LAS VEGAS — Paramount Skydance chief David Ellison made a surprise appearance at CinemaCon on Thursday, assuring movie theater owners that the studio’s planned acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery would not hurt the movie business.
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“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word: Once we combine with Warner Bros., we are going to make a minimum of 30 films annually, across both studios,” he told attendees of CinemaCon, the annual industry event where studios bring in their stars and offer a sneak peek at their upcoming slates.
His speech came just days after Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., sent a letter to the studio executive requesting that he testify about the impact of the deal at a hearing that took place on Wednesday. Paramount’s head of public policy responded to the senator saying that Ellison couldn’t attend the hearing “as he is attending a funeral due to a death in the family,” according to a copy of the letter, which was obtained by NBC News.
A representative for Ellison said he attended the funeral on Wednesday.
Ellison appeared onstage for Paramount’s presentation after a glossy promotional video directed by Jon M. Chu, which featured Tom Cruise sitting atop the Paramount water tower, as well as other stars and filmmakers, such as Timothée Chalamet, James Cameron, Teyana Taylor and Johnny Knoxville.
Ellison agreed to a deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in late February, prevailing over Netflix for control of a vast media empire that includes an iconic movie studio, HBO and a suite of cable channels including CNN.
But a growing number of Hollywood heavyweights have continued to raise concerns over the ramifications of the deal for the industry at large.
This week, Bryan Cranston, Jane Fonda, Joaquin Phoenix and more than 2,000 other Hollywood professionals released an open letter arguing that the corporate tie-up would hurt an industry “already under severe strain.”
“The result will be fewer opportunities for creators, fewer jobs across the production ecosystem, higher costs, and less choice for audiences in the United States and around the world. Alarmingly, this merger would reduce the number of major U.S. film studios to just four,” they wrote.
Monday’s open letter was led by a group of advocacy organizations — including the Committee for the First Amendment, a free speech group led by Fonda, who warned that the merger “would be one of the most destructive threats to free speech and creative expression in our history.”
Ellison is the son of Larry Ellison, the billionaire Oracle co-founder and a close ally of President Donald Trump, who has publicly called for new corporate ownership of CNN.
David Ellison is reportedly hosting an invitation-only dinner next week “honoring” Trump and CBS News’ White House correspondents later this month, before the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
The Justice Department continues to review the Paramount-Warner merger on antitrust grounds.
On Thursday, Ellison doubled down on his love for movies, calling film “one of our nation’s earliest art forms — and it is still one of our most powerful cultural exports.”
“But the theatrical experience is also smart business: Nowhere else can you launch a multiplatform franchise or IP that can grow and thrive for generations to come,” he said in his speech. “It’s good for the heart and … it’s good for our business … and, most importantly, it’s good for our people. And that is why I have dedicated the last 20 years of my life to elevating and preserving film.”
He said every film will receive a “full theatrical release, with a minimum 45-day window” and “we will go to SVOD in 90 days.”
“People can speculate all they want — but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment,” he said. “And we’ll show you we mean it.”
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