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Paramount and AGs Set for Settlement Talks Amid $7M Daily Ticking Fee Concerns
Confirmed
In Short: U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Hixson has ordered Paramount and California to schedule settlement talks by next Tuesday, with the conference set for the end of October.
The settlement conference, which will include the Writers Guild of America, comes after a hearing to schedule the talks, according to reports.
Paramount has offered behavioral concessions, including a pledge to release at least 30 movies with 45-day theatrical windows, but a court trial is still set to start on March 2, 2027.
Despite the ongoing negotiations, movement on settlement talks has been slow, with Bonta accusing Paramount of acting in bad faith by leaking and misrepresenting details of recent meetings.
What's confirmed
- The settlement conference, which will include the Writers Guild of America, comes after a hearing to schedule the talks, according to reports.
- Paramount has offered behavioral concessions, including a pledge to release at least 30 movies with 45-day theatrical windows, but a court trial is still set to start on March 2, 2027.
- Despite the ongoing negotiations, movement on settlement talks has been slow, with Bonta accusing Paramount of acting in bad faith by leaking and misrepresenting details of recent meetings.
What's still developing
- U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Hixson told both sides on Friday to tell him the specific dates for the settlement conference by next Tuesday.
- Lawyers for Paramount and California are “ordered to meet and confer regarding scheduling” and inform his clerk “by close of business 9/15/2026 regarding the two consecutive days in the end of October that work for an in-person settlement conference beginning at 10:00 AM,” reads the note.
- At the time, Paramount denied the accusations and said the studio didn’t share confidential information.
- The settlement conference will take place nearly a month after the so-called $7 million-per-day ticking fee starts accruing.
- Paramount and California Attorney General Rob Bonta will sit down for two straight days at the end of October to explore a deal settling the state’s lawsuit challenging the studio’s $111 billion bid to acquire Warner Bros.
- Still, it could move the needle on resolving the case before a trial next year as both sides seemingly refuse to budge on their positions relating to what a settlement could look like.
- Paramount has been pushing for a deal with California Attorney General Rob Bonta, and has been hoping to get it done before Oct. 1.
- That’s the date that it will begin paying a $7 million daily “ticking fee” to Warner Bros. shareholders.