Michael Barbaro

OK, so we're about to take a break.

And when we come back, we're going to talk about whether the alternative deal, which is Paramount buying Warner Brothers, is any better, whether it comes to the creative community and its concerns about this deal and all the antitrust issues that it raises as well.

So we'll be right back.

Okay, welcome back to our Hollywood edition roundtable.

Nicole, Lauren, and Kyle, I want you all to conjure this second possibility that it's Paramount that wins Warner Brothers.

Somehow the Netflix deal blows up.

And what it would mean if Paramount prevails for all the constituencies that we have been talking about so far.

The movie makers, consumers, and regulators.

So Kyle, let me start with you.

Who wins and who loses Paramount?

in a paramount victory here?

Right.

One Battle After Another, the only one of the two I've actually seen, is clearly a movie about a world where revolutionaries take on a Trump-like administration.

So you're raising the specter right off the bat that a Paramount-owned Warner Brothers studio becomes somewhat potentially politically neutered, and that would be a worry for the creative class in Hollywood.

But in terms of the movie business...

Nicole, since you know very well how streaming-centric Netflix is, if Paramount were to take over Warner Brothers, it would clearly want to put things on Paramount+.

It's streaming business, but it sounds like the theater would be in less danger in that arrangement.

No matter who ends up winning.

Exactly.

Lauren, what is Paramount's argument to Warner Brothers about why it should be seen as the ideal suitor for the whole company rather than for just a piece of it the way Netflix is arranging the deal?