{"id":985728,"date":"2026-08-07T01:23:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T01:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/985728\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T01:23:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T01:23:14","slug":"paramount-wbd-deal-gets-strong-endorsement-from-lionsgate-ceo-jon-feltheimer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/985728\/","title":{"rendered":"Paramount-WBD Deal Gets Strong Endorsement From Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lionsgate<\/a> CEO Jon Feltheimer<\/a> went to bat Thursday for Paramount<\/a> CEO David Ellison<\/a> and the company\u2019s hung-up merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. <\/p>\n

\u201cUncertainty is the worst thing for our business, and uncertainty and delay is not good for anybody,\u201d the exec said in response to a Wall Street analyst\u2019s question during Lionsgate\u2019s quarterly earnings<\/a> call. \u201cI\u2019m in favor of this transaction, but most importantly, I\u2019m in favor of certainty and I\u2019m getting all of the delay out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The $110 billion mega-deal breezed through regulatory review before hitting a major barrier in July, when the Writers Guild of America and 12 state attorneys general filed an antitrust lawsuit. Following a judge\u2019s initial rulings siding with the plaintiffs, a full trial has now been scheduled for next March. The months-long delay, barring a settlement, has added to industry angst given how rapidly the marketplace keeps changing due to tech and audience shifts.<\/p>\n

Feltheimer joins fellow deal supporters TKO CEO Ari Emanuel and the CEOs of major theater chains AMC and Regal, who have recently made public comments on it. On the other side, a number of A-listers have added their names to an anti-merger petition that has drawn more than 5,000 signatures, citing fears about potential layoffs and sensitivity around combining two major studios.<\/p>\n

The Lionsgate exec added a personal endorsement of Ellison along with addressing the importance of the deal on a broader industry level. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe know David Ellison well,\u201d he said. \u201cWe did his first series, Manhattan, some years ago, I can tell you that I was super impressed with him. He loves content. I have no reason not to believe that he will be investing very heavily in content, whether it\u2019s a 30-film slate or whether it\u2019s at a bolstered Paramount+.\u201d<\/p>\n

Feltheimer said he has held recent discussions with the companies about potential film co-financing opportunities. Also, as a supplier to Netflix and other major streamers, he sees the potential boost to Paramount+ as a draw. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, a better-financed streamer, a competitive streamer, would be better for us, better for us in terms of original programming, better for us in terms of selling library,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Doing more business with a bulked-up Paramount \u201cwould be good for us, and would be good for the industry,\u201d Feltheimer added. \u201cOverall, the more movies that are in the marketplace \u2013 while it\u2019s competitive \u2013 is good. As you know, the rising tide lifts all boats.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer went to bat Thursday for Paramount CEO David Ellison and the company\u2019s hung-up merger…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":985729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[9],"tags":[32129,13656,171,395413,12262,8396,15329,269047,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-985728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-david-ellison","tag-earnings","tag-entertainment","tag-jon-feltheimer","tag-lionsgate","tag-mergers-and-acquisitions","tag-paramount","tag-paramount-wbd","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117051615251371997","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985728","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=985728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/985729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=985728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=985728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=985728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}