Mergers: It Really Is the Roaring 20’s In More Ways Than One
If you have been following the news, it probably feels like the sky is falling on the entertainment industry. AI is coming to take all the jobs, studios are only interested in sequels and reboots, and Timothée Chalamet is in everything. While these things are true and worrying, the merger between Warner Bros. and Paramount (which has been making its way through courts all year) has to be the biggest domino to fall in what could be the last era of a competitive marketplace in entertainment.
In the early days of Hollywood, films were controlled by only a few major companies which were known as the Big Five: MGM, Warner Bros., Paramount, 20th Century Fox and RCA. They controlled the production, casting and distribution of the majority of films after the explosion of “talkies” in the late 1920s. Even during the Great Depression in the 1930s, the studios remained powerful because audiences seemed to want an escape from their destitute lives outside of the theater. The Big Five would sell five of their movies and have most of the screens in a theater showing pictures from their studios. Financially this made a lot of sense; creatively it stifled the potential of Hollywood in favor of sure bets. Sound familiar?
It was only until a federal antitrust lawsuit, known as the Paramount case, was thrown at the Big Five that these studios had to relinquish control over the distribution of these films. This left it up to the movie theaters themselves. This case, along with the advent of television, allowed for the democratization of the entertainment industry; independent film has been a cornerstone of many filmmakers’ careers. The thing that complicates pretty much the entire process is streaming.
With streaming, studios no longer had to answer to advertisers when it came to the length of episodes, seasons, or series. Films could premiere directly on a studio’s own streaming service too, bypassing movie theaters entirely. Television and streaming has allowed for bigger tech companies to come in and buy up various legacy film studios or start their own streaming services, such as Sony buying Columbia in 1989, Amazon and Apple launching Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV, respectively in the last decade, and Disney buying 20th Century Fox and launching Disney+. Over the last decade, the math just hasn’t been adding up and many of these streaming services are increasingly turning to advertisers to build up revenue where subscription revenue fell short.
This brings us to Paramount and David Ellison. In February 2026, it was announced that Paramount intended to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery for around $110 billion. The previous announced sale to Netflix was met with consternation from industry insiders considering Netflix’s aversion to theatrical releases. They saw Paramount as a better option. However, many working professionals in Hollywood felt this merger would put too much power in the hands of a select few, effectively creating a new, modern studio monopoly. Paramount stands to have control over several media outlets with this sale: CNN, HBO Max, Paramount+, CBS, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, TNT, MTV, Showtime and many more. The biggest opposition to the deal came from 12 state attorneys general, including California, suing to block the sale in June by citing a potential monopoly. It seemed that the deal would be stuck in litigation for the foreseeable future. David Ellison even threatened to move Paramount out of California entirely until California Gov. Gavin Newsom urged both sides to settle, warning that entertainment jobs would be at risk if the dispute continued.
As of writing, a judge has formally approved Paramount’s settlement and allowed the merger to go through. This settlement comes packed with various concessions that will make Paramount play by the rules, at least for the next five years. But what does that mean for us — both television consumers and students looking to enter the industry? In my eyes, it means that now, for the first time in almost a century, creatives must band together to create opportunities for voices outside of the mainstream to be heard. These marginalized voices have always been the ones that push entertainment into the future, and they will always be the ones on the chopping block when executives decide to optimize their checkbooks. Support your fellow filmmakers before we’re all looking for somewhere to show our work with no luck.
