{"id":846839,"date":"2026-09-13T22:56:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T22:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/846839\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T22:56:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T22:56:24","slug":"paramount-leaving-california-could-cost-the-state-20-billion-a-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/846839\/","title":{"rendered":"Paramount Leaving California Could Cost the State $20 Billion a Year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If Paramount makes good on its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/industry-news\/business\/david-ellison-move-paramount-leave-california-merger-conditions\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">threat<\/a> to relocate out of California, the results would be devastating for the state and the entertainment industry, a leaked economic impact study finds.<\/p>\n<p>According to a study conducted by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation dated Sept. 10 (and leaked through <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/f\/?id=000001a0-8fed-d4fe-a9ae-bfef474c0000\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Politico<\/a>), should Paramount complete its entire relocation out of state, California would experience the permanent loss of approximately 28,990 to 57,980 full-time jobs statewide across all industries, and losses of between $10.6 billion and $21.2 billion annually in economic output.<\/p>\n<p>At minimum, the relocation would result in losses of 2,750 to 5,550 job-years in California across all industries and losses of between $1.01 billion and $2.03 billion in economic output between Oct. 1, 2026 and Sept. 30, 2031, according to the study.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt should be emphasized that these estimated job losses include direct, indirect and induced jobs, capturing the ripple effects through Paramount\u2019s supply chains in California as well as the economic activity of household spending,\u201d the study says. \u201cConsequently, the job losses pertain to all California industries rather than solely to motion picture and television production.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<a class=\"the-wrap-read-more__image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/industry-news\/deals-ma\/paramount-skydance-argues-antitrust-lawsuit\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ParamountSkydanceCorpWatertower.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"paramount skydance corporation\"   data-portal-copyright=\"TheWrap\" data-has-syndication-rights=\"1\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Additionally, the study finds that if Paramount holds to its promise to release 30 films a year after its Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition, it would generate a total of between 1,020 and 2,760 jobs in California across all industries and between $377.7 million and $1.01 billion in economic output between Oct. 1, 2026, and Sept. 30, 2031.<\/p>\n<p>A representative for Paramount did not immediately respond to TheWrap\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>The study comes with several caveats, including that any commitments that could come out of a potential settlement with the state AGs suing to block the merger might change the data.<\/p>\n<p>However, as-is the study says its analysis \u201cindicates that Paramount\u2019s post-merger production commitments could produce large economic benefits to California\u2019s economy. It also shows that the best case scenario for relocation poses economic costs of a similar magnitude.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In August, word leaked that Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison held an hourlong lunch meeting on the Paramount lot with his 12-member executive leadership team, in which he insisted his goal was to keep the company\u2019s 30,000 jobs in Southern California but cautioned that if California State Attorney General Rob Bonta wouldn\u2019t negotiate a settlement by the time the company\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/industry-news\/business\/paramount-ticking-fee-warner-merger-delay\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">$7 million per day ticking fees<\/a>\u00a0kick in, he would consider moving the standalone Paramount or the combined Paramount-WBD out of state regardless of the outcome.<\/p>\n<p>The ticking fee begins on Oct. 1, but Paramount has requested that the states and WGA post a $1.9 billion bond to cover the ticking fee and other financing costs during the delay. A judge will make a decision on whether to impose the bond during a hearing on Sept. 24.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<a class=\"the-wrap-read-more__image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/industry-news\/deals-ma\/state-ag-wga-paramount-bond-request-response\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/david-ellison-rob-bonta-getty.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"david-ellison-rob-bonta-getty\"   data-portal-copyright=\"TheWrap\" data-has-syndication-rights=\"1\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If Paramount makes good on its threat to relocate out of California, the results would be devastating for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":846840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,18205,101,4208,10343],"class_list":["post-846839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-david-ellison","tag-economy","tag-paramount","tag-warner-bros-discovery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846839","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=846839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/846840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=846839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=846839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=846839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}