Twelve states are suing to stop Paramount buying Warner Bros., and $110 billion is on the table
Twelve attorneys general, California out front, are trying to block Paramount Skydance's takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery — a month after the Justice Department had already waved it through.
Hollywood was about to have one fewer studio. Twelve US states have just said maybe not.
A coalition of attorneys general — California, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Washington — filed suit to block Paramount Skydance’s $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. Leading it is California’s Rob Bonta, which figures: that’s where the movies live.
So what are the states actually arguing?
That the deal crushes competition in the film industry and ends in lower pay and fewer opportunities for the people who work in it. On the consumer side, the states say the merger drives up cable package and movie ticket prices while shrinking the range of news and entertainment on offer. The legal basis is the Clayton Act of 1914 — the antitrust law barring mergers that may undermine competition or create a monopoly. A 2026 studio deal blocked by a silent-era statute has its own poetry.
The coalition asked both companies not to close until the case concludes and said it will seek a temporary restraining order. Paramount’s response: the suit reflects a fundamentally flawed application of the antitrust laws and is wrong on both the facts and the law.
But why is this only happening now?
Because the Justice Department cleared the deal a month ago. That’s where it gets interesting: the federal government approved, the states refused to accept it, and the fight became Washington versus the state capitals. Bonta and company are using state antitrust law to reopen a door the administration had already shut.
Watched from here, this isn’t a distant corporate scrap. It’s the same consolidation that decides what turns up in the catalogues we scroll at home — the studios left standing are the ones choosing which films get made, which is why the box-office numbers behind every release matter more each year.
A hundred and ten billion dollars and a courtroom in the middle. This will take a while.
By Lucy Bennett
Image: Douglas Despres, California Attorney General's Office / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
