EXCLUSIVE: 9 days earlier than Cinema United checked out Paramount executives eye-to-eye at their Las Vegas convention, CinemaCon, the pinnacle of the movie show lobbying group, Michael O’Leary, despatched just a few letters this week. He wrote to the Nationwide Affiliation of Attorneys Basic, the Affiliation of Democratic Attorneys Basic, and the Affiliation of Republican Attorneys Basic in regards to the Melrose Lot studio’s pending merger with Warner Bros., saying, “I strongly urge you to completely examine and block this proposed merger to make sure it doesn’t hurt competitors or our native communities.” »
Learn the letter in full right here.
Sure, a consolidation of film studios from 5 to 4 would imply fewer jobs, fewer selections for moviegoers, greater ticket costs, greater film rental phrases by studios, potential multiplex closures, and fewer ticket gross sales. Simply take a look at what occurred with twentieth Century Fox movies after Disney-Fox ($1 billion much less in 2025 in comparison with 2016, a drop of 70%).
“Based mostly on our overview of the proposed merger between Paramount and Warner Bros., we have now no cause to consider that the end result of this mix could be any completely different,” O’Leary wrote.
Nonetheless, there’s a ripple impact, and that’s how the Paramount-Warner Bros Discovery merger will harm Most important Avenue America probably the most.
O’Leary writes: “Our members’ theaters are Most important Avenue companies, not Hollywood companies. They’re important cultural and financial drivers for the communities they serve. A thriving theater anchors foot site visitors, helps close by small companies, and retains native {dollars} in our native communities. Latest analysis reveals that for each greenback spent at a neighborhood movie show, a further $1.50 is spent at surrounding companies in the neighborhood, together with eating places, bars, procuring facilities, transportation and different native companies.
With out the movie show and foot site visitors from this merger, this ecosystem suffers, based on Cinema United, “the place restaurant and retail spending related to film visits nationwide quantities to billions of {dollars} for native eating places and retailers.”
Paramount CEO David Ellison promised the brand new merger would preserve 30 theatrical releases per yr. Whereas that is an natural improve that will likely be achieved upon the absorption of Warner Bros (see our chart right here), the worry for a lot of is for the long run.
“We actually consider that motion pictures must be seen in theaters, and we nonetheless assume that is one of the crucial necessary locations the place you may really create long-term mental property,” Ellison stated throughout a March 2 earnings convention name. “Tv is a very completely different career.”
O’Leary disagrees. Paramount will argue that its absorption of Warner Bros. Discovery was supposed to accommodate streaming rivals like Netflix and Amazon. The Cinema United memo observes: “To the extent that Paramount continues to function Warner Bros. as an impartial film-making studio, it will be incentivized to emulate Netflix’s historic antipathy towards cinema, sending its movies on to premium video on demand (PVOD) or streaming video on demand (SVOD) and reducing out theaters altogether. »
O’Leary concludes: “Most significantly, this merger threatens the financial and social well-being of our communities. Whereas this transaction will affect theater circuits of all sizes, it’s Most important Avenue America that may undergo probably the most. Smaller, family-owned theaters will bear the disproportionate burden of this newest try at progress by Warner Bros.”