Up to 57,980 full-time job-years and $21.2 billion in annual output could vanish from California if Paramount leaves the state, according to a leaked report commissioned by the studio.
The estimate is tied to Paramount-Skydance's threat to relocate to Georgia, Tennessee or Texas if state attorneys general, led by California's Rob Bonta, succeed in blocking its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery on antitrust grounds.
Oct. 1 is the key deadline: if the roughly $110 billion deal has not closed by then, a ticking fee would require payments of $7 million a day to Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders.
The report says the damage would extend beyond film and TV through supply chains and household spending, and warns that converting Warner Bros. soundstages to other uses would permanently erode California's century-built production infrastructure.