Warner+Discovery+Paramount!?

[Ben]

So it just popped up on the TV news here that Warner Bros. Discovery is in early merger talks with…PARAMOUNT!!?!???

Did not see that coming.

Historically, if Paramount has ever been "in bed" with anyone else, it’s been Universal. From the 1950s and the 1960s, Universal and Paramount often shared resources and talent — Hitchcock often jumped between them under contract — and, when Paramount began to sell off legacy aspects, then Universal owner MCA bought up a lot of them.

In the 70s, they joined up officially to launch Cinema International Corporation — CIC — as a joint producing and distribution company internationally, which then added United Artists to become UIP — United International Pictures — in the 80s and later informed the whole DreamWorks Distribution structure, sharing producing credits between Universal and Paramount on the bigger films such as Gladiator (and why upcoming Gladiator II is also shared between them).

On video, they’ve continued to share the same "duties", from keeping CIC Video going well into the 90s, even when UA was fully swallowed by MGM, and co-owning the UIP theatre chains until fairly recently.

With the streaming wars, I’ve often speculated that when merging begins, Uni and Para would be among the first to renew their partnerships, since they have so much shared history and joint company ownerships (it's confirmed that, for instance, Gladiator II will eventually be available on Peacock and Paramount+), and would basically re-marry up libraries such as DreamWorks Animation, which although not currently "split" due to Uni owning all now, were originally distributed by…Paramount!

So, yeah, the news that Paramount Global — the current, newish name for ViacomCBS, which merged back again during Covid but were once all part of Viacom in the first place, which had gone on a spending spree and bought CBS, Paramount and MTV Networks, among others. Now all of that has been rebranded back as Paramount Global, so as to create the Paramount+ brand that builds on one of the most recognisable Hollywood legacy icons.

To hear that, out of everyone, they’re talking to the currently dysfunctional WBD, is a major surprise. It's described as "initial talks", so it may just be exploratory and there's room for manoeuvring or even offers from other companies. For me, personally, I’d much rather see Paramount get sucked in to Comcast and be "reunited" with Universal. Warners just feels such a weird fit. If they wanted to own more, they should have gone for MGM, much more of a Warners fit for various reasons.

Under Universal/Comcast, I think Paramount would have continued to flourish. Under WBD, they’ll become a 20th Century style casualty, perhaps not even continuing as a label. It’s true that, out of everything the now-Paramount Global owns, Warners does have some tenuous links with MTV on and off historically, such as the messy early years of South Park, but that’s about all I can think of off the top of my head.

I think Paramount is, if this happens, walking into a weird marriage with a currently weird company, and that if I was Tom Cruise or anyone else with longterm relationships or current projects in the works, I’d be more than a little jittery this morning…



EDIT:

Further reports suggest it may actually be Paramount looking to "merge" with WBD by buying it outright!

That makes more sense as to why Para might be looking to acquire another company (and Universal would obviously be off the table in that sense), and plays up to David Zaslav's claim that WBD is not for sale…since we don’t ever believe anything he says.

So, yeah, that makes more sense to see Paramount Global boosting its already huge library assets by picking up Warners, which would obviously include Discovery, the MGM library, RKO and others. Quite the deal. I kind of feel more inclined to that happening than the other way around, although what that means for the likes of Warner Archive is anyone's guess. It would allow them access to the Republic Pictures library, which could be cool, but it also looks like the underlying factor here is streaming again, so maybe the endgame is simply to boost each's subscription numbers — WBD has 95m, Paramount+ has 65m, although how that translates into a new, affordable package is anyone's guess as they’d have to run at a loss for a while to provide a new offering that would appeal. Certainly the product and value is there. Interesting times…!

[gaastra]

Deadline says other studios are looking at paramount also and apple and prime have more money than wb!

They said a bidding war may be coming!

[gaastra]

Update looks like paramount is the one who started the talk. WB wants to merge and will get "everything" but the other studios want paramount to sell things they don't want first.

This is a huge advantage to wb as no extra work needs to be done.

[droosan]

It's a bit sad, because Paramount is the oldest continuously-operating studio in the L.A. area; founded in 1912.

This sounds like we may see the end of that, soon.

[Ben]

Looks like everyone missed what I added right after I posted this morning:

EDIT:

Further reports suggest it may actually be Paramount looking to "merge" with WBD by buying it outright!

That makes more sense as to why Para might be looking to acquire another company (and Universal would obviously be off the table in that sense), and plays up to David Zaslav's claim that WBD is not for sale…since we don’t ever believe anything he says.

So, yeah, that makes more sense to see Paramount Global boosting its already huge library assets by picking up Warners, which would obviously include Discovery, the MGM library, RKO and others. Quite the deal. I kind of feel more inclined to that happening than the other way around, although what that means for the likes of Warner Archive is anyone's guess. It would allow them access to the Republic Pictures library, which could be cool, but it also looks like the underlying factor here is streaming again, so maybe the endgame is simply to boost each's subscription numbers — WBD has 95m, Paramount+ has 65m, although how that translates into a new, affordable package is anyone's guess as they’d have to run at a loss for a while to provide a new offering that would appeal. Certainly the product and value is there. Interesting times…!

So, yeah, Paramount Global is the big boy here, and it’s Warners under "threat". So much for Zaslav's "we’re not for sale" talk. He’s got his fingers burnt, realised he’s not the studio mogul he thought he might be, and is looking for an exit.

[GeffreyDrogon]

I am curious about Paramount and Universal's corporate relationship. I don't know much about it, but I do know that trailers for Universal films would be on the DVDs for Paramount films, and vice versa.

[Ben]

That’s right, as per my original post. I can’t really add much more than I did at the top of this page, but that gave a decent quickish overview of their past together.