I’ve been meaning to write this article for some time. Every time I would go to write, I would become sad, anxious, and not clear in thought. The news of Paramount buying Warner Brothers, well, that pushed me over the edge. I had to get my thoughts to paper, so to speak.

That another major original Hollywood film studio will succumb to the ever growing chains of Capitalism is immensely heartbreaking. The consolidation of power among the elite in this country is truly troubling. Ellison knows fuck all about running a studio. Look how he’s destroying Paramount. It’s all a joke to them. The entire industry is expendable. The mega rich have the control and the artists underneath that love film and filmmaking with all of their soul are being drowned. Art doesn’t make money. And if it doesn’t make money, they don’t want it. If they can’t use it to influence and control the masses, they don’t want it.

I’m not surprised that this deal is going through. I’m more disheartened that any deal is going through at all. That any of this is happening at all. The realization that there’s nobody at the top of these studios that truly loves and appreciates film has hit me like a ton of bricks. Nobody holds value in the history of Hollywood, the historical nature of these studios. Nobody holds a love for telling human driven stories. I mean, their lean towards AI in various capacities tells us they don’t even want human driven movies. All to put money back in their own pockets in various ways with stocks and bonds and whatever the hell else.

I want to make clear, both outcomes were bad here. Whether it was Netflix buying Warner Brothers or Paramount buying Warner Brothers, neither were ideal. Neither should be happening at all. I am pretty sure we all learned about monopolies in school and were told “monopolies won’t happen here because of the system we have set up”. Yeah. Okay.

When looking at the two options, though, Netflix was the better of the two solely because Paramount will turn Warner Brothers into a propaganda machine. The people with the most money, the most influence will be allowed to make their films, make their media for the masses, regardless of whether or not there is any artistic integrity while those that actually have something important and meaningful to say will be silenced.

Honestly, I can’t even believe that I am having to say that Netflix was the better answer in this shitty equation because a sale to Netflix then becomes extremely detrimental to the movie theater industry. Neither one of these options was good. The moment this crazy idea was even brought up, it should have been knocked right down. It is a grotesque consolidation of the film industry.

With Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” (2026) being the epitome of the literacy crisis and Scream 7 (2026) morphing into Stab 7, I desperately need to focus on the filmmakers that are doing it because it is an extension of them. Not because it will get them another paycheck. I desperately need to focus on movies when they were fun, instead of a never ending cash cow of IP for the studio. I need to focus on the classics. I need to discover and rediscover films from forgotten eras. I need whatever the hell is happening in Los Angeles to stop. And I need the people that actually love film to run things. Because whatever the hell this is, it is not it.