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Paramount Warner Bros. Merger - Antitrust Settlement

The Paramount-Warner Merger Is Permanent. The Guardrails for Movie Theatres Are Not

The state settlement puts theatrical output, windows, rental terms and catalogue access into a court order, but allows a permanent merger to close without the structural remedies California and the other state attorneys general once demanded. California Attorney General Rob Bonta had a peculiar assi…

(From left) Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, California Attorney General, Rob Bonta, Cinema United President & CEO, Michael O'Leary

Cinema United Didn’t Back the Paramount-Warner Merger. It Put Its Terms on the Table.

As Paramount Skydance wins conditional support from America’s largest theatre chains, Cinema United is trying to turn months of warnings about consolidation into enforceable protections, particularly for smaller theatres that lack the leverage to negotiate their own deals. Four months ago, Michael O…

CinemaCon 2026 - David Ellison of Paramount Skydance, Michael O'Leary of Cinema United and Charles Rivkin of the Motion Picture Association

CinemaCon 2026: A Merger Splits the House

CinemaCon has always been a place where the industry gathers to reassure itself. That was true again this year inside the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, where the annual State of the Industry presentations delivered a familiar message: theatrical is resilient, culturally vital, and firmly back on trac…

Disney to Tailor DCP Delivery for “Avatar: Fire and Ash” Based on Global Screen Survey

One of the highlights at the recently concluded CineEurope 2025 in Barcelona was the presentation of footage from “Avatar: Fire and Ash” shown by Disney in both CINITY and 3D. Indeed, as anticipation builds for the December release of James Cameron’s latest film, Disney is calling…

Theatrical Releases Profit As Streaming Losses Mount

CJ Analysis: Theatrical Releases Profit As Streaming Losses Mount

Long before COVID sparked a global pandemic in 2020, leaving millions dead and upending the world economy, another virus began spreading across the planet. Though not as deadly as COVID, this virus spreads just as easily, is often not immediately detected and has proven to be just as disruptive to t…

Why Major European and Japanese Cinema Chains Are Refusing to Play “Black Widow”

The Walt Disney Company has suffered the largest and most widespread theatrical refusal to play one of its tentpole releases after cinema chains in Germany, Belgium, Scandinavia and Japan refused to program Marvel’s “Black Widow.” The disagreement with many of Europe’s leading mid-size cinema chains…

Celluloid Junkie’s 2019 Cinema Predictions

“It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future,” Yogi Berra famously quipped. This did not stop the editorial team at Celluloid Junkie from bravely sticking their necks out a year ago to read the tea leaves on what 2018 would have in store. Did we get it right? As alw…

El Capitan Theatre Up For Sale

You can own a piece of Hollywood history for a mere. . . USD $31 million! The Los Angeles Times reported yesterday that the El Capitan Theatre, located in the heart of Hollywood, has been put up for sale by its owner, CUNA Mutual Group. The building in which the theatre resides also contains six-st…

Universal and Disney Close To VPF Deal With DCIP

And then there were four. Four studios that is. Or so says the Wall Street Journal which broke a story today reporting that Universal Pictures and Walt Disney Company have reached a virtual print fee deal with Digital Cinema Implementation Partners, the joint venture formed by North American exhib…

Disney Goes All Natural

While Earth day may not be as big a holiday as say, Christmas or Independence Day, but don’t tell that to the Walt Disney Company. On Monday, just a day before Earth Day, the studio had the media buzzing upon announcing that it would be launching a new division aimed at production and distribu…