The Burning Questions Swirling Around the Early Warner Bros. Discovery-Paramount Global Merger Talks

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer “Hogwarts Legacy” crossed 22 million copies sold by the end of 2023, with approximately 2 million of those units selling during the December holiday season, according to Warner Bros. Games. “But it’s not just the unit sold that I’m so proud of, it’s just that it delighted the fans so much,” Warner Bros.

It's our first Friday night pub quiz of 2024!

Editor’s note: Underplayed in the media intrigue over the prospect of Warner Bros swallowing Shari Redstone’s empire that includes Paramount and CBS is the gloomy reality that another storied Hollywood studio could go the way of Fox. That went from a vibrant multi-faceted creative content-generating enterprise to a headstone, when Rupert Murdoch decided to cash out for Disney stock. David Zaslav spent 2023 kicking employees and finished films to the curb to pay down debt just to get this far; chances are more blood will spill down Melrose if Redstone sells some or all the pieces of Paramount to be mashed into an existing studio. When Bill Mechanic was perched atop Paramount, Disney and Fox, he built Disney’s home video from a $30 million to $3 billion business, and found ways to take risks and squeeze max returns from blockbusters from Braveheart to Titanic, Independence Day and many others. Who better to remind Hollywood that once a major studio dies, it never comes back, and that there might be better ways to squeeze better performance out of an established creative business with global pipelines?

“The Summer I Turned Pretty” Season 3 will (hopefully) be released in 2024 following the recent Hollywood strikes. Of course, fans can’t wait to see how it all ends up between Belly, Conrad, and Jeremiah. Book fans know how the novels end.

EXCLUSIVE: Production is about to be underway on Warner Bros/Vertigo/Legendary’s feature take on Mojang/Microsoft’s Minecraft in New Zealand, and sources are telling us that Jack Black is joining the cast of the Jason Momoa led movie.

Releasing three tentpole movies into December, Warner Bros is walking away with bragging rights to giving the holiday season an important boost – particularly given the absence of an Avatar or a Spider-Man as in recent years.

Top U.S. cable operator Comcast has reached a carriage renewal with Paramount Global, averting a potential blackout of service around the New Year’s holiday.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Paramount Global has clinched a deal that is crucial to its future — but it’s not the transaction that Wall Street has been buzzing about for a few weeks. Paramount Global and Comcast have set a new carriage agreement covering Paramount’s cable channels and CBS-owned stations. The pact averts the prospect of a blackout for CBS stations and Paramount channels across Comcast’s cable systems, which reach about video 14.5 million subscribers and 29 million broadband subscribers.

It's our final Friday night pub quiz of the year!

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has acquired Turkish streamer BluTV.

Warner Bros. comedy “Barbie” capping off 2023 as the highest-grossing movie ($1.44 billion) and Universal‘s historical biopic “Oppenheimer” as the third-biggest hit (a staggering $951 million). Studios were (finally!) rewarded for bucking the overly familiar and embracing the new and novel.

It's finally Christmas Day!

Miley Cyrus gets into the Christmas spirit in Nashville. A post shared by Miley Cyrus (@mileycyrus)Jennifer Lopez shared a photo posing in front of her stunning tree ahead of her holiday party with Ben Affleck.

Brent Lang Executive Editor The entertainment industry is wrapping up one of the most chaotic and costly years in its history. From striking writers and actors to swooning stock prices, 2023 didn’t lack for drama. But even as Hollywood looks to put all that in the rearview mirror and get back to business as usual, the landscape remains treacherous.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Mega media merger mania is once again afoot in Hollywood with very, very early talks between Warner Bros. Discovery‘s David Zaslav and Paramount Global’s Bob Bakish about a potential merger of the two companies. Analysts and industry sources have already raised a number of questions about what a WBD-Paramount combo would look like and the effect it could have on the larger TV and film landscape.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Would the combination of Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global — two companies heavily tied to the declining legacy TV biz — make financial sense? Investors reacted to news of early talks between Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount about a potential merger, which broke just prior to market close Wednesday.

Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global have held talks for a potential merger that would see two of the world’s biggest media companies join together, according to reports.The talks are in a “very early stage” and the merger may still not go ahead, sources close to the talks claim.Warner Bros.

Deadline has confirmed that Warner Bros Discovery and Paramount Global have held talks on a possible merger.

Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global have held talks about a potential merger of the two media companies, Variety has confirmed.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Cari Beauchamp, a widely respected Hollywood historian and author who was a frequent presence on Turner Classic Movies and a contributor to Variety, has died. She was 74. Beauchamp was a prolific writer who often focused on the stories of female pioneers in the entertainment industry.