Paramount offers cinema guarantees as Warner Bros deal faces scrutiny
Paramount Skydance is making a fresh push to win support from cinema operators as it works to complete its proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.
The company is offering AMC Entertainment and Regal Cinemas three-year contractual commitments covering roughly 30 films a year, according to reporting published on August 10. The proposed arrangement would keep those films exclusively in cinemas for at least 45 days and prevent them from moving to streaming services for at least 90 days.
The move comes at an important stage for Paramount’s planned takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, a transaction valued at about $110 billion. Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders approved the deal earlier this year, while regulators in several major markets have been reviewing its impact on competition and the wider media industry.
Britain cleared the acquisition on August 6 after Paramount agreed to legally binding commitments covering editorial independence, UK programming and the continued operation of Channel 5 as a public service broadcaster.
The deal, however, still faces opposition in the United States, where a group of states is challenging the merger on competition grounds.
For cinema owners, Paramount’s latest proposal addresses one of the biggest concerns surrounding Hollywood consolidation: what happens to theatrical releases when major studios also control large streaming businesses.
A guaranteed theatrical window gives exhibitors more certainty that high-profile films will not move almost immediately from cinemas to home viewing. For Paramount, the commitments could also help strengthen industry support for a merger that would bring some of Hollywood’s biggest film, television and streaming assets under one company.
The wider question is what the deal could mean for the balance between cinemas and streaming. After years in which studios experimented with shorter theatrical windows, Paramount is effectively signaling that theatres would remain central to its film strategy even after combining with Warner Bros. Discovery.
