Donna Langley Slams Paramount-WBD Merger as 'Bad' — SkimNews
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- Donna Langley (chairman of NBCUniversal Entertainment) called the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger 'bad' and 'bad for everything,' citing the Fox-Disney deal and warning that losing a studio reduces theatrical film volume.
- Paramount's legal settlement with regulators requires the combined Paramount-WBD entity to release 30 theatrical films a year for the first two years and 32 for the following three years, with the deal expected to close next Tuesday.
- Universal poached Taylor Sheridan from Paramount with a new five-year film and TV deal starting early 2029; Langley said the talks began over film because his Paramount arrangement was a 'first look' deal with less 'teeth' than his TV pact.
- Comcast is spinning off NBCU and Sky into a standalone publicly traded company expected to complete by mid-2027, which Langley called 'good,' saying being untethered from Comcast's struggling stock lets them be 'masters of our own destiny.'
- Universal's 'The Odyssey' (Christopher Nolan) crossed $1 billion globally with an extraordinary play-out pattern of outgrossing its second week in week three, while Focus Features' 'Obsession' — acquired for $15 million at Toronto — grossed over $500 million worldwide.
- Langley predicted 2027 won't match 2025's billion-dollar breakout potential but expects 2028 to bounce back, noting Universal is the #1 studio at the global box office this year.
Why it matters: Langley is publicly opposing a rival merger the same week it's expected to close, and a Paramount-WBD combination that trims theatrical output from five major studios to four — even under the 30-32 film commitment — could pressure Universal and remaining competitors to absorb the volume gap. Her confidence in the mid-2027 Comcast spin-off, paired with locking up Taylor Sheridan through 2029, shows NBCU playing offense on both corporate and creative fronts while the industry consolidates.
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