‘Like displaying heads on pikes’: Skydance merges Paramount and Warner Bros.

Hey there, Popculturology fans. Welcome to the Friday newsletter. This edition goes deep on the completion of the Paramount/Warner Bros. merger, while also getting a good laugh over a Disney exec sweatily claiming that the live-action Moana remake was “excellent.”

This is technically the 501st edition of Popculturology. The newsletter hit the 500 mark with The Box Office Report earlier this week, but what do these numbers actually mean at this point? Between 501 editions of Popculturology, 350 editions of Snackology and 90 editions of The Cold Open, The Omnicosm has published a ridiculous amount of pop culture, snack and SNL coverage since 2022.

To celebrate these milestones, please enjoy a bagel courtesy of this mascot chucking them off a rooftop.

‼️ THE BIG STORIES

So this is the peak

Paramount Skydance’s obsessive and hostile quest to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery ended this week, with the merger closing and the announcement that storied studios Paramount and Warner Bros. would now exist under the umbrella of David Ellison’s Skydance branding.

“What once was the peak, is now just the beginning,” Skydance boasted as the combined company’s new name was announced.

I still can’t believe that after over a century of moviemaking, these two studios are now owned by some dork, some failed actor, who has never successfully run one studio, much less two of them together.

What Ellison now controls is staggering. Unprecedented. A sane administration in the future would break this company into pieces. “Like displaying heads on pikes,” former Tonight Show writer Chase Mitchell wrote above the photo of Skydance and all its logos.

Despite already having a studio at home, Ellison desperately wanted Warner Bros. This process has been so drawn out that it’s easy to forget that Netflix came to a deal, fair and square, to buy Warner Bros. before Ellison’s bid turned hostile and Netflix realized that the federal government had its thumb on the scale.

I’m sure this will all be fine. Absolutely fine. It’s not like acquiring Warner Bros. has ever gone poorly for a company.