Is Paramount ready to relocate? $30 billion bill shakes up California

It’s an unexpected setback, to say the least: California Attorney General Rob Bonta is administratively blocking the historic merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery.

To justify his stance, Rob Bonta cites antitrust law, fearing that such a monopoly would pose a threat to competition, local jobs, and consumer purchasing power (with exorbitantly priced movie tickets and subscriptions).

Faced with this impasse and a climate deemed “unwelcoming” by Paramount, its CEO David Ellison says he is prepared to take a radical step: if California continues to stand in the way, he could relocate the studio’s operations to the East Coast.

A relocation that would hurt

Such a departure would deprive the “Golden State” of $30 billion in annual investment, which would instead flow to New Jersey. There, on the East Coast of the United States, nearly 30,000 m² of film sets have already been prepared to accommodate future productions.

As a reminder, Paramount had already announced that it would retain its historic locations in Los Angeles and produce at least 30 films perxa year. For David Ellison, however, making this merger a success is a matter of survival: without it, the two historic studios will not be able to compete with streaming giants such as Netflix or Amazon.