An Update to the Most Important Thing Happening in the Entertainment Industry

So this is pretty wild. Remember that meeting the California Attorney General had scheduled for today with David Ellison? The one that was supposed to reach a settlement regarding that antitrust lawsuit California had filed with eleven other states to try to block Paramount Skydance’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery (which, to be clear, we at Awards Radar absolutely support those states in their efforts to block this)?

Well, according to The Wall Street Journal, the meeting has been cancelled:

California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office canceled a planned Monday meeting with Paramount Chief Executive David Ellison where the parties were expected to discuss settling a lawsuit the state led seeking to block the company’s purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery.

According to Bonta, it was Paramount that leaked this information to The Wall Street Journal in the first place:

Not only did Paramount leak the alleged substance of settlement discussions, but they misrepresented these discussions, demonstrating a lack of good faith. As soon as Paramount stops playing games and engages sincerely, my office is happy to meet again. 

Predictably, Paramount denies this:

We share AG Bonta’s concerns about the public discussions and misreporting that has surrounded this deal. As we have assured the Attorney General’s office, Paramount has not been the source of the leaks of any of our confidential discussions with the AG’s office. We remain hopeful and stand ready to continue good-faith discussions to resolve the Attorneys General suit and move forward with our plans for increased competition and increased output to the benefit of the talent and entertainment workers.

Will settlement discussions happen in the near future? Who knows? And honestly, who cares? I understand why state AGs are trying to settle this lawsuit, as it will be exorbitantly expensive to take it all the way to court and Paramount Skydance has a lot of capital to burn to make this merger happen regardless of legality (or lack thereof). But a settlement, by definition, will extend concessions to something with ruinous consequences for the professionals responsible for the stories that make narrative art worth engaging with in the first place. Even a partial victory for Paramount Skydance would not bode well for the future of American cinema.

I want to be as clear as I can, here — if Avengers: Doomsday inexplicably bombs at the box office this December, sending the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe into a tailspin and putting their entire ten-year plan into jeopardy, that would still be second to this ongoing acquisition battle as the most consequential event in the entertainment industry in the post-COVID era. Nothing else in Hollywood will have the same generational impact on our popular culture than the outcome of this lawsuit.