industry reconfigures itself. Paramount is currently bracing for thousands of layoffs as the new owners seek $2 billion in cost savings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to mention the changes that would likely come if celebrity.land came under the control of Ellison.<\/p>\n

Larry Ellison, the Oracle Corp. billionaire who, depending on the day, is one of the world\u2019s two wealthiest<\/a> people alongside Elon Musk, is known to be Trump-friendly. The effects of the Ellison reign are already being felt at Paramount\u2019s CBS News, where a former conservative think tank leader was recently appointed as ombudsman and where center-right and staunchly pro-Israel<\/a> journalist Bari Weiss is expected to have an influential role after Ellison buys her digital media startup the Free Press.<\/p>\n

So why is all this happening now, and why so quickly?<\/p>\n

After all, the Wall Street Journal first reported Ellison\u2019s interest in Warner Bros. Discovery on Sept. 11, just weeks after the Paramount-Skydance combo closed on Aug. 7.<\/p>\n

In a sense, this scenario is unsurprising. Wall Street has been practically begging for another wave of consolidation in the media business, as the audience for theatrical movies shrinks, cord-cutting guts TV profits and more of viewers\u2019 attention turns to YouTube, Netflix and TikTok. Most of the legacy entertainment companies don\u2019t have the streaming firepower to compete. They need to combine to measure up.<\/p>\n

But the timing is unexpected, and the unavoidable political considerations are particularly interesting.<\/p>\n

With Trump in the White House, the political winds<\/a> are clearly blowing in the Ellisons\u2019 direction, after the Skydance and RedBird Capital team that bid for Paramount placated federal regulators with promises to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and to make CBS News more balanced, at least in eyes of Trump-appointed FCC Chairman Brendan Carr.<\/p>\n

Paramount paid $16 million to settle Trump\u2019s lawsuit over a \u201c60 Minutes\u201d Kamala Harris interview. Ellison and his team want to make a Warner Bros. deal happen when a friendly administration is in power.<\/p>\n

Paramount has lately upped its spending, acquiring the rights to UFC (run by Trump friend Dana White), locking down \u201cSouth Park\u201d for Paramount+ and announcing a deal with Activision to make a \u201cCall of Duty\u201d movie. <\/p>\n

Also of note is that Ellison\u2019s group is coming in with an offer for the whole company even as Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav prepares to split the media giant into two firms<\/a>: one with the studios, HBO and streaming businesses, and the other with the TV networks. Putting in a bid now could dissuade other potential buyers that might be interested in just one part.<\/p>\n

Apple and Amazon have long been seen as potential bidders for Warner Bros. (Amazon already owns MGM), but it\u2019s unlikely they would want a bunch of TV channels that are on the brink of being orphaned. Analysts have speculated that one reason for the proposed split was to make the studio and streaming assets more attractive to buyers by uncoupling them from the challenged pay-TV business. That split is expected to take place sometime in mid-2026.<\/p>\n

Paramount\u2019s bid could also preempt those that may want to do a deal, but are firmly on the Trump administration\u2019s bad side. NBCUniversal owner Comcast Corp.\u2019s CEO Brian Roberts has been the subject of disparaging Trump missives<\/a>. Comcast is liberal network MSNBC\u2019s parent company (for now). A regulatory review involving a perceived Trump enemy would likely not go well.<\/p>\n

Of course, competitive bids could emerge anyway, for example, if a private equity player such as Apollo Global decided to get into the mix after previously expressing interest in Paramount through an unsuccessful team-up with Sony.<\/p>\n

Big mergers in media and entertainment often fail, and they\u2019re always disruptive.<\/p>\n

Warner Bros. itself was involved in some of the most disastrous deals ever: AT&T\u2019s purchase of Time Warner, and before that, the media company\u2019s ill-fated marriage with AOL. Warner Bros. is now on a box-office hot streak, but that has come after years of Zaslav taking heat for killing projects such as \u201cBatgirl.\u201d <\/p>\n

Such deals result in mass layoffs. Movie theater owners will most likely see darker days ahead as they\u2019ll be minus yet another big supplier of blockbusters. Journalist Richard Rushfield, of the Ankler newsletter, demanded<\/a> that somebody do something to stop it. We\u2019ll see. <\/p>\n

An Oracle scion buying two studios one after the other probably wasn\u2019t the tech takeover of Hollywood that many people envisioned. Analysts long assumed that Apple would be the one to buy an entertainment powerhouse \u2014 maybe even Disney \u2014 despite having not shown any particular inclination for doing so. But though it\u2019s not the Silicon Valley roll-up people anticipated, it may be the one they\u2019re going to get.<\/p>\n

Stuff we wrote<\/h2>\n

Numbers of the week<\/h2>\n
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An anime film slayed its Hollywood competition<\/a> at the box office over the weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cDemon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle,\u201d already a big hit in Japan, was the highest-grossing movie domestically, beating new films \u201cDownton Abbey: The Grand Finale,\u201d \u201cThe Long Walk\u201d and \u201cSpinal Tap II: The End Continues.\u201d<\/p>\n

The film, distributed by Sony Pictures and Crunchyroll, opened with a better-than-expected $70 million in ticket sales from the U.S. and Canada, according to studio estimates, making it the biggest anime opening ever. It\u2019s also the highest-grossing domestic debut of the year so far for an animated film.<\/p>\n

Its global weekend for Sony, which owns the Crunchyroll anime brand and streaming service, totaled $132.1 million, which includes 49 international markets.<\/p>\n

Including grosses from Japan, the movie\u2019s worldwide tally has surpassed $450 million, according to Comscore. <\/p>\n

The success of \u201cDemon Slayer,\u201d part of a long-running popular franchise and not to be confused with Netflix\u2019s hit \u201cKPop Demon Hunters,\u201d is a relief to theater owners at a time when other genres are struggling<\/a>, including superheroes, comedies and original animation. It\u2019s the latest evidence of anime\u2019s growing global clout.<\/p>\n

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Comedian Nate Bargatze didn\u2019t shortchange the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, nor did he kill the Emmys telecast\u2019s ratings on Sunday night. <\/p>\n

The 77th Emmy Awards ceremony from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles delivered an average of 7.42 million viewers<\/a> on CBS, up 8% from last year\u2019s audience for ABC.<\/p>\n

Once among the most-watched live awards shows on television, the Emmy Awards audience declined dramatically over the last decade as most of the series celebrated no longer have the broad reach they did when traditional TV still dominated the culture, reports Stephen Battaglio.<\/p>\n

But the audience level appears to have stabilized. Nielsen data shows that ratings for the Emmy Awards grew for the second consecutive year. The figure is the highest since 2021, when the telecast also aired on CBS.<\/p>\n

HBO Max\u2019s \u201cThe Pitt,\u201d Apple TV+\u2019s \u201cThe Studio\u201d and Netflix\u2019s \u201cAdolescence\u201d were big winners. <\/p>\n

Film shoots<\/h2>\n
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