Skydance Swallows Warner Bros.: Hollywood Is Now Shooting the Empire Film About Itself

On Tuesday Paramount Skydance completed its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. The new company is simply called Skydance. Under one roof are now three major film studios (Paramount, Warner Bros. and Skydance), two streamers (Paramount+ and HBO Max) and two news networks (CNN and CBS), plus brands from Harry Potter to "The Godfather". The deal values Warner Bros. Discovery at around $110 billion including debt, the largest media acquisition on record. David Ellison runs the company, with former Mattel boss Ynon Kreiz as co-CEO.

Ellison beat Netflix in a months-long bidding war, making nine offers along the way. To settle an antitrust suit by several US states, he agreed among other things to an editorial independence board for CNN and an extra $1.5 billion for films over five years.

Hollywood spent decades making films about empires, power and hostile takeovers. Now it has cast itself.

With deals like this, management always promises efficiency, creative opportunities and better offerings. Staff listen most closely to the word efficiency. Hundreds of industry figures had warned of job losses and less diversity. For viewers in Germany the first question is probably how many subscriptions they will need from now on. The honest answer: a different number, but not a smaller one.