Atlanta film industry workers expressed frustration and concern about how the potential Paramount Skydance/Warner Bros Discovery merger will affect their livelihoods during a town hall meeting at The Plaza Theatre on June 16. The consensus? People want tangible solutions.
“In … DC, they might be talking about the corruption and the censorship that’s at the center of this merger, but they’re not talking about what it’s going to mean to people’s jobs and small businesses that support this industry,” said Alvaro Bedoya, senior advisor at the American Economic Liberties Project and former commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission, who moderated the conversation. “It’s our hope today to change that.”
The meeting was part of the “Main Street v. The Merger” tour series, which started in Los Angeles on June 6 and stopped in New York City before coming to Atlanta. The tour was sponsored by The American Economic Liberties Project, the Committee for the First Amendment, Democracy Defenders Action, the Future Film Coalition, and the Writers Guild of America, and aimed at bringing together entertainment workers, small business owners, elected officials, and advocates in opposition to the $110 billion Paramount Skydance acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.
Paramount Skydance announced its deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discover back in February. The Department of Justice recently okayed the merger, but the journey is far from over. California Attorney General Rob Banta, along with several other state attorneys general, is investigating the deal for possible antitrust violations, as is the European Union.
“I think it’s critical that people know this merger can be blocked,” Bedoya said. “As someone who has had years of experience in blocking illegal billionaire mergers, I think this merger will be blocked.”
Hank Johnson, the U.S. Representative for Georgia’s 4th congressional district, also attended the meeting.
“We are at the 250 year mark of democracy combined with a capitalist system,” Johnson said. “And while the political system is teetering on the brink, we see that the economic system is teetering on the brink as well.”
The majority of the conversation, which took place in front of roughly 30 people for about two hours, centered around the dire effect the merger could have on job scarcity, not just in the Georgia film industry, but around the country. Georgia entertainment workers already suffered through a number of mergers, from Time Warner’s acquisition of Turner Broadcasting in 1996 to Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox in 2019.
Aside from consolidation, which often brings layoffs, rising costs for consumers, and less production, film workers are still struggling to find work in the aftermath of the 2023 Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and Writers Guild of America (WGA) strikes.
Jaime Rosegren, a member of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), Local 479, said that out of her local’s roughly 5,400 strong membership, about 2,000 of them are in arrears on their dues because they haven’t been able to work (Rosegren is listed as the business agent for her local, but spoke in her capacity as a member of the union, not as a representative).
“We are skilled trades people. We can make magic happen,” Rosegren said. “But we are blue collar workers. We are middle class workers. We are union workers who work under contract.”
The fear among the crowd was that this merger will make everything worse. Roger J. Thacher, who has worked in the props department on shows like “Stranger Things,” said during the boom in production ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic, he and his fellow film workers wondered how long the prosperity would last.
“In the months approaching COVID, many of us wondered how sustainable all this could be – watching money get wasted, whether in production here or consolidation on Wall Street, with shows piling up faster than we could staff them here,” Thacher said. “Our fears were realized after the last big Disney consolidation.”
According to Thacher, when Disney finished its full acquisition of Hulu, the show he was working on transferred production from Georgia to Canada. Thacher, who said he used to shave his head to look professional for work, decided he wouldn’t shave again until he worked on another union job. At the meeting, he took off his hat to show hair that had grown down past his shoulders.
“I point that out to say how long I’ve been sitting here and watching my friends suffer,” he said.
Possible effects of the merger
In addition to film and television workers, a couple of experts spoke on the reality of what the Paramount Skydance/Warner Bros. Discovery merger could mean for Georgia. Jennifer Porst, an associate professor and co-director of the film and media management concentration at Emory University, spoke to concerns about how consolidation could affect not only jobs, but real estate as well.
Porst recently co-authored an op-ed in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that points out that in addition to the fact that up to 6,000 workers could lose their jobs if the merger goes through, Paramount Skydance has indicated that cost savings after the merger could come from the sale of real estate. In Atlanta, that could mean the loss of the Turner/Warner Bros. Discovery campus in Midtown (also known as Techwood).
Despite Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison’s promise that Paramount will commit to making 30 films a year if the deal goes through, consolidation often leads to less, not more. A slighter production schedule could affect Trilith Studios, Assembly Studios, and other soundstages in the state.
“If you look at that footprint here and what it’s meant to the city, what it’s meant to the creative industry, the loss of all of that – including the human costs in terms of jobs, the culture, arts, the ability to have a sustainable industry anymore – we’re just concerned that that’s all at risk if this [merger] goes through,” Porst said during the meeting.
During the meeting and in her op-ed, Porst called on Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr to join with the other state attorneys general who are considering levying a lawsuit against the merger.
“I think corporations, their primary interest is in making money. So, on the one hand, we can’t fault them for doing what they can to do that,” she said. “On the other hand, I would argue the purpose of government is to look out for us and to look out for people – to look out for the arts, to look out for culture.”
Carr’s office did not return a request for comment.
Ethan Tussey, interim director and an associate professor of film and media at Georgia State University, reiterated Porst’s point that this merger, like others in the past, could deplete the infrastructure that made Atlanta a hub for entertainment long before the film tax incentives came along. He pointed to the number of changes that Turner Broadcasting has undergone since that initial union with Time Warner in 1996.
“What has happened to Turner over the last four mergers, is that they’ve gone from 8,000 employees here in Atlanta to less than 3,000,” Tussey said. “Each time there’s a merger, there are layoffs, and more and more of the production that happens here in Atlanta moves elsewhere.”
Christalyn Hampton, an Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker, worried about the merger’s effect on Black and brown creatives, particularly in the nonfiction space. She pointed to Paramount’s recent cancellation of “Love and Hip Hop: Atlanta,” and said she feels particularly concerned given the Trump administration’s staunch stance against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives.
“‘Love and Hip Hop: Atlanta’ was one of the first jobs, when I returned to Atlanta in 2014, that I worked on,” she said. “That really takes away a lot of jobs for Black and brown people.”
Bedoya chimed in to discuss how the merger could pose a particularly alarming reality for documentary filmmakers, who often rely on archival footage for their work. According to Hampton, the ability to procure archival footage has become increasingly difficult since the COVID-19 pandemic. If the Paramount Skydance/Warner Bros. Discovery merger goes through, one company would own both CBS and CNN, as well as their significant news archives. That would give Paramount authority over who gets access to those archives’ contents.
“All of these mergers are really affecting so many different elements of filmmaking, that there has to be a way to stop one part of it,” Hampton said. “If you can’t stop it all, we have to stop one part of it.”
What can be done?
As the conversation continued, the question of tangible, actionable solutions continuously arose. Ambre Milne, an Emmy-nominated costume designer, said she was glad about the push to stop the merger, but she couldn’t help but wonder what makes this time around different.
“How are you going to stop this one? You didn’t stop any of the past ones,” she said.
Johnson said he thinks that because of increased economic hardship, more people are starting to really feel the effects of the constant cycle of consolidation.
“People are waking up,” Johnson said. “People are seeing it, they’re feeling it, and things are so tight now, they gotta do something. Something has to break, either in favor of the common good, or in favor of the few at the top. And the few at the top, that just doesn’t work.”
Bedoya said that in the past, both Democrats and Republicans have failed the public when it comes to approving dangerous mergers. Bedoya previously worked for Sen. Al Franken during the Comcast/NBC merger, which occurred under President Barack Obama. He said speaking out against that merger felt like “yelling into the void.”
However, he also said he’s more hopeful this time around because of the number of people in positions of authority who are speaking up, whether that be different state attorneys general or Hollywood stars coming out publicly against the merger.
“What we have now is a groundswell that people actually make this work happen, and some of the folks who have had some of the roles of authority saying this is too much,” he said.
Bedoya and Johnson urged the crowd to call Carr and their legislators, as well as to vote for candidates who are committed to enforcing antitrust laws. Johnson in particular stressed the importance of voting multiple times throughout the meeting, but some members of the crowd pushed back.
“I am willing to put myself on the chopping block and say I appreciate you holding the line, and I appreciate everything you’ve done so far, but we need more than political talking points,” said crew worker Roger J. Thacher to Johnson.
Thacher spoke multiple times during the meeting, and proposed ideas like state-sponsored healthcare credits for productions, as well as incentives for purchasing production needs exclusively from Georgia businesses. He also pushed for the government to support smaller Georgia productions, not just those from Hollywood.
“What I am asking you is, what are the ethics against a congress person going to the local government and saying, hey, these are the things that these guys are saying – why aren’t we doing this? Why aren’t we looking into healthcare subsidies for smaller productions, indie productions?” Thacher said.
Johnson said it’s difficult for Democrats to work across the aisle these days because Republican lawmakers are scared of being seen as disloyal to Trump. He reiterated the importance of voting like-minded candidates into office.
In an Instagram post later, Thacher talked about his overall good experience at the town hall, but expressed disappointment about the lack of attendees.
“We gotta show up for each other,” he said. “We have got to show up, and we’ve got to show these people that we are suffering, and going through this stuff. We can’t do it alone.”
