Did 'South Park' Torpedo Paramount’s Plan to Acquire Warner Bros.?
As most of the world is well aware by now, Netflix just decided to splurge and treat itself to Warner Bros. for $72 billion, giving the streaming giant ownership over franchises like Harry Potter, their rival streaming service HBO Max and Dan Aykroyd’s 1991 bomb Nothing But Trouble, which is just begging to be turned into a big-budget limited series.
Obviously this acquisition raises some huge concerns within the industry, sending movie theaters and exhibitors into a “panic” now that the famously big-screen-averse Netflix will control a major studio.
Netflix’s closest competition, it would seem, was Paramount, whose bids ultimately failed to sway the David Zaslav-led company. A letter that Paramount's attorneys sent to Zaslav and company blasted Warner Bros. for “favoring a rival bid” from Netflix even after “Paramount has submitted five offers.”
Paramount went on to allege that the process was “tainted” by conflicts of interest, including “certain members of management’s potential personal interests in post-transaction roles and compensation as a result of the economic incentives embedded in recent amendments to employment arrangements.”
Another possible reason why the studio behind both Casablanca and Space Jam: A New Legacy discounted Paramount’s offer involves four foul-mouthed, two-dimensional 10-year-old boys…
As Oliver Darcy reported in Status, the recent legal spat between Paramount and Warner Bros. concerning the streaming rights to South Park “helped poison the well” between Zaslav and Paramount Skydance’s new CEO David Ellison.
Specifically, during the negotiations, Zaslav suggested sharing the rights as part of a “10-year, $1 billion licensing agreement,” prompting Ellison to counter with a 5-year deal in which the “licensing fee would also be cut in about half.” The two had a “handshake agreement,” but when Paramount learned that their deal with Parker and Stone would be pricier than expected, Ellison wanted Warner Bros. to “absorb half the additional cost.”
They also rebuffed the South Park creators’ offer to pay for it themselves in order to “get a deal done.” This last minute hiccup allegedly “left Zaslav irritated and increasingly distrustful of Ellison.”
For better or for worse, it seems as though the battle over who gets to stream cartoon depictions of Donald Trump’s micropenis played at least some part in shaping the future of the entertainment industry.
Now that Paramount no longer needs the Trump administration to approve a merger with Netflix, does that mean that Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan are out of a job?