Movie Theater Owners Call for Paramount-Warner Bros. Settlement
The movie theater trade group Cinema United has reversed its stance on the proposed Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger, now calling for a negotiated settlement. The group cites the need for industry stability and protection of theatrical releases as primary reasons for the shift.
Why it matters
This shift reflects the broader anxiety within the exhibition industry regarding the impact of corporate consolidation on theatrical distribution models.
Cinema United has had a change of heart on the prospect of a Paramount – Warner Bros. Discovery merger.
The movie theater trade organization previously cheered on 12 state attorneys general, including California's Rob Bonta, as they filed suit to block the merger of the two historic studios. But in a letter postmarked Tuesday, the organization changed course and called for both Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison and Bonta to "meet in the immediate future and discuss all possible avenues for resolving" the lawsuit.
The letter from Cinema United president and CEO Michael O'Leary and Cinema United board chair Mike Bowers, the president and CEO of Harkins Theatres, was broad in its explanation of why the coalition, previously so fierce in its opposition to the megamerger, was changing its tune. But they gestured to recent successes at the box office and fears that that momentum could slow in their explanation.
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