Now that a settlement has been reached and the 12 AGs are allowing Paramount to swallow Warner Bros. Discovery in a $111 billion deal, we need details. Here they are.
Paramount has signed a commitment, with the threat of penalty, to release 30 films a year in theaters for its first two years, rising to 32 a year over the following three. That's the number David Ellison has been repeating for months, and now it's in a legal agreement. At least four of those films have to be indies, and 20% have to be blockbusters, meaning budgets of $50 million or more.
At today's press conference, California AG Rob Bonta called it "the opposite of Disney-Fox," and that comparison matters to anyone who watched 20th Century Studios get absorbed and saw how these mergers usually go. If Paramount's theatrical commitments actually hold, that's great. Still, 30 films a year across two major studios isn't unattainable.
On production, the combined company reportedly makes only 5% of its projects in the U.S., which is pretty damning. It has pledged $1.5 billion more over five years for domestic shoots, and that share would rise to 20% if Washington passes an uncapped federal tax incentive, and to 40% if California or New York does the same. So the big numbers depend on legislation that doesn't exist yet.
"This agreement is the opposite of Disney-Fox," Bonta said. "The things that we saw in the Disney-Fox merger — a massive decrease in film production… this doesn't just guard against that and protect against the downside; it locks in a massive upside."
As for CNN and CBS, there's also a new editorial independence board meant to protect "independent fact-based reporting" at both news divisions.
So we'll have one company with two studios, two news divisions, two streamers, and a massive reorganization ahead. Two of Hollywood's oldest studios become one. The theatrical promises are the silver lining, provided they're enforced.
Following Monday's settlement, Paramount CEO David Ellison said the deal would close in "approximately two weeks."
The man who built the most popular mythology in movie history says he retired with three more "Star Wars" films still on his plate, and he let them go, selling Lucasfilm to Disney.