Not even a week after a judge placed a start date for the antitrust trial regarding Paramount’s bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery and we already have more news. The David Ellison-run Paramount-Skydance is evidently trying to sure up their claim that the merger of two of the largest media studios in the world is somehow good for competition. How, you might ask? Well, according to Deadline, Paramount is attempting to strike separate deals with theater chains AMC and Regal, two of the largest in the U.S., with a pledge to release 30 movies per year. THIRTY. Outrageous.
Deadline shares that they’ve learned Paramount made written commitment to Regal for “30 films annually over three years with an exclusive 45-day theatrical window and a 90-day window to streaming.” Buzz is apparently Paramount has offered a similar agreement with AMC, but the exhibitor’s boss Adam Aron said, “AMC has no comment on this story, period. Nor have we ever had any comment on this story.” Touchy.
AMC and Regal have publicly backed the merger, while the rest of Cinema United (formerly National Association of Theatre Owners) remains firmly against. Paramount still has yet to explain how it believes the merger would not result in negative financial outcomes in regards to long-term box office, feature film output, and loss of jobs.
And what of that output? Had the merger gone through as planned, with Paramount’s 16 film output and WB’s 19, 2027 would have had a total of 35. But for 2028, the planned output for each is only around 22. That output for 2027 is high by the average of the studios, with most years WB doing 10-15 and Paramount with 8-12. To promise at least 30 for the next three years is lofty.
Not least because history is not on their side. Remember how Disney bought 20th Century Fox back in 2016? At the time, the studios separately released 26 new titles. After that merger, in 2025, their “combined output fell to 14 wide releases, a 46% decline. The box office combined went form $4.29 billion in 2016 to $2.4B in 2025, down 44%.”
Basically, when the few control the means of production, they’re less likely to make more product because they simply won’t need to. As always, we’ll see what happens.
Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.