Paramount CEO David Ellison is trying to do something that no other studio has done in the modern age of cinema — release 30 films annually.

Ellison once again promised this theatrical feat in front of thousands of exhibitors at CinemaCon earlier this month. Applause erupted from the crowd after he made the pronouncement.

But privately, movie theater operators have expressed concerns and skepticism about the proposed future slate of films. While a massive string of releases would help cinemas, companies doubt he will be able to follow through on the promise.

His 30-film plan would hinge on Paramount receiving regulatory approval for its proposed merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, which the latter company’s shareholders approved last week. Ellison noted that each studio would produce 15 films a year.

However, Ellison has not provided many details about those 30 releases, and it’s not clear how he would hit the ambitious goal. Representatives for Paramount did not reply to CNBC’s request for comment.

It’s unclear if all of the films would have wide releases (meaning they eventually play in at least 1,500 theaters, though the typical benchmark is 2,000). It’s also not certain whether the company will count films it distributes but doesn’t produce as part of this figure, or how many of those proposed titles will be considered tentpole blockbusters.

Movie theater operators and industry experts are skeptical that Paramount would be able to sustain a 30-film slate after the initial merger. After all, part of the consolidation process is eliminating redundancies, which inevitably leads to layoffs as well as cost-cutting measures that often result in fewer productions.

“When it comes to traditional brand-new wide release films, 30 movies a year is a lofty plan given that most distributors are releasing on average anywhere from 10 to 15 wide releases each year,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of market trends at Comscore.

In fact, in the last 25 years, no studio has released 30 films in a single year. The combination of 20th Century Fox and Searchlight came close in 2006 when the studios had 25 wide releases, according to data from Comscore.

The data also show that when studios have merged in the past, the result has been fewer theatrical releases, not more.

Prior to acquiring 21st Century Fox and its studio assets, Disney was averaging 12 films a year dating back to 2000. Meanwhile, the combined efforts of 20th Century Fox and Searchlight averaged 16 films during that same time. Not including 2020, in which theatrical releases were impacted by pandemic-related cinema closures, Disney has averaged around 13 films a year following the 2019 merger.

The line chart shows the annual film releases by Disney and 20th Century between 2000 and 2019…

President Donald Trump, top officials in his administration and many MAGA figures are strongly pushing for a White House ballroom to be built, citing a shooting incident just outside the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner that led to his evacuation from the event at the Washington Hilton on Saturday night.

Trump and his backers say building the controversial and legally challenged $400 million grand ballroom that he envisions is essential to keeping him — and future presidents — safe from assassination attacks and other security threats.

But critics argue that a ballroom at the White House would not be accepted as a substitute for a private venue for non-governmental events and that presidents would undoubtedly travel around the country and world, appearing in public at many venues.

Despite that first claim, the Department of Justice, in a letter Sunday to a lawyer whose client is challenging the construction of the ballroom, suggested that the White House Correspondents’ Association could have its annual dinner at the ballroom once it is built.

“When the White House ballroom is complete, President Trump and his successors will no longer need to venture beyond the safety of the White House perimeter to attend large gatherings at the Washington Hilton,” Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate wrote Gregory Craig, who is representing the National Trust for Historical Preservation in its lawsuit seeking to block the ballroom from being built without Congress’s say-so.

But critics say Trump and his allies are cynically retrofitting their arguments for the ballroom by citing Saturday’s incident.

They also say there is good reason to believe that he — and any future president — would not stop attending events outside the White House grounds even if that ballroom ends up getting built.

They also scoff at the idea that the WHCA — an independent association of journalists who cover the White House — would agree to hold its dinner at the White House, much less when a harsh critic of the media like Trump occupies the Oval Office.

Weijia Jiang, the WHCA’s president and a reporter with CBS, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC on that question.

But Kelly McBride, senior vice president and chair of the Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership
at the Poynter Institute, a non-profit that promotes journalistic ethics and development, said, “There’s no way they’re going to do that,” when she was asked about the idea of the WHCA holding its dinner at the White…

President Donald Trump is reviving calls this week for Disney-owned ABC to pull comedian Jimmy Kimmel off the air in yet another test for late night TV during the Republican president’s second term.

While it’s not the first time Kimmel has faced backlash over a show monologue — his show was briefly suspended in September after broadcast station owners threatened to disrupt the program following comments about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk — the renewed challenges now fall under freshly installed Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro, who took the helm last month.

Trump and First Lady Melania Trump called on ABC to fire the late night host after he referred to the First Lady as an “expectant widow” during a comedy sketch last week, days before an alleged assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

Melania Trump said in a post on X that Kimmel’s comments were “hateful and violent rhetoric” and “intended to divide our country.” Shortly after, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that Kimmel’s comments amounted to a “call to violence” and were “far beyond the pale.”

In a subsequent monologue on Monday night, Kimmel addressed the backlash, saying the remark was “a joke about their age difference.” He added that it was “not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination. And they know that.”

White House Director of Communications Steven Cheung said in a post on X Tuesday that Kimmel should be “shunned” for “doubling down on that joke instead of doing the decent thing by apologizing.”

Representatives for Disney didn’t immediately respond to request for comment.

Back in September, broadcast station owners Nexstar and Sinclair said they would preempt Kimmel’s show, airing other content instead during his time slot, after Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr raised issue with Kimmel’s comments about Kirk.

Representatives for Nexstar and Sinclair declined to comment on the latest Kimmel comments.

Carr in September suggested broadcast station licenses were at risk of being revoked, spurring debate about First Amendment protections and the responsibility of national broadcasters like ABC to air generally acceptable content.

Disney returned Kimmel’s late night show to air a few days after the suspension, and Kimmel apologized for the comments in his first show back.

But the back and forth could serve as something of a precedent if the Trump administration keeps putting pressure on media firms.

On Tuesday, Semafor reported that the FCC was…

For years, Netflix top brass would tell investors they were builders not buyers. Now, that sentiment toward growth may be changing.

On Thursday Netflix reported its quarterly earnings. Typically, Netflix’s earnings calls are focused on metrics like engagement, content spending, price hikes and membership. While those factors were still present on Thursday’s call, analysts were also questioning Netflix’s merger and acquisition aspirations following the Warner Bros. Discovery sale process.

Late last year, Netflix emerged as a bidder for WBD, surprising many in the industry and market. Even more stunning was an announcement in December that Netflix had reached a deal to acquire WBD’s film studio and streaming assets in a $72 billion deal.

While the transaction initially raised eyebrows, it’s now opened the door to questions from media onlookers and insiders about whether the company needs to pursue other deals as streaming becomes more competitive.

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said Thursday that questions also arose both internally and externally about the company’s ability to do such a megadeal.

“What we did learn, though, was that our teams were more than up to the task,” said Sarandos. “We’ve learned so much about deal execution, about early integration.”

Netflix had said its reasoning was simple for the pivot toward a big acquisition. Despite being the largest streaming service by far when it comes to subscribers — 325 million paid global members reported in January — it wanted to deepen its bench of franchises and intellectual property, and get more squarely in the movie studio business.

Paramount Skydance ultimately upended the deal in February with a superior bid, and Netflix walked away (collecting its $2.8 billion breakup fee in short order).

“But mostly, we really built our M&A muscle,” Sarandos said. “And the most important benefit of this entire exercise, though, was that we tested our investment discipline.”

Netflix kicks off earnings season for media companies on Thursday with a quarterly report that Wall Street hopes will give more updates on the company’s path forward after walking away from its proposed deal for Warner Bros. Discovery.

Here’s how Netflix is expected to perform when it reports results for the first quarter of 2026, according to estimates from analysts polled by LSEG:

• Earnings per share: 76 cents estimated
• Revenue: $12.18 billion estimated

Last quarter Netflix’s management focused much of its earnings call with investors on its interest in WBD’s streaming and film assets, as well as progress in its advertising business.

Just weeks after the January earnings update, however, Netflix dropped its pursuit for WBD after Paramount Skydance put forth a superior offer for the entirety of WBD.

“Heading into earnings, Netflix finds itself in a very different spot than many expected just a month and a half ago. We were supposed to be talking about the company’s progress toward closing the Warner Bros. deal,” said Mike Proulx, vice president and research director at Forrester. “Instead, the question now is how Netflix competes in a streaming market that’s likely to get more crowded at the top.”

While Netflix’s stock has made considerable gains since walking away from its WBD deal — a more than 25% rally — it has raised questions about the path forward for the streaming giant.

In withdrawing from the acquisition of WBD, Netflix “avoided a substantial increase in debt, extensive regulatory scrutiny, and a long, complex integration process,” according to a Deutsche Bank research note on Monday.

The note added this will allow Wall Street to return its focus to Netflix’s engagement, pricing and advertising.

Outside of the WBD deal and Netflix’s potential aspirations in the broader media landscape, Wall Street’s attention has most often been on the advertising business, which has made considerable gains since launching in late 2022.

In January, Netflix management said the cheaper, ad-supported option was hitting its stride after being “slower out of the gate” in its early years on the market. Netflix reported more than $1.5 billion in advertising revenue in 2025, or about 3% of its total full-year revenue — which it expects to double this year.

For years, Wall Street was focused on subscriber growth for streaming platforms. However, since Netflix reported its first subscriber loss in 10 years in 2022, investors have shifted their focus to profitability. In response, media companies are focusing less on reporting subscriber numbers and more on other business initiatives, such as advertising and pricing increases.

Netflix once again hiked prices in late March, which analysts expect will add to overall 2026 revenue growth. The company did provide a subscriber update in January, when it said it had reached 325…

There’s a love affair on Wall Street between investors and streaming.

The romance started about a decade ago when consumers began cutting the cord with cable TV bundles en masse in favor of direct-to-consumer streaming apps. However, where investors were once enamored with subscriber growth, rewarding companies that were able to expand their consumer reach, their attentions have now shifted toward profitability.

To meet this new expectation, streaming companies have raised the prices of their services, cracked down on password sharing and delved into the ad-supported space. It’s also sparked the likes of Paramount Skydance to seek out the acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery for its extensive library of content and top-tier streaming service, HBO Max, in order to compete.

While streaming continues to drive media stocks, especially around quarterly earnings, it’s not clear when — or if — it will start driving profits for the smaller players.

“Is streaming a good business?” Robert Fishman, senior research analyst at MoffettNathanson, posed in a March research note to investors. “We raised and debated this critical question over the years leading us to determine the answer is yes, albeit only for those services with sufficient scale.”

For legacy media companies, streaming has yet to fully supplant the profits and advertising revenue of linear TV. Of course, both of those metrics have been in decline for companies like WBD, Paramount and its peers.

In response, streamers have largely raised subscription prices for consumers, begging the question of where the ceiling is for streaming costs. Between higher fees and the sheer number of services needed in order to have access to all content, consumers are starting to balk.

Still, with these continuous linear TV declines, investors cling to streaming as a bright spot, especially for companies that have made it profitable. Disney has been among the steadiest of legacy media companies when it comes to a profitable streaming business, but Paramount and WBD have seen profitable quarters and Comcast’s Peacock is narrowing losses.

“With streaming no one’s reporting sub numbers anymore, because now it’s all about profitability,” Doug Creutz, senior research analyst at Cowen, told CNBC. “And that’s the metric by which these these businesses are being judged. It’s, you know, can you get to 10% operating profit? Can you get 15%? Can you get 20%? Can you get 25%? Can you get to where Netflix is?”

Netflix reported operating margin of 29.5% in 2025. Meanwhile, Disney, for example, guided investors to an operating margin for its direct-to-consumer business of 10% in fiscal 2026.

When Paramount Skydance combines with the Warner Bros. film studio, it’ll have a deep bench of marquee franchises and established prestige. What the powerhouse duo will be missing is an animated film slate that could rival Hollywood giants like Disney and Universal.

The combined entity, which is still awaiting regulatory approval, has a stacked slate of tentpoles including DC superhero fare, a Minecraft sequel, another Sonic the Hedgehog film and new entrants from The Lord of the Rings universe. Not to mention, Warner Bros. just tied the record for the most Academy Award wins for a single studio earlier this month.

But it’s been kid-friendly animated content that is increasingly driving families to the theater — and neither studio has excelled in this area in the last decade.

Since 2016, Paramount and Warner Bros. have each released eight animated features on the big screen, with Paramount generating $1.1 billion in total global ticket sales from the category and Warner Bros. tallying $1.3 billion, according to data from Comscore.

During that time, only one Paramount animated film has generated more than $200 million globally — 2023’s “Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie” — and only one Warner Bros. animated title has scored more than $300 million globally — 2017’s “Lego Batman.”

For comparison, in the last decade Disney released 21 theatrical animated features, collecting $14.1 billion from the films; Universal released 23 animated movies to the tune of $10.7 billion; and Sony released 16, bringing in $4.6 billion in ticket sales.

Disney has seen seven animated features generate more than $1 billion globally during that time, and Universal has seen two.

These figures do not include live-action films with animated elements like Paramount’s Sonic franchise, Universal’s “Gabby’s Dollhouse,” or Disney’s “Mufasa: The Lion King,” which the studio considers a live-action film. They also don’t include animated films released to streaming during the pandemic that were later brought to theaters like Disney’s “Soul,” “Luca” and “Turning Red.”

“When the moviegoing world is operating at or near peak efficiency, it’s virtually always because of a diverse release slate that includes one or more movies catering heavily to kids and families,” said Shawn Robbins, director of analytics at Fandango and founder of Box Office Theory. “Animation, in most cases, directly serves that audience while providing an anchor for studios and cinema owners to rely on.”

Together, Paramount and Warner Bros. accounted for 27% of the domestic box office in 2025, just shy of the 28% market share held by Disney.

“As Paramount and Warner Bros. merge, it becomes even more essential for their combined resources to be strategically directed toward developing a robust animated film portfolio,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at Comscore.

“Animated film releases are crucial for any movie studio, requiring a well-thought-out strategy…

Your Netflix subscription just got a little more expensive.

The streaming giant adjusted its pricing structure Thursday, with all subscription tiers rising at least $1.

The company’s ad-supported plan is now $8.99 a month, up from $7.99; the standard plan is now $19.99 a month, up from $17.99; and its premium plan is now $26.99, up from $24.99. Extra member pricing also increased, with ad-supported plans now costing $6.99 per additional non-household user, up from $5.99, and ad-free add-ons now costing $9.99, up from $8.99 each.

The price hike comes as Netflix has been investing heavily in its content, including new ventures into the live events space and into video podcasts. The last time the company raised prices was January 2025.

Netflix executives have long defended price increases by touting the amount of content available on the platform and how subscription costs can be used to invest in new projects. During its January earnings report, the company said it expects to spend $20 billion in 2026 on content, up from $18 billion in 2025.

Netflix said at the time that it expected 2026 overall revenue to range between $50.7 billion and $51.7 billion, due to increases in membership and pricing, as well as “a projected rough doubling of ad revenue in 2026” compared with the prior year.

At that time, Netflix was still poised to acquire the Warner Bros. studio and its streaming service HBO Max, however, the company declined to match a higher bid made by Paramount in February.

Most major streamers have raised prices in recent years as they chase hard-to-reach profitability for the subscription businesses.

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav‘s potential payout of more than $800 million from the Paramount Skydance deal highlights an obscure tax rule originally designed to limit CEO pay.

According to SEC filings, Zaslav could collect hundreds of millions of dollars in severance and other stock awards and payments following Paramount’s acquisition of WBD. The payments include about $500 million in share awards, about $115 million in vested stock awards and $34 million in cash, according to the filings.

The deal also includes up to $335 million in potential payments to Zaslav for what’s known as the “golden parachute” excise tax. The tax was originally created by Congress in the 1980s to limit what many considered to be outsized payouts to chief executives upon a change of control or sale of their companies. The tax, of 20%, kicks in when an executive’s payout exceeds three times their typical base salary and target annual bonus.

As part of the acquisition, Paramount agreed to pay Zaslav’s excise tax if his other payments trigger the tax. The reimbursement declines over time and drops to zero if the deal closes in 2027. Paramount has said it is aiming to close the deal, pending regulatory approval, by this fall.

The Paramount board said the reimbursement would be paid by Paramount, not Warner shareholders.

Without the payment, known as a “gross up,” the board said “Mr. Zaslav would be at a substantial disadvantage in terms of excise tax exposure relative to the previously proposed transaction with Netflix,” which wouldn’t have involved a golden parachute tax.

Zaslav’s payout from the deal is expected to be around $667 million without the tax.

Management experts have said that rather than limiting pay, the golden parachute rules have instead incentivized CEOs to sell their companies and reap ever-higher rewards. The tax has also led companies, and their shareholders, to spend even more to pay the special taxes.

“Over time, especially as executive compensation radically shifted toward stock-based pay, golden parachutes have become increasingly lucrative, platinum in many cases,” Jeffrey Gordon, co-director of Columbia Law School’s Ira M. Millstein Center for Global Markets and Corporate Ownership, wrote in a paper. “Even if there is pain among those who are laid off when the firm is sold and layoffs occur, there is plainly one winner: the CEO with a golden parachute.”

Correction: Paramount Skydance is acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery. A previous version of this story mischaracterized the deal.