{"id":462013,"date":"2026-09-12T22:56:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T22:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/462013\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T22:56:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T22:56:12","slug":"leaked-report-details-fallout-if-paramount-exits-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/462013\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaked Report Details Fallout if Paramount Exits California"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAs the legal battle over the $110 billion Paramount Skydance<\/a>\u2013Warner Bros<\/a>. Discovery merger drags on, a coalition of state attorneys general is fighting to block the sale on antitrust grounds \u2014 and the buyer is threatening to leave California if the lawsuit succeeds. A leaked report <\/a>now puts a number on the fallout: As many as 58,000 lost jobs and up to $21 billion a year in losses for California.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe report \u2014 from the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation\u2019s Institute for Applied Economics, commissioned by Paramount itself \u2014 was leaked Saturday by Politico and lays out grim numbers for the motion picture industry. Leadership at Paramount-Skydance is negotiating with the gaggle of AGs, led by California\u2019s Rob Bonta, and racing against an Oct. 1 deadline: If the merger hasn\u2019t closed by then, the deal\u2019s \u201cticking fee\u201d kicks in, paying Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders $7 million a day. Paramount\u2019s threat to relocate the studio to Georgia, Tennessee or Texas has been one of its central negotiating tactics \u2014 and has drawn uproar across the industry.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe new report quantifies just how much California stands to lose. It finds the state \u201cwould experience the permanent loss of approximately 28,990 to 57,980 full-time job-years statewide across all industries, and losses of between $10.6 billion and $21.2 billion annually in economic output.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut Paramount\u2019s post-merger commitment to produce 30 features a year for three years would generate an estimated 1,020 to 2,760 job-years in California, and between $377.7 million and $1.01 billion in economic output between Oct. 1 and Sept. 30, 2031. The totals reflects between 340 and 920 job-years and between $125.9 million and $337.2 million in statewide output every year for three years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe estimated job losses include direct, indirect and induced jobs \u2014 accounting for ripple effects through Paramount\u2019s California supply chains and the broader economic activity tied to household spending. In other words, the total reflects job losses across all industries, not just film and TV.<\/p>\n

\n\tAn added blow would come from converting Warner Bros.\u2019 soundstages to commercial or residential property, which the report says would \u201cpermanently strip\u201d California of infrastructure built over a century \u2014 infrastructure that supports the vendors, crews and post-production facilities built up around it.<\/p>\n

\n\tCalifornia remains the world\u2019s fourth-largest global economy, with a nominal gross domestic product of about $4.1 trillion to $4.4 trillion. If Paramount were to exit, the report states, the best-case scenario would see the company slow-walk its departure as it reduces its spending in California. But the worst-case scenario would involve Paramount \u201csubstantially or entirely\u201d relocating to another state, which would tank the state\u2019s economy in terms of tax revenues.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tU.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin has set a Sept. 24 hearing to consider Paramount\u2019s $1.88 billion bond request of the 12 states and the Writers Guild of America, which is also suing to block the merger. The studio made the bond requests as security to cover losses it would incur if the deal is not completed until after the trial.<\/p>\n

\n\tIf the parties do not settle ongoing negotiations, both are moving toward a March 2027 trial date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the legal battle over the $110 billion Paramount Skydance\u2013Warner Bros. Discovery merger drags on, a coalition of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,61135,14955,26368],"class_list":["post-462013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-paramount-skydance","tag-warner-bros","tag-warner-bros-discovery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}