By Variety | Created at 2026-08-06 14:59:34 | Updated at 2026-08-06 19:28:36
6 hours ago
What’s the mood among the Warner Bros. Discovery rank and file amid the pending Paramount takeover? Some WBD execs have privately expressed hope the antitrust case brought by 12 states, with a trial set to take place in March 2027, can slow down or stop the merger. Paramount and WBD had anticipated closing the deal by Q3 of this year.
According to WBD chief executive David Zaslav, despite the uncertainty and delays with the merger, employees have displayed an “inspiring” work ethic to keep the business humming along.
“The overall culture of this company and the work ethic of the company has been inspiring,” he said on the company’s Q2 earnings call. “It’s, you know, it has been challenging. … Our focus has been how do we drive a stronger company to meet our business plan and deliver a stronger and higher-growth company to PSKY and David, so that Paramount coming together with Warner Bros. is even stronger.”
Zaslav said, “I thought it was going to be quite challenging, but you know when you look at the way this company is performing, and you look at the close to 40,000 people coming in every day — I went all across Europe in the last six weeks and … was in most of those countries meeting with people. They’re working extremely hard, and the focus has been that this is a great company, and that how do we take advantage of every day we’re here and try and focus on best performance possible.”
He continued, “I’m quite inspired by the culture here and the drive to continue to put points on the board and take pride in the fact that that this is a great company and we want to deliver a great company. And I do think it’s unusual when you look at the overall performance of the company and how hard people are working, and so we’re lucky. I think that we have an unusual set of employees that really love these assets.”
“And as long as we’re here, we’re going to be working hard every day to continue to honor Warner and HBO and Discovery and all the great assets on the DC side,” Zaslav said.
Zaslav said DC Studios co-chairman and CEO James Gunn is focused on Superman movie “Man of Tomorrow,” set for July 9, 2027 release. Zaslav added, “I saw some pictures yesterday that looked amazing. Actually, yesterday was James’ birthday and he’s out working. He’s working 16, 18 hours a day. It looks fantastic. We’re super excited about it. Matt Reeves, I spoke to over the weekend, and he’s working very hard on Batman. And we have ‘Clayface’ coming up soon, which looks terrific. We got ‘Lanterns’ launching in the next few weeks on HBO, which which Casey [Bloys] and Sarah [Aubrey] are super excited about, and so DC feels very good, and we have a robust pipeline, and Peter [Safran] and James are hard at work.”
Zaslav’s praise for the DC team comes after this summer’s “Supergirl” tanked at the box office, with the movie anticipated to lose $100 million. “Supergirl” ended its theatrical run with worldwide box office gross of $125.9 million (including $72 million domestically), the lowest haul for a DC movie in more than two decades.
CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels told analysts that Warner Bros. is making 14 films this year, ramping that to 19 in 2027, and “we’re very confident that we’re going to be able to maintain that larger number. We have the unique benefit of a great creative team, great relationships in the talent communities, and an enormous amount of IP. So you know the way [studio heads] Mike [De Luca] and Pam [Abdy] and [DC Studios’] Peter and James are running this strategically is to find the right mix between, you know, original films, leveraging our IP to make, you know, the right number of tentpole IP-driven films.”
Under the terms of the Paramount merger agreement, Warner Bros. Discovery can enter into bundling agreements and acquire content, and has the flexibility to negotiate extensions or renewals with existing partners (such as the NHL or MLB) as well as content-licensing sales as long as the deals don’t extend past December 2028.
On the call, Zaslav also reiterated his belief that Paramount will complete the Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition in due course. If the Paramount Skydance-WBD merger closes, Zaslav is poised to walk away with a “golden parachute” payout of at least $550 million.
“First and foremost, we’re confident this transaction will close, and we’ve been trying to drive the value of the company to deliver to PSKY and to David the best company possible,” he said. “The company is performing at a very high level, and we have every expectation that the transaction will close and that the company will be performing even better than the plan that we presented to PSKY when we did our deal.”
On Thursday, the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority cleared the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger. That leaves the antitrust lawsuit by the 12 states and the WGA the last obstacle to closing the deal. Barring a settlement in that case, the merger will not close until after the March 2027 trial or June 1, 2027 (whichever is earlier).
In the second quarter of 2026, Warner Bros. Discovery total revenue fell 11% to $8.7 billion. Net income attributable to the company fell to $149 million from $1.58 billion, partially the result of $1.1 billion in “acquisition-related amortization of intangibles, content fair value step-up and restructuring expenses.”
