On Oct. 6, it was officially announced that Paramount Pictures finalized its long-planned purchase of Warner Bros., adding several film and television franchises to its household of properties.
Paramount acquired Warner Bros. for $110 billion, merging the two entertainment giants into one under the name Skydance, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
This transaction has been highly controversial ever since Warner Bros. announced they were looking to sell in October 2025, according to CNBC.
Netflix was also in the running to acquire Warner Bros., but could not match Paramount’s offer.
Several actors were very worried about Warner Bros. ending up in the hands of Paramount, including Ben Stiller and Bryan Cranston, who signed a petition to prevent the deal from being finalized. The petition, “Block the Merger,” was signed by over 2,000 actors in order to prevent corporate business from ruining the industry, according to NBC News.
“A lot of actors are worried that this is going to lead to a loss of jobs,” University of Rhode Island film professor Jenny Platz said. “They are worried this will lead to downsizing as content might become more limited and uniform because it will all be hosted under one company rather than multiple companies.”
With the two companies merging, the number of employees needed to run is cut in half, likely resulting in several layoffs, according to Variety.
Warner Bros. had over $80 billion in debt when the deal closed; now, to recover that debt, Paramount may have to make significant layoffs, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Strikes have been a recent occurrence in Hollywood, and now, with this merger, we could see strikes start to resurface, according to Deadline.
“And this deal was paid for with more than $50 billion in new debt, on top of the $87 billion Warner already owed,” URI business professor Jessica McCarthy said. “That debt has to get paid down, and in this business that usually means layoffs. LA County estimated 15,000-plus jobs at risk.”
Part of the deal was that Paramount needs to release at least 30 movies a year. This will ensure that people will get to keep their jobs and keep the number of layoffs at a minimum, according to Fortune.
“It was mostly about jobs, not antitrust law,” URI business professor Jessica McCarthy said. “When two companies that do the same thing merge, the money they save comes from cutting whatever they now have two of. Two newsrooms, two streaming apps, two marketing departments, two sets of entry-level jobs.”
Another concern several people have with this deal is that it could lead to a “monopoly effect” by Paramount, according to URI business professor Christy Ashley.
Paramount will now have access to a multitude of large intellectual properties. These include DC Studios, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones and several other big franchises, according to Forbes.
Fans of these franchises have expressed concern over what may happen creatively in these universes due to Paramount’s history of aiming towards box office success as opposed to good storytelling, such as when they cancelled a sequel to “Transformers One” when it was not a box office success, despite great reviews from critics and fans, according to Collider.
“I hope it helps keep the film industry in a good place,” Platz said. “We don’t know how those regulations are going to be checked to see how many movies will be released in theaters.”
Paramount has already agreed to keep James Gunn and Peter Safran as Co-CEO’s of DC Studios, according to Deadline. But they have made several other creative changes to other Warner Bros. products.
Now the world will have to wait and see what kind of future the new Skydance company will bring to the film industry.
