Paramount Offers 30 Films Yearly to Win WBD Merger Approval
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- Paramount delivered a written commitment to Regal for 30 films annually over three years, with a 45-day exclusive theatrical window and a 90-day window to streaming, per Deadline's reporting.
- AMC CEO Adam Aron told Deadline the chain has 'no comment' on whether it has also received a written commitment, though Aron has publicly supported the Paramount-WBD merger.
- Paramount CEO David Ellison offered to execute a consent decree to the 12 state attorneys general backing the output and windowing commitments, with financial penalties if the studio breaks any agreement with theaters.
- Cinema United (formerly NATO) remains firmly opposed to the merger, citing the Disney-Fox precedent: combined wide releases from those two studios fell from 26 in 2016 to 14 in 2025 (a 46% decline), with combined box office dropping from $4.29 billion to $2.4 billion (a 44% decline).
- Paramount currently has 16 films scheduled for 2027 and 7 for 2028, while Warner Bros. Discovery has 19 for 2027 and 15 for 2028 — a merged studio would have started with 35 films for 2027 and 22 for 2028.
- The antitrust trial with the state AGs is not scheduled until March 2027, and Cinema United has so far been unable to book another meeting with Ellison.
Why it matters: Paramount's 30-film promise is a court-influencing bargaining chip: if Ellison can peel Regal and AMC away from Cinema United's anti-merger stance, the state AGs lose a key lobbying ally before the March 2027 trial. Cinema United's Disney-Fox data — a 46% drop in combined output and 44% drop in combined box office — is the empirical counter that makes the studio's courtroom math hard to dismiss.
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