Like most young lovers who get jilted on a Friday, David Ellison could have taken the weekend to regroup, reflect and regenerate. But most jilted young lovers aren’t nepobaby billionaires with ‘tude, so instead we got an over-the-top plan for revenge that would make his daddy’s bosom buddy proud.
Instead of sitting down and putting his thoughts into a diary or even into a Tik Tok rant, Ellison and his team of indentured servants launched a website with the optimistic URL strongerhollywood.com where he presented his version of why the Monday morning news cycle was once again dominated by the latest chapter of a soap opera that, frankly, is waaay better than any that his CBS network has aired since the halycon days of DALLAS. Among those working overtime was THE OBSERVER’s :
On Friday, Warner Bros. Discovery’s board agreed to sell its studio and streaming assets to Netflix in an $82.7 billion deal that many believed would reshape Hollywood. But just a weekend later, the plot shifted: Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison came out swinging with an even larger, all-cash proposal to buy all of WBD’s assets for $108.4 billion (or $30 per share).
Central to this manifesto was an old-fashioned powerpoint that meticously spelled out Ellison’s contentions in comparison to Netflix’s–a hostile bid with a highly targeted messagethat featured this emotional plea:
WBD shareholders deserve an opportunity to consider our superior all-cash offer for their shares in the entire company. Our public offer, which is on the same terms we provided to the Warner Bros. Discovery Board of Directors in private, provides superior value, and a more certain and quicker path to completion. We believe the WBD Board of Directors is pursuing an inferior proposal which exposes shareholders to a mix of cash and stock, an uncertain future trading value of the Global Networks linear cable business and a challenging regulatory approval process. We are taking our offer directly to shareholders to give them the opportunity to act in their own best interests and maximize the value of their shares.
We believe our offer will create a stronger Hollywood. It is in the best interests of the creative community, consumers and the movie theater industry. We believe they will benefit from the enhanced competition, higher content spend and theatrical release output, and a greater number of movies in theaters as a result of our proposed transaction. We look forward to working to expeditiously deliver this opportunity so that all stakeholders can begin to capitalize on the benefits of the combined company.”
Ellison amplified his sentiments the way only a jilted lover who happens to run a struggling media company could–by sharing them with the modest audience of a competitor’s business channel. As Blancaflor continued:
In an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box today (Dec. 8), Ellison called a Netflix acquisition a “horrible deal for Hollywood” and argued that Paramount’s offer would better serve customers and the industry. “As someone who spent the last 15 years of my life producing movies and television shows, this is an industry that I love, this is an existential moment for our business, and we believe that what we are offering is better for Hollywood. It’s better for the customers and it’s pro-competitive,” he said.
Central to his campaign are emotional touchpoints that attempt to assuage the fears and consternations that have been amplified almost hourly by overreactors on both sides of the aisle. DEADLINE’s Anthony
Should Paramount succeed in acquiring Warner Bros, the combined studio will release more than 30 theatrical titles a year. This was Paramount CEO David Ellison’s promise during a phone presser following news of the conglom’s hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros Discovery.
Such words mean a tremendous amount to exhibition and some content creators in the industry who have been fearful about a Netflix-Warner Bros. marriage. Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos spoke about his commitment to theatrical if the streamer acquires Warner Bros, but he hopes to “evolve” the window to meet consumer’s demand for content. Netflix recently dropped the ball on the theatrical release for Rian Johnson’s threequel Wake Up Dead Man: Knives Out Mystery, failing to book the top three theater chains due to a lack of a 30 day window. The movie did substantially less in its limited release with over $4M in its 5-day Thanksgiving launch versus when Netflix had the chains on board for the franchise’s previous chapter, Glass Onion, in 2022 which grossed $13M+.
And over in the Land of Confusion, our friend Rick Ellis revealed his own backchannel chatter in yesterday morning’s (and we do mean morning; it hit my inbox jist before 5 AM) TOO MUCH TV newsletter:
(A) reader email I received on Friday… came from someone who is a moderately popular conservative influencer, but also someone who has a strong sense of what he will and won’t for the cause. He had just received a unsolicited pitch from someone he didn’t know. A bland Gmail address and a name he had never heard before. But the subject of the email got his attention:
I will note that I saw a lot of thought-provoking tweets over the weekend on X. And I can’t help suspecting that not all of the opinions being shared by the various conservative influencers and media types were entirely sincere:
Thoughts like these are certainly recognized by additional Ellison comments that THE WRAP’s Corbin Bolies reported on:
Paramount CEO David Ellison said on Monday he wants a combined CNN-CBS news operation to serve as “a scaled news service that is basically, fundamentally, in the trust business” as his company launches a hostile takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery to compete with Netflix’s $82.7 billion bid. Ellison told CNBC’s David Faber that he wanted the combined news service to speak to “the 70% of Americans that are in the middle,” echoing his public vision for the Bari Weiss-led CBS News.
I suspect leaning on Erica Kirk and Marjorie Taylor Brown–er, Greene–as guest prime time interview subjects on back-to-back evenings would suggest those thought leaders are being addressed and appeased already. But forgetting for a moment the conspiracy theory-laden assumptions being reflected in Netflix’s development slate, I have a burning question of my own.
Exactly who or what on the entertainment side of the aisle is Ellison courting to give those folks any comfort that the Paramount plan is any less, pardon the misuse of the phrase, “woke”?
After all, he’s losing the services of Taylor Sheridan, who has arguably propped up his networks and platforms practically single-handedly with clearly flyover-state-centric popular dramas such as YELLOWSTONE, TULSA KING and LANDMAN. And the person he’s recruited to find the next talent wave–Cindy Holland–just happens to have been the executive that signed off on the majority of those hell-and-damnation Netflix projects in her previous gig. Amomg the showrunners she’d potentially inherit relationships with if Ellison’s quixotic quest is realized would be the likes of Greg Berlanti, the de facto Sheridan of the CW/B, and Chuck Lorre. who hasn’t worked on a successful show set anywhere but Los Angeles since the early days of MIKE AND MOLLY.
Well, Cindy, you got anyone in your bullpen warming up that might be able to tap into the tastes of those disfranchised 70 per cent? The creators of STRANGER THINGS, you say? I’d think again. And sorry, David, not everything Skydance produced under your watch was TOP GUN, either in attitude or appeal. Not that I have a shareholder vote myself, David, but I’d personally feel a lot better about championing your bid if you’d be a shred more transparent with your plans for the “middle of the paper” than you’ve been for the front page.
Incidentally, since you’re apparently willing to accept what your shareholders are apparently conditioned to think are a worthless array of domestic and international cable networks that Teddy Bear has bear-sh-t all over even a few spare thoughts on how to fill all those hours with something with a tad more upside would also help your case. After all, SOUTH PARK is just one half-hour every two weeks.
If you’re indeed having trouble, you can always resort to yet another tactic that jilted young lovers of your generation increasingly utilize when they’re at a loss for words. The same solution I fall back on when I’m unable to compose a graphic. After all, these days even your hero Maverick often needs a Copilot.
Until next time…