Paramount Promised $300 Million More for U.S. Films. A Judge Hasn't Signed It.

The five-year decree also requires Paramount to keep operating its own studio lot and the Warner Bros. lot.

Paramount's purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery now carries a price written in film spending: $300 million above what the company laid out on domestic U.S. production in 2025. That term sits inside a proposed five-year consent decree the parties submitted for a judge's approval, Deadline reported. No judge has signed it.

The lot clause is the one Los Angeles crews will read first. Paramount has to keep operating its own lot and the Warner Bros. lot, the outlet reported. That's stages, gates and payrolls held open by court order rather than by a quarterly decision.

The decree also puts a floor under how many films the company releases each year, and it sets separate U.S. production levels that kick in if Congress ever creates a federal film tax credit — a promise keyed to a law that doesn't exist yet.

Enforcement runs through assets. If Paramount breaches the production terms, one remedy is selling off its interest in Miramax, according to Deadline's account of the filing. Cable carriage gets its own set of limits: restrictions on affiliate fee negotiations, plus a requirement that channels be negotiated separately. Breach there, and the channels on the block include BET, VH-1, Comedy Central, Smithsonian, Destination America and Science.

On the news side, the decree creates a board meant to protect editorial independence at CBS News and CNN, tasked with setting standards and principles for both.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, laying out the terms, called the deal “not a blessing” of the merger, the outlet reported. David Ellison said the company has “complete clearance for this merger.” A coalition opposing the deal criticized the settlement the same day.

The Writers Guild of America settled separately. The guild confirmed terms that include no writer layoffs at CBS News and $17.5 million for its health fund, Deadline reported. For the people who actually staff these buildings, that's the part with a dollar figure attached.

Source: deadline.com, retrieved September 21, 2026.