Despite Warner Bros. riding high after winning 11 Oscars – equalling its record for the same number of wins – for Sinners and One Battle After Another, the studio now faces an uncertain future. Paramount, ironically a zero-nomination studio this awards season, prepares to swallow Warner Bros. in a $111bn deal.
The merger would saddle the combined entity with an estimated $80bn debt. It has been reported that executives are already looking to make $6bn savings by cutting “duplicative operations” across a joint workforce of more than 53,000.
It has been estimated up to 25,000 people could be out of a job. Industry figures, from screenwriters to cinema owners, fear the merger may reduce creative competition and film output. They are also worried independent voices could be squeezed out and point to Disney’s absorption of 20th Century Fox, which reportedly cut combined studio output by around 40%.
Departing Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav is, it has been reported in the Guardian, in line for a payout of up to $700m, even as the very employees who made the studio’s success face losing their jobs.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/mar/17/paramount-buying-warner-bros-change-hollywood
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/mar/17/warner-bros-ceo-david-zaslav-payout-paramount-deal-wbd