Why The Skydance Merger Is Horrible For Everyone

My deepest, truest, realest passion is film and the art of filmmaking. I went to film school, worked professionally in TV, and continue to produce my own content and short films independently. While I love the artistry of film, I’ve spent the last decade really understanding the business of it because I want to know why the people with money make the choices they do (spoiler: it’s fear. They’re always operating out of a place of fear and get surprised when scared money doesn’t make money.)

Having a baseline understanding of the various ways profit can be generated through film and television, I can tell you right now that the recent merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. is bad for everyone involved, with consumers and creatives likely bearing the brunt of the damage.

Why The Merger Is Bad For Creatives 

I’ve experienced the impact of the film and TV industry’s contraction firsthand, after I was laid off from my job at G4. Before the strike, I actually had some professional traction and was getting closer to my goal of getting into a writer’s room for a scripted show. 

While the strike was necessary to get better pay for streaming shows, it had the unintended consequence of studios using the work stoppage as a way to quietly cancel shows, end first look deals, and drastically reduce the number of shows and movies they produce. This has resulted in a dramatic contraction in the number of jobs available. I had a friend who sold a show and was getting ready to staff before the strike, and after the strike there was nothing. I know several people who have stacked resumes and are now struggling to find work in the industry. 

I went from making the most money I’ve made in my career to living at home and working two jobs to make ends meet. Unfortunately, my experience is fairly common, and it’s only going to become more common as a result of this merger. There are simply fewer places for writers to sell their scripts, and that lack of competition means that studios have far more leverage when it comes to driving down wages. So even if you are a working creative, you’ll probably still need a day job unless you make an Obsession-level hit. 

Black and brown creatives have felt this shift the most, as studios quickly showed all that talk about diversity was just hot air. Despite Black and brown audiences being a major driver of box office and streaming numbers, our stories still aren’t valued, with 2025 showing a significant decrease in Black and brown leads. Paramount wasted no time killing its DEI initiatives ahead of its merger last year, and David Ellison is very friendly with President Donald Trump. 

It should come as no surprise that Skydance is more likely to hire disgraced white men than interesting Black creatives. It certainly sends a message when it appears that harassing women seems more likely to get you hired at Skydance than actually being good at your job. 

Why The Merger Is Bad For Consumers

Skydance owns two of the major streamers in Paramount + and HBO Max. Skydance CEO David Ellison has already said that he intends to combine the streamers into one service down the line. You have to imagine that Skydance is going to be bullish about raising prices on its streaming offerings as a way to pay down the massive debt. Within a week of the deal closing, Skydance has already raised prices for Discovery+, a service I honestly didn’t know was still operating.

Given the company’s focus on blockbuster, four-quadrant movies, we’re probably going to see a lot of big-budget, franchise movies that play it completely safe. If you’ve seen any of Skydance’s streaming output like Ghosted, Heart of Stone, or Balls Up, it genuinely makes you question the taste of the people greenlighting these movies. 

Due to the massive amount of debt on its books, don’t be surprised if their movies start looking cheaper as they find a way to cut costs. In a memo sent to staffers after the merger closed, Ellison and co-CEO Ynon Kreiz said they “will embrace the opportunities AI provides to expand what our creatives can imagine and to make our businesses even more productive.”

Which, in corpo speak, means they’re going to use AI to hire fewer people and make cheaper special effects. 

There’s also the whole “one company owning two major news networks” issue that is a can of worms unto itself. The Skydance merger is likely going to result in consumers having to pay more money for a worse product, which sadly, seems to be the norm these days. 

Why The Merger Is Bad For Skydance, Actually 

For the life of me, I don’t know why David Ellison was so bullish on buying Warner Bros. only a year after he acquired Paramount. Paramount was not in good shape when Skydance acquired it, and a smart man would’ve devoted all their time, effort, and energy into restoring Paramount’s brand before immediately rushing into another acquisition. This is still Ellison’s first year running Paramount, and it hasn’t exactly been a stunning turnaround for the company. 

Disney and Universal have already crossed the $4 and $5 billion mark respectively, while the combined Warner Bros. and Paramount have barely cracked just over $1 billion. Of the top 20 films at the domestic box office so far this year, Paramount and Warner Bros. only have three movies on the list: Scary Movie (2026) at 17, Wuthering Heights at 19, and Mortal Kombat II at 20. 

Skydance is now a massive company with $80 billion in debt on its books. The company can’t afford a costly miss, and if you know anything about film and TV, it’s an industry filled with costly misses. For every Spider-Man: Brand New Day that breaks box-office records, there are countless movies like Masters of the Universe that barely break even. 

Warner Bros. had a fantastic 2025 fueled by the success of A Minecraft Movie, Superman, Sinners, and Best Picture winner One Battle After Another. 2026 has been another story, with WB putting out a string of costly misses from The Bride!, Supergirl, and Mortal Kombat II. Digger, which I loved and implore everyone to see, is projected to be a $245 million loss for WB. 

Not exactly an inauspicious start for the burgeoning megacompany. 

Skydance is on the hook to release 30 movies a year as part of a settlement with California Attorney General Rob Bonta. That output requires a level of manpower that could easily see people spread thin as a result of the inevitable layoffs that are set to arrive in the coming weeks and months. 

Wall Street has been skeptical of the company’s prospects, as its stock has been trending downward since the merger closed and its credit rating has been downgraded. There’s also the fact that Skydance only has three years to get its debt under control, or Ellison is gonna have to run to his father, Larry Ellison, for more money to satisfy lenders. 

So, don’t be surprised if that three-year mark hits and we see Skydance selling off the various brands it owns to pay down that debt. Don’t you love our corporate-owned future? 

So What Do We Do?

Well, as consumers, we don’t really have many options when it comes to streaming. 

Support smaller movies; actually put your money where your mouth is. We can’t complain about Hollywood regurgitating the same old stories and then go, “I’ll just wait for that to hit streaming” when original films hit theaters. This year had fantastic films from Black artists like Is God Is, I Love Boosters, and If I Go Will They Miss Me underperform at the box office. If we ain’t showing up when it counts, it’s only going to result in fewer opportunities for Black artists both in front of and behind the camera. 

As artists, we have to redefine our idea of success because the only two options at our disposal are working within a system that continues to undervalue the workers who keep it alive, or competing against it. Given how bad the job market is, I don’t begrudge anybody who works within the studio system because the cost of living is no joke. We need outsiders to get in the game, because it can’t just be a handful of corporations deciding what art does and doesn’t get made. 

Things are awful at the moment, but if the choice is between fighting the good fight or sitting around complaining about how bad things are, then it sounds like it’s time for all of us to square up.

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