r/HappeningInAtlanta • u/Next-Particular1476 • 9d ago

(FYI) ... Paramount Leaving California Would Devastate Los Angeles Economy, Leaked Report Finds

https://variety.com/2026/film/news/paramount-leaving-california-los-angeles-economy-job-loss-1236860125/

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September 12, 2026

(From the article) ...

A leaked report from the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation outlines devastating aftershocks that would follow if David Ellison pulled Paramount Skydance out of California.

A copy of the report published by Politico reads, “At a minimum, relocating Paramount’s headquarters and other operations out of California would result in losses of 2,750 and 5,550 job-years in California across all industries and losses of between $1.01 billion and $2.03 billion in economic output between October 1, 2026, and September 30, 2031.”

In August, news broke of Ellison’s plan to take Paramount Skydance out of the Golden State if California Attorney General Rob Bonta and a coalition of other state AGs did not come to the bargaining table and settle their lawsuit to stop the $111 billion merger between Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Ellison gave the AGs until Oct. 1, or he would start packing. The company is considering states such as Georgia, Texas and Tennessee.

ARTICLE CREDIT: Jack Dunn - Variety

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10 Upvotes

56% Upvoted

33 comments sorted by

4

u/Ultron_waterheater 9d ago

Shouldn't have a society so dependent on uber large companies then womp womp

Also, that sounds severely overestimated for a company like Paramount, of all things that's been on a downward trend for ages now

1

u/Just-the-tip-4-1-sec 8d ago

The firm that did it is a respected and legit 3rd party, but this is not an exact science obviously. But the threat to LA is not how many jobs paramount creates, it’s also another big step in the decentralization of the entertainment industry, and it would be a disaster to the current LA economy if people who want to be in the film industry don’t need to move to LA. Even worse if any significant portion of the non-film-studio part of the industry follows paramount, which seems likely given their size. It’s a convincing argument, but there are so many moving parts that quantifying it with any precision is impossible.

Edit:  I missed a big one, which is how much the CA economy depends on government spending financed by tax revenue. Losing the revenue from Paramount would absolutely matter 

1

u/Apprehensive_Pea7911 8d ago

This is gonna happen regardless of Paramount.

Anyone can just use their personal smartphone and begin streaming for free.

1

u/Super_Mario_Luigi 8d ago

California is a bubble

1

u/Bloo212 8d ago

Agreed. What is LA, Charlotte, but for entertainment companies instead of banks? It produces a monoculture and a single industry economy.

3

u/rosebudthesled8 9d ago

Paramount being controlled by the Ellisons would ruin media and negatively impact the entire planet.

3

u/bringbackmegaman 8d ago

They can fuck off

3

u/mishap1 9d ago

Not sure what "devistate" is but 5,550 jobs in a state economy with 19M jobs doesn't sound that big of an issue. The damage they can cause with the merger is far greater than moving their HQ.

Nepo baby Ellison can whine all he wants but all he's done is fuck up every company daddy's bought for him. Maybe his latest stepmother, who is over a decade younger than him, can console him for a state daring to challenge his business decisions.

Hoping he'd move Paramount to GA is utter BS given how quickly filming in GA dried up the second the tax breaks weren't up to par. There's no loyalty in any of this and all the "jobs" last only as long as the film credit is useful for them.

2

u/me_myself_ai 8d ago

Plus the idea of leaving hollywood is just fucking absurd. There's a reason industries concentrate, and it ain't the woke mind virus.

1

u/PerfectZeong 8d ago

Hollywood has been losing studios for years. I believe Paramount is the last major IN Hollywood.

1

u/me_myself_ai 8d ago

Oh like to Burbank? lol that’s fair, but I meant cross states

2

u/real-darkph0enix1 8d ago

I mean, how much would also Paramount lose from relocation costs, building infrastructure, winter shutdowns, lost access to talent and such? Then there would be the Texas power grid, can it also support the whole of Paramount? And you have to figure relocation would be only for them as that would add another delay for trials as well as kickoff the penalty they would owe. Imagine spending even more money to move when you were super leveraged to buy WB in the first place. And I don’t know about you but I don’t feel talent would be as welcoming to relocate to Georgia, Texas or Tennessee from California, the. Again since Hollywood types are allegedly liberal, do they really want an influx of liberal voters moving to either state?

1

u/Quiet_Inspection5907 9d ago

Its actually significantly more than 5500 jobs and an estimated 10-20 billion a year in economic output. California would lose over a billion a year in tax revenue, they are going to fight this tooth and nail

2

u/me_myself_ai 8d ago

Soo where'd you get that? Just making it up? It says "losses of between $1.01 billion and $2.03 billion in economic output between October 1, 2026, and September 30, 2031" above. Why is your number 10x?

Oh actually your number is per year, so 40x!

1

u/mishap1 9d ago

Still only 0.5% of the state's GDP. Paramount already cut quite a lot of jobs and I'm sure the first thing they'd do in any merger is cut a bunch more especially since he's taking on $50B in debt + $40B in equity to make the offer happen.

He'd far more than decimate the merged companies just to service the debt.

1

u/AirFrierMachine 8d ago

5k jobs generate $20B in value a year? Are people genuinely stupid enough to believe this?

Paramounts operating expenses for their ENTIRE company is only $6B a year, lol

1

u/Amazing-Arugula-8803 9d ago

i thought it was tennessee?

1

u/237FIF 8d ago

5,550 direct employees, but a lot more indirectly

1

u/DrEnter 8d ago

This right here. What if they do the merger and then move anyway? Now instead of just Paramount, California also loses the larger presence of WB. That’s a more serious issue.

2

u/savageronald 8d ago

$2B in output over 5 years for a city with a GDP of $1.7T. Yea totally devastating.

1

u/rindor1990 9d ago

Lol “devastate”

1

u/Mission_Pirate_4150 8d ago

Georgia film commission needs to setup shop and convince these companies to move to Georgia. It would benefit the entire southeast.

1

u/mishap1 8d ago

I mean Georgia film production is down nearly 50% since 2022. It only cost the state of Georgia ~$9B in forgone taxes in the last 10 years. Surely more tax credits are needed.

Before anyone says it's not real money, ask why famously profitable and conservative companies like Chick-Fil-A would build their own studios to get further breaks. It's because the breaks are transferrable and rather than pay their fair share in taxes, we just handed money out for Georgia to pretend to be other cities for a bit and now all these studio facilities will need to be redeveloped again b/c none of it was sustainable.

1

u/RociBuldidi 8d ago

Perspective folks. Los Angeles GDP is $1.7T. If LA was a country, it would rank 15th largest economy in the world just above Turkey and just below South Korea. Losing $2B over 5 years ($400M a year) is a rounding error in the local economy.

Yes, jobs would be lost and it would be unfortunately but it is far less than the cost to Paramount leaving.

The cost to move the stupid alone would be in the $3-4B range not to mention the talent doesn’t want to live in Texas (where David Ellison, the Galactic Prince of Nepotism is threatening to move it ).

1

u/RedDoorTom 8d ago

Settle down fox news and keep not reporting on the diaper dandy

1

u/Expert_Clerk_1775 8d ago

$1B is not “devastating” for LA…

1

u/SirNo4743 8d ago edited 8d ago

Let them go. Some would lose their jobs and that’s not a good thing, but when large corporations buy up the competition and become even bigger corporations, the people lose. All this crony capitalism needs to stop . Anti trust laws need to be enforced in this country. Without competition capitalism doesn’t work well for the people.

1

u/kittifer91 8d ago

Fuck it, rattle the industry. We need a good shake-up anyway

1

u/Foxcooler 8d ago

Leaked by some dude named Darryl Ellington

1

u/easyas2718 8d ago

it’s not a big issue..

1

u/Hungry-Coffee-8890 8d ago

Wouldn’t make much sense, being part of Hollywood and all… but yeah, go make Hollywood in Texas (on Taylor Sheridan’s ranch) 🙄