‘It’s going to upset the balance’: how will Paramount buying Warner Bros change Hollywood?

‘It’s going to upset the balance’: how will Paramount buying Warner Bros change Hollywood? Warner Bros might have swept the Oscars with Sinners and One Battle After Another, but the impending merger has those in the industry worried about the future O n Sunday, Warner Bros snared 11 Oscars for One Battle After Another, Sinners and Weapons, equalling the record for most wins for a single film studio. Paramount, by contrast, did not earn a single nomination. Yet in an apparent case of a minnow swallowing a whale, Paramount is poised to gobble up Warner Bros in a deal worth $111bn . If approved by regulators, the two studios would be consolidated into one, redrawing the Hollywood map and sowing uncertainty for actors, directors and writers as well as millions of viewers. Analysts warn that such a merger could result in thousands of job losses, stifle creative innovation and, given the influence of Paramount’s head, David Ellison – whose father, Larry , is a friend and ally of Donald Trump – make it harder to bring overtly political movies such as One Battle After Another and Sinners to the screen. “It’s a signpost on the road to the destruction of Hollywood,” says David Dayen , executive editor of the American Prospect magazine. “Bringing down the number of studios and subsequently the output – even though Paramount claims that won’t happen, but there’s almost no way for that to be true – is going to upset the delicate balance that has been already ravaged by the rise of streaming and the collapse of both cable television and the movie-going experience.” Dayen adds: “If this merger indeed goes through, theatre owners are going to have a tough time surviving. The deal makes a giant bet on the dying medium of cable television that is destined to be a failure. The fallout is not going to be good for creatives in Hollywood, continuing what has been a fairly long decline.” Warner Bros sits on a 110-acre lot in Burbank, California, with 31 soundstages, 11 exterior sets and a...