{"id":563741,"date":"2026-04-04T08:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T08:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/563741\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T08:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T08:14:13","slug":"theater-owners-urge-state-attorneys-general-to-oppose-paramount-warner-bros-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/563741\/","title":{"rendered":"Theater Owners Urge State Attorneys General To Oppose Paramount-Warner Bros Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tNine days before Cinema United<\/a> looks Paramount<\/a> executives eye to eye at their Las Vegas confab, CinemaCon, the movie theater lobbyist org\u2019s boss Michael O\u2019Leary has fired off some letters this week. He wrote to the National Association of Attorneys General, the Democratic Attorneys General Association and the Republican Attorneys General Association about the Melrose Lot studio\u2019s pending union with Warner Bros<\/a>, declaring, \u201cI strongly urge you to thoroughly investigate and move to block this proposed merger to ensure it does not harm competition or our local communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRead the letter in full here.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tYes, a consolidation of the motion picture studios from five down to four would mean fewer jobs, less choices for moviegoers, higher tickets prices, increased leveraged rental terms on cinemas by studios, potential multiplex closings and depleting ticket sales. Just look at what happened with 20th Century Fox movies post Disney-Fox (a $1 billion less in 2025 versus 2016, a 70% drop). <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBased on our review of the proposed merger between Paramount and Warner Bros., we have no reason to believe the outcome of that combination would be any different,\u201d writes O\u2019Leary. <\/p>\n

However, there\u2019s a ripple effect, and that\u2019s how the Paramount-Warner Bros Discovery merger will hurt Main Street America the most.<\/p>\n

\n\tWrites O\u2019Leary: \u201cOur members\u2019 theatres are Main Street businesses, not Hollywood businesses. They are vital cultural and economic engines for the communities they serve. A thriving theatre anchors foot traffic, supports nearby small businesses, and keeps local dollars in our local communities. Recent research shows that for each dollar spent in a local movie theatre, an additional $1.50 is spent in surrounding businesses in the community\u2014including local restaurants, bars, shopping centers, transportation, and other local businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMinus the movie theater and foot traffic due to this merger, that ecosystem suffers, per Cinema United, \u201cwhere dining and retail spending associated with movie visits nationwide adds up to billions of dollars for local restaurants and retail outlets.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tParamount CEO David Ellison has promised that the new merger will maintain 30 theatrical releases a year. While that\u2019s an organic slate increase that will be achieved upon absorption of Warner Bros (check out our chart here<\/a>), the fear for many is about the future. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe really believe that movies should be seen in theaters, and we still believe that\u2019s one of the most significant places that you can really create long-term intellectual property,\u201d Ellison said on a March 2 earnings call. \u201cTelevision is a completely different business.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tO\u2019Leary disagrees. Paramount will argue that their absorption of Warner Bros Discovery has been in an effort to scale up to streamer competitors like Netflix and Amazon. Cinema United\u2019s note observes: \u201cTo the extent that Paramount continues to operate Warner Bros. as an independent, movie-making studio, it would be incentivized to mimic Netflix\u2019s historic antipathy toward theatrical, sending its movies straight to premium video on demand (PVOD) or streaming video on demand (SVOD) and cutting out theatres altogether.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tConcludes O\u2019Leary: \u201cMost importantly, this merger threatens the economic and social well-being of our communities. While this transaction will impact theatre circuits of all sizes, it is Main Street America that will suffer the most. Smaller, mom-and-pop theatres will bear the disproportionate brunt of this latest attempt to scale Warner Bros.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nine days before Cinema United looks Paramount executives eye to eye at their Las Vegas confab, CinemaCon, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[190666,88,4208,228983,5251],"class_list":{"0":"post-563741","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-cinema-united","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-paramount","11":"tag-paramount-wbd","12":"tag-warner-bros"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}