Mark Ruffalo sharpened Hollywood’s campaign against Paramount Skydance’s proposed takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery on Wednesday, using a Senate hearing convened by Sen. Cory Booker to argue that the $110 billion deal would cut jobs, shrink studio output and hand too much power to one company.
The hearing landed two days after more than 1,000 actors, writers, directors and producers signed an open letter urging regulators to stop the transaction, which still faces a Warner Bros. shareholder vote on April 23 and multiple antitrust reviews in the U.S. and abroad.
Ruffalo’s intervention adds star power to a fight that had already spread from guild circles to regulators, exhibitors and state officials. The Justice Department has issued subpoenas as part of its review and is seeking information about studio output, content rights, streaming competition and the effect on movie theaters.
In Britain, the Competition and Markets Authority said it expects to open a Phase 1 investigation in the coming weeks and is taking public comments through April 27. California Attorney General Rob Bonta has said his office is already investigating the deal and will conduct a vigorous review, arguing the state has a direct stake in preserving competition in an industry that anchors a large share of its economy.
Paramount has pitched the merger as a scale play built for a bruising media market. David Ellison has pledged to keep Paramount and Warner Bros. operating as separate studios, release at least 30 theatrical films a year, preserve broad licensing and maintain full theatrical windows before movies move to premium video-on-demand or streaming. Paramount has said the combination would create a better-capitalized company able to greenlight more projects and reach audiences worldwide.
Skeptics say that promise collides with recent history. Cinema United chief executive Michael O’Leary told theater owners at CinemaCon that consolidation usually leads to fewer wide releases, tighter control over release windows and weaker bargaining conditions for exhibitors.
Even as proxy adviser Glass Lewis recommended that Warner Bros. shareholders back the deal, it also urged them to reject a golden-parachute package that could send chief executive David Zaslav up to $887 million, a flashpoint that has deepened scrutiny of who stands to gain if the merger clears.
