Paramount (PSKY) CEO David Ellison on Monday reaffirmed his promise to release thirty films per year once his company merges with Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD).
“As we have said consistently, we are committed to delivering a broad pipeline of high-quality storytelling, including 15 theatrical films per year per studio, for a total of at least 30 films annually,” Ellison said during a conference call with analysts.
On Friday, Paramount sealed the $110B deal with Warner and paid the $2.8B termination fee to Netflix (NFLX).
The deal, among other things, significantly bolsters the combined streaming platform, reaching more than 200M subscribers, which includes more than 130M subs coming just from Warner Bros.
Regulators rightfully expressed worries about the Netflix-Warner merger, which would have brought total streaming subscribers to nearly half a billion users and created a monopoly in the market.
Although, a deal with Paramount brings together two of the “Big Five” Hollywood studios under one roof and further consolidates the movie-making industry.
Ellison, who has expressed his love for the big screen, vowed that movies from Paramount and Warner Bros. will have a 45-day theatrical window before they are shown on home entertainment and streaming platforms.
“When you look at the theatrical space, which is something we deeply, deeply believe in, large franchises and big pieces of intellectual property are launched in theaters, period,” Ellison said. “I personally learned this lesson in 2022. We basically had the largest theatrical box office film with ‘Top Gun: Maverick,’ which became a cultural phenomenon, grossing $1.5 billion.”
Ellison also said on the call that the net debt of a combined Paramount and Warner Bros. would be $79B and ruled out any plan to offload cable assets. A previous report by Reuters said the company was willing to divest some overlapping TV channels if required to satisfy merger conditions.