It doesn’t matter how much money Paramount loses on its less than successful film slate or subscribers suing its streaming service: CEO David Ellison is still committed to 30 theatrical releases annually once the merger with Warner Bros. Discovery goes through. On Paramount’s Q1 earnings call, the exec noted this kind of output is already happening, with Paramount and WB both releasing 15 movies in theaters this year. The company’s Q1 shareholder letter noted 2026 has seen lower theatrical revenue than 2025, but it’s hard to beat a year that had both Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning and Regretting You. Little do the shareholders know that this year promises the Billie Eilish concert doc, another Jackass movie, and, who could forget, Street Fighter? Suits, it’s time to bet big on Noah Centineo.
Ellison also announced on the earnings call that he hopes to close the deal with WB this September, though the company has yet to surpass a number of hurdles for the takeover to be successful. Still, “30 theatrical releases” sounds like the type of thing to convince a lot of people, including cinephiles and maybe Congress, that this merger is a good thing. But that’s a huge amount of movies with a dwindling amount of IP out there. Oh well, maybe they’ll wind up making a sixth Jackass movie.
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