Paramount was one of the companies bidding on Warner Bros. when it was announced that Netflix had agreed to purchase the film studio. That deal is subject to immense review, including by the Department of Justice due to anti-trust laws, and has not yet been completed. In the meantime, Paramount isn’t giving up hope. Instead, they’re mounting a hostile bid to get the WB brand under their umbrella.

Paramount’s WB Bid Would Be No Better than Netflix’s

Netflix has the agreement to purchase Warner Bros., but Paramount has gone straight to the company’s shareholders with an all-cash offer in a nearly unprecedented move to gain control of one of Hollywood’s biggest assets, according to CNN and the New York Times.

Paramount CEO David Ellison said, “We’re sitting on Wall Street, where cash is still king. We are offering shareholders $17.6 billion more cash than the deal they currently have signed up with Netflix. And we believe when they see what is currently in our offer, then that’s what they’ll vote for.”

If Warner Bros. ultimately decides to back out and take Paramount’s offer, it would owe Netflix a $2.8 billion breakup fee. That, as well as all the financial factors and legal issues, will be weighed in this situation. Regardless, whether the hostile attempt succeeds, this transaction is far from complete.

WB’s future remains up in the air, and it’s worth pointing out that neither of these outcomes is good for anyone except CEOs of companies, namely Ellison and Ted Sarandos of Netflix. It’s bad for the film industry either way, although it’s widely accepted that Netflix taking over would be marginally better than Paramount.

Still, Paramount is not the perfect new owner of Warner Bros., either. Ellison has made deals with President Donald Trump several times over the past year, essentially getting into the sitting president’s pocket. The CEO went to multiple UFC events with Trump and acquiesced to the White House’s conditions to complete Skydance’s Paramount acquisition in August.

Essentially, if Paramount wins the bid, the president would have a major influence in Hollywood. No matter who the American president is, that is not good. Art should be independant of political swaying, and if Trump hears word of an overly liberal movie coming through Paramount or something he doesn’t like, it would be rather easy for him to lean on Ellison and get that movie canned.

Trump has said numerous times he wants to force films to be made in America much more, reshaping the industry. He’s also not a big fan of anything left-leaning, which many movies are. Art is inherently political, which doesn’t bode well for a controversial president that has a 36% approval rating. But if Ellison and Paramount have all the Paramount IPs as well as the Warner Bros. brands, they could impact the movie landscape.

The alternative with Netflix is that theaters essentially go out of business because the biggest movies will get limited releases in only the biggest cities. Eventually, those limited releases will either go away or be linked to a day-one launch on the streaming service, thereby making it pointless for many casual movie fans to get out to the theater.

On one hand, we can expect the death of movie theaters. On the other, we can expect the political landscape of Hollywood to be changed and for artists to be at risk of having their art cancelled because the conservative president doesn’t like it. What a wonderful world we live in.

The End (of Cinema)

No matter which way you slice it, this Warner Bros. sale is horrible for the film industry. Warner Bros. is having a phenomenal year and has some excellent assets, but neither Netflix nor Paramount will do right by them. It’s difficult to predict how this will all play out, but what is not difficult is assessing how this will affect the film world. It’s bad.