Hollywood powerbroker Ari Emanuel rallied to the defense of his friend and business associate David Ellison, claiming that the state attorneys general trying to block Paramount’s Warner Bros. Discovery deal are threatening to “destroy” competition in the entertainment industry.
Emanuel, who is CEO of TKO Group and former head of Endeavor, penned an op-ed published Tuesday by the Wall Street Journal. In it, Emanuel echoes many of Paramount’s key talking points. He says the lawsuit led by California attorney general Rob Bonta puts Hollywood — which he says has made “America the cultural center of the world” and is “a domestic economic growth engine” — at risk. The state AGs “say they are protecting competition. Their actions threaten to destroy it,” he says.
“I want to take Mr. Bonta at his word when he says he is defending California’s creative community. But that goal isn’t served by decimating one company and hobbling the other,” Emanuel writes. “Countless writers, directors, actors, crews, theater owners and others will be worse off for it.”
Emanuel calls the states’ antitrust case “trash.”
“You know an antitrust case is trash when it ignores some of the fastest-growing competitors in the market,” writes Emanuel. The state attorneys general “pretend Amazon MGM, A24 and Lionsgate don’t exist and that Netflix isn’t leaning into theatrical films with its coming release of Greta Gerwig’s ‘Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew’ (which I suspect will whet its appetite for more).” Emanuel says that Amazon MGM “crushed it” with “Project Hail Mary,” garnering nearly $700 million worldwide at the box office, while Lionsgate’s “Michael” crossed $1 billion.
