Much like Middle Earth in the Third Age, a shadow and a threat has been rising. Not exactly in the East, but kind of East of where I am right now in North Hollywood. Nonetheless, we’re looking at the union of the Two Towers. And just like during the War of the Ring, it ain’t good for the heroes.
Pardon my much-tortured metaphor (tortured like Gollum in the bowels of Barad-dur), but it feels appropriate. In case you’re somehow blessedly unaware, I’m talking about the proposed, potential, possible, maybe even fated “merger” between Paramount and Warner Brothers/Discovery. You can take your pick between Larry and David Ellison and David Zazlav which one is Sauron and which one is Saruman.
(If none of that made sense to you, I’m sorry, but I can’t help you. Have you met me?)
For those blessedly unaware, Paramount Pictures, founded by Adolph Zukor in 1916, recently purchased by David Ellison’s Skydance Pictures (with a lot of help from his billionaire, Oracle founder father Larry Ellison), is in final talks to purchase Warner Brothers Discovery, originally founded by the real, actual Warner brothers in 1923. They are two of the tentpole, legacy studios that built Hollywood (and, by extension, Los Angeles) over the last century. Never in either Zukor or any of the Warner brothers’ imagination would such a merger take place.
Warner Brothers, of course, has been bought and sold several times in the last two decades. Time, Inc, Ted Turner, AOL, AT&T, and finally Discovery all had their turn running the studio of Casablanca, Bugs Bunny and Superman. And all of them decided it was too much trouble.
On the other hand, Paramount has had a fairly stable history. Zukor ran it into the 1960s, then it was bought by Gulf + Western and then by Viacom which owned it until last year when the Ellisons bought it from the Redstone family.
And now they’re hoping to buy Warner Brothers. Because…why not?
Actually, there are a lot of “becauses” here, but very few that have anything to do with making movies and TV shows. One of them is because Larry Ellison is a supporter of the current administration and is hoping to help them out and curry favor with them by acquiring one of Trump’s bete noires: CNN. Granted, CNN is a shell of what it used to be when it was considered a cornerstone of the “liberal” (or at least trusted) media. Trump gaining proxy control and pushing it further to right will only complete a journey that began the second Fox News started beating them in the ratings. It’s still not good.
The other because is…ego, I suppose. Our current crop of billionaires only feel alive when they’re buying something massive and turning it into a personal playground. (See Twitter.) The sight of an uncontrolled asset drives them mad. Their hunger is endless and, like a shark, they must keep moving and feeding to stay alive.
A third is because David Zazlav appears to not be very good at his job. He took over Warner Brothers in 2021 and has promptly run it into the ground. The signature sign of WB’s flailing over the last few years has been the ever-changing name for their streaming service. HBOGo became HBONow became HBOMax became Max became HBOMax again. Not really a sign of a company that knows what it is and what it’s doing.
One thing that I’ve grown to hate and resent is that being an industry professional has meant minoring in economics and corporate shenanigans. You have to keep track of who owns whom, who does business with whom, who refuses to negotiate with who, what streaming services are actually streaming. A lot of conversations in Hollywood sound more like Wall Street traders sharing stock tips than artists talking about art. Much of I just wrote I rattled off from memory. That’s what’s taking up space in my brain. I’m glad I never learned Spanish because I’d have to forget it by now.
But, beyond the unfathomable sums of money changing hands, what does this mean for writers? And for audiences?
Nothing good for either really.
For creators, creatives, writers, directors, producers, designers, crew, for the people who, for the better part of the last century, have made their living from making movies and TV shows, it means there is one less employer out there, when there are already so few. Before I even started in this industry, there were so many studios: Warner Brothers, Columbia, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Lionsgate, Disney as the major ones, but also a host of smaller independent studios and quite a few mini-studios within the larger ones. And that’s even a comedown from the 60s, 70s, 80s and even 90s when studios proliferated. With every merger, with every acquisition, the potential number of employers, of outlets, of options shrinks. Disney buying 20th Century Fox a few years ago was a body blow. Paramount buying Warner Brothers could be a knockout.
And that’s just the labor side of it. When you can’t really have multiple suitors for a project, you have to take the price that’s offered. That’s why monopolies are illegal. Or would be illegal, if our Department of Justice actually cared about legality. But it’s also bad on the art side of it. With a very small group of mainly middle-aged (and older) white men controlling the industry, the only stories that get through the gate-keepers are stories that they want to see. Stories that, in the end, reinforce a status quo that works for them.
And that’s not good for audience in a large, increasingly more diverse country. It’s getting harder and harder for people to see themselves on screen, to see lives that they recognize. There will be more bland stories that don’t challenge anything. More stories about the wealthy, about white people, about privileges and powers many of us will never have or know. I’m all for escapism and fantasy, but at the same time, we don’t want our media to lie to us about the way the world is.
And it means all of that will cost more. And all of it will be under control of one family. Disney already owns vast swaths of our public imagination and cultural history. Much of what’s left will be hoovered up by the Ellisons. For what? A Bugs Bunny/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover? Is it all worth it for that?
But then there’s the real problem: what can we do about it? Our government has largely abdicated the job of, well, governing to a narcissistic, brain-addled sociopath with absolutely no impulse control and a flattery complex. If there’s a “somebody” who should do something, it’s them. And they are not.
For the rest of us, the standard response that’s emerging is “invest in independent art.” That’s a good concept, but in practice, in 2026, when most of the money in the world has been concentrated into a few hands, the independent media landscape is as blighted as the mainstream one.
My response? Yeah, I wish I had a good one. I’m mostly trying to weather the storm. Find good people to work with, to collaborate with, to depend on. I’m pouring my energy into writing things I give a shit about and hoping that other people will give a shit and that counts for something.
Beyond that…hope that Dems win big in the midterms and can change course. What has been merged can be unmerged. We may have to walk all the way to the fires of Mount Doom to do it. But if a couple of hobbits can destroy the One Ring and end the Dark Lord, why can’t we?