A dozen state attorneys general have filed an antitrust lawsuit in an effort to block Paramount from buying Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). The AGs – from Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Washington – filed the lawsuit a month after the Justice Department gave the green light to the $110 billion merger. It was reported in early June that several states were considering trying to block the deal.
The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The AGs allege that the merger would violate the Clayton Act by reducing competition between the distribution of wide-release theatrical films, the distribution of highly anticipated, highest-grossing theatrical films, and the licensing of basic cable channels to distributors. Although the suit claims that “Paramount’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. will likely harm competition in many areas of commerce,” it does not explicitly focus on the potential impact on the streaming market.
“The illegal merger of these two entertainment giants would result in higher prices, lower quality and less content for film and television, harming movie theaters, basic cable providers and, ultimately, the audiences sitting on every couch and movie theater seat in the United States,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement. “Consolidation here not only leads to higher prices, but it also leads to fewer opportunities for important stories to come to life, and fewer ways for audiences to discover stories, ideas and perspectives beyond their own experiences.”
Bonta’s office noted in a press release that a combination of Paramount and WBD (which are two of the five largest film distributors) would account for a 27 percent share of the “large-scale theatrical distribution” market. It defines the “expected distribution of highest-grossing theatrical films” as a subset of the market that concerns “expected blockbuster films with large audiences and large production budgets.” He claims that, if the merger goes through, the combined entity Paramount and WBD would control three-tenths of those films.
In terms of distributing basic cable channels to satellite and cable providers, the two companies would account for a 27 percent market share. Bonta’s office noted that WBD is currently the second-largest player in the industry, with Paramount in third place.
Paramount claimed that consumers would benefit from the merger because Variety Remarks. CEO David Ellison said the combined company would release at least 30 films a year.
The company also argued that, combined with WBD, it would provide stronger competition in the streaming market. As of the end of March, WBD had more than 140 million streaming subscribers worldwide and Paramount+ had 79.6 million. Disney and Netflix no longer regularly share their subscriber numbers. At the end of June 2025, Disney+ and Hulu had a total of 183 million subscribers. At the end of last year, Netflix had more than 325 million paying members.
State attorneys general are expected to seek an injunction to stop the deal from going through. Paramount and WBD still need approval from regulators in other markets. The European Union said this month that Paramount had agreed to make certain concessions in order to gain approval from the bloc. The provisional deadline for a decision is July 22. The UK’s antitrust watchdog, the Competition and Markets Authority, opened an ongoing investigation into the deal in June.
