Paramount Defends Warner Bros. Discovery Merger In Letter To California AG, Says Combined Companies Will Have Incentive To Boost Theatrical

Paramount defended its proposed merger with Warner Bros. Discovery to California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who is considering an antitrust challenge to the transaction.

In a letter to Bonta last week, Paramount’s chief legal officer, Makan Delrahim, said that the combined companies would have the incentive to boost theatrical distribution, not reduce it.

Delrahim wrote, “Paramount’s proposed merger with WBD will help drive meaningful improvements for movie theaters and their audiences. To compete more effectively with Netflix, and others leading services, a combined Paramount-WBD will need to capture audiences’ attention in fresh ways, and that includes broadening theatrical distribution to tap into the magic of the moviegoing experience and create momentum behind films before they reach streaming services.”

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