LOS ANGELES — Hollywood is accustomed to threatening to leave California one production at a time. Paramount Skydance has floated something considerably larger: the studio itself.
The Los Angeles Times reported that Paramount chief David Ellison has raised the possibility of relocating major Paramount operations — and potentially Warner Bros. operations if the acquisition closes — as the company fights a California-led antitrust challenge to the deal.
No moving truck has crossed the Melrose gate. The possibility alone has been enough to rattle a city already dealing with fewer shoots, empty stages and production workers watching jobs migrate elsewhere.
The possibility alone has been enough to rattle a city already dealing with fewer shoots, empty stages and production workers watching jobs migrate elsewhere.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta and 11 other states are challenging the merger on competition grounds. Paramount argues the combined company would be better positioned to compete with larger technology and streaming businesses. The legal dispute is still active, and the studio remains in Hollywood.
For Los Angeles, though, the argument has escaped the courthouse. A headquarters move would not only affect executives and soundstages; economists and workers told the Times it could ripple through vendors, restaurants, hotels, post houses and the small businesses that orbit major studios.
ToonTown has its own stake in that ecosystem. A studio gate is where performers enter, but it is also where prop trucks, caterers, ink-and-paint vendors, stunt crews, animal wranglers and the occasional delivery of six dozen anvils enter behind them.
For now the gates are still open in Hollywood. The fact that anyone is discussing where they might open next has turned a merger fight into a much older Los Angeles anxiety: what happens if “Hollywood” becomes a brand name instead of an address?
