• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer, Yesterday

The Paramount Pictures arch now stands in the interior of the movie studio complex, but can be seen from Melrose Avenue as a symbol of Hollywood -- an iconic landmark that I remember as a kid in the Los Angeles area.  

Through the years, the studio expanded to engulf the surrounding public streets, which moved the historic gate from the perimeter to the interior of the lot.

Now David Ellison is considering relocating Paramount's headquarters from California, taking billions of production dollars with the company -- if California Attorney General Rob Bonta challenges the company's Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery deal. 

A merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery would consolidate massive media portfolios, including streaming services such as Max and Paramount+ and linear networks.

The New York Times reported that the deal combines two of Hollywood's "Big Five" legacy film lots, "vastly altering theatrical distribution."

Advertisers could be left with fewer independent networks to negotiate with for ad space, but a combined company could offer advertisers massive amounts of user data across a much larger audience, improving targeting capabilities.

The combined companies could also create a powerhouse in sports broadcasting.

On Sunday, Semafor published the report based on anonymous sources about the deal, stating that Ellison’s “friends and advisers” had been “pushing the media executive to consider shifting his business out of the state.”

Then on Monday, Bonta and 12 states officially filed an antitrust lawsuit to block the $110 billion Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger. 

“Today, I am leading a coalition of states in challenging the proposed merger of Warner Bros. and Paramount and asking the court to block the deal," Bonta stated in a release. "The unlawful merger of these two entertainment behemoths would lead to higher prices, lower quality, and less content for film and television, harming movie theaters, basic cable distributors, and ultimately, audiences on every sofa and movie theater seat in the U.S.”

Although Bonta did not discuss ad rates specifically, less competition could lead to higher ad rates, reducing the return on investment (ROI) for performance campaigns.

When Bonta wrote that consolidation would lead to higher prices and fewer opportunities, he specifically mentioned important ways to bring storytelling to life, and less ways for audiences to encounter ideas, as well as perspectives beyond their own experiences.

The coalition is fighting for "free and fair markets," he said, because "no one is above the law."

An opinion piece written by Bonta and published in Variety reads like a man standing on a soapbox after California for years drove entertainment and entertainers from the state with a billionaire tax and unfriendly laws.

“The entertainment industry doesn’t exist simply to hawk movies and TV shows like they’re any other commodity,” Bonta wrote in Variety. “It exists to tell stories, spark ideas and curiosity, inspire and inform, and open our eyes to new perspectives that we may never have encountered otherwise.”

If Ellison follows through on moving Paramount's headquarters out of California, the production landscape will shift geographically, but perhaps that would just be what my Golden State needs to wake up.