The debate over the proposed Paramount–Warner Bros. merger has focused on a familiar concern: whether combining two major studios will eliminate jobs and reduce competition in Hollywood. Those concerns deserve serious consideration, but missing from the conversation is a bigger question: whether a stronger, better-capitalized studio could reverse the years-long decline in theatrical film production.
Paramount has committed to producing 30 movies a year, each with a 45-day exclusive theatrical window. To understand what that could mean for theaters and communities across the country, my colleagues Russ Kashian, Erik Bergren and I did an economic analysis of this commitment, and we found that it could generate almost $20 billion in annual U.S. economic activity and support over 90,000 jobs across the country.
