{"id":1024532,"date":"2026-08-26T04:15:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T04:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1024532\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T04:15:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T04:15:17","slug":"iowa-ag-says-shes-suing-california-for-paramount-warner-bros-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1024532\/","title":{"rendered":"Iowa AG Says She’s Suing California For Paramount-Warner Bros. Lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIowa Attorney General Brenna Bird wrote in an op-ed for The Daily Wire <\/a>that she is suing California for leading the charge in the lawsuit against the Paramount<\/a>\u2013Warner Bros<\/a>. merger.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cCalifornia is once again trying to be the country\u2019s regulator. And once again California is defying common sense to raise costs around the country,\u201d Bird wrote. \u201cThat makes this a dispute between states, and the Constitution says those can only be heard in the U.S. Supreme Court.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s unclear if Bird has filed any paperwork for her lawsuit or if there\u2019s any legal authority that the state of Iowa could invoke. However, the threat of taking California to the Supreme Court may be enough to bring the state\u2019s AG Rob Bonta<\/a> back to the bargaining table.<\/p>\n

\n\tBird argues that \u201cany Iowa family\u201d would tell you the cost of streaming is too high and that there are \u201cfewer quality shows\u201d to choose from. She says these are symptoms of one company getting \u201ctoo far in front,\u201d and the competitors being \u201ctoo small to catch up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA merger between Paramount and Warner Bros., she writes, would remedy this.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNetflix dominates the market for streaming,\u201d Bird wrote. \u201cParamount+ and HBO Max together are smaller than Netflix, smaller than Disney, and smaller than Amazon. The merger could create a company to compete: an estimated $6 billion in savings to reinvest, and a public commitment to release at least 30 movies in theaters every year. More movies mean more entertainment \u2014 and more competition means lower prices.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShe called Paramount\u2019s promise to release 30 theatrical films a year a \u201cbig deal,\u201d adding, \u201cThat means more real choice for the family deciding which subscription to keep and which to cancel; more entertainment for small-town theaters to put on the marquee; and even more work for the crews who build sets and run cameras. Iowans do not need an economist to explain that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn addition to hurting consumers, Bird asserts that the uncertainty, along with Paramount\u2019s $7 million ticking fee, will pull down an industry that\u2019s just starting to get back on its feet.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTwo storied American companies are frozen,\u201d she added. \u201cWarner Bros. cannot confidently green-light a film, upgrade its technology, or sign a long-term contract without knowing whether it will exist as an independent company next year. Paramount cannot execute its plans without a merger either. Employees cannot plan careers. And a movie that does not get made this year may never get made at all. Financing expires, talent moves on, and production slates are abandoned. No court ruling in 2027 can go back and produce the film that was never shot. And no Iowan will ever get to see that movie either.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBonta, along with 11 other state AGs, sued to stop<\/a> the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger in July after the DOJ pushed the deal through. Progress toward a settlement seemed in motion after the AGs and Paramount agreed to a sit-down on Monday. However, Bonta called off the meeting<\/a> at the last minute accusing the studio of leaking information about their settlement discussions.<\/p>\n

\n\tParamount denied<\/a> having anything to do with the leaks, writing in a statement that they \u201cshare AG Bonta\u2019s concerns about the public discussions and misreporting that has surrounded this deal.\u201d Still, Bonta doubled down. He said the AGs and Paramount \u201cdon\u2019t have anything scheduled,\u201d and that they won\u2019t return to settlement talks until the studio puts a \u201clid on their lying leaks.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird wrote in an op-ed for The Daily Wire that she is suing California…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1024533,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[9],"tags":[171,15329,13211,67,132,68,1021],"class_list":["post-1024532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-paramount","tag-rob-bonta","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-warner-bros"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117159875471185105","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1024532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1024532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1024532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1024533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1024532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1024532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1024532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}