Paramount vs. California: The War for Hollywood Begins
AG Rob Bonta fires the first major shot at the merger as Hollywood’s Teamsters leader sounds the alarm
I host the Ankler Agenda podcast, interviewed Heated Rivalry’s casting directors about finding their stars and spoke to business affairs exec Ken Basin about how Paramount-WBD will impact Hollywood dealmaking. I’m at elaine@theankler.com
Quick programming note before I dive in: Next week I’ll publish the second installment of my Disappearing Ladder series on Hollywood careers. The first focused on Gen Z; this one looks at millennials — not quite so young and optimistic anymore but not quite so old as to have their shit together. (I’m allowed to say that. I’m a millennial.)
If you’re an industry reader born between 1981 and 1996, I’d love to hear your stories — the wins, the frustrations, the career zig-zags. Email me at elaine@theankler.com. Gen Xers and boomers, you’re next.
I’ve also been doing a bit of pod-hopping lately, including appearances on the Female Quotient’s new Broadlines pod and on the Forever 35 podcast with Doree Shafrir and Elise Hu. (Doree is a fellow USTA SoCal captain so we also talked tennis, natch.)
Yes, last night Warner Bros.’ One Battle After Another took home best picture, but the real series of battles for Warner Bros. is just getting started.
I got a glimpse of it last Thursday in Beverly Hills at the Future of Hollywood conference hosted by the D.C. policy outlet Capitol Forum. In a ballroom full of lawyers, regulators and industry executives, two of the people who could shape the fate of the Paramount–Warner Bros. merger delivered very different messages.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who has opened an antitrust investigation into the merger, warned the acquisition is “not a done deal.” Paramount Skydance chief legal officer Makan Delrahim, meanwhile, insisted the merger will boost competition and benefit Hollywood.
Expect to hear those arguments a lot in the months ahead. The fight over Paramount–Warners is now shifting from Hollywood boardrooms to regulators, union leaders and politicians — and the outcome could determine what the next version of the studio system looks like.
Among those watching closely at the conference — where I spoke on a panel about AI and creative rights — were CAA legal executive Tammy Brandt, former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director and FTC commissioner Rohit Chopra, who both also made remarks, and Teamsters motion picture division director Lindsay Dougherty, whose union had filed a submission with the Justice Department’s antitrust division that very day urging regulators to block the deal.
Below, I talk with Dougherty about what labor is watching as the merger moves forward — and what Paramount would need to prove to win union support — and I also have more about what Bonta and Delrahim, two big-time legal minds, have to say about the fight coming.
Inside the looming Paramount–Warners cage match:
Makan Delrahim’s strange flex about the deal — and his “cheap beer” jab at Netflix’s binge model
Why state AGs were blindsided by the DOJ’s surprise settlement with Ticketmaster parent Live Nation — and what it might signal for Paramount–Warners
Rob Bonta’s warning that the merger is “not a done deal” — and how aggressively he plans to scrutinize it
Why Bonta says state regulators are stepping up as the Trump administration “abdicates” antitrust enforcement
The uncomfortable math Paramount is selling regulators about why the merger won’t create market power
The regulatory pledge Paramount made that could slow the closing timeline
Teamsters leader Lindsay Dougherty’s blunt warning
The labor demand that could actually move the needle for California production