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Ruffalo Urges California AG to Reject Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger Settlement
Confirmed
In Short: Actor Mark Ruffalo is urging California Attorney General Rob Bonta not to cave on a potential settlement deal over the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger.
Actor Mark Ruffalo is urging California Attorney General Rob Bonta not to cave on a potential settlement deal over the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger. Ruffalo directed his followers to the website for No Paramount Concessions, which features a petition calling on the 12 states suing Paramount-Skydance to block the merger.
Ruffalo wrote, “Do not cave,” tagging Bonta in a social media post. He has been one of the entertainment industry’s most visible critics of the merger, voicing objections to the business relationship between Larry Ellison’s tech giant Oracle and Israel’s ongoing military activity in Gaza.
Bonta and Paramount were reported to be in advanced talks about a potential settlement to the latter’s lawsuit seeking to block the merger. Bonta previously said he’s open to reaching an out-of-court settlement but has called on Paramount to offer structural remedies, such as divestments, rather than behavioral remedies.
Ruffalo testified against the deal at a Senate hearing and signed an open letter alongside other actors objecting to the merger. He described the situation in Gaza as a 'genocide' built on an 'apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle,' which prompted a response from Paramount calling his comments 'antisemitic.
Ruffalo rejected the characterization on X, stating that using words like 'genocide' and 'apartheid' in the context of a corporate transaction 'aren't just wrong, they're a bridge too far, and they cheapen the very real suffering those words are meant to describe.
The deal was put on hold when Bonta and other state attorneys general filed an antitrust lawsuit against the merger. Ruffalo urged people to sign a message addressed to the attorneys general and Paramount, calling on them to reject the proposed deal.
Elizabeth Warren also spoke out against a possible settlement, connecting the merger debate to the Trump administration's decision to restrict CNN's access to the White House. She argued that allowing Paramount to acquire Warner Bros. could create a powerful media company.
Two days of court-ordered settlement talks have already been set for mid-October, but that’s procedural in the judicial system and widely expected to go nowhere fast. The Writers Guild of America, which joined the AGs’ lawsuit after filing an anti-merger action of its own, is also involved in the talks.
Ruffalo and other supporters believe the merger could have a major effect on Hollywood and the creative industry. They argue that the merger will snuff out competition, drive up prices, diminish content quality, and produce fewer movies and shows each year.
If the midterms occur and a projected Democratic majority in the House and Senate is seated, they have promised to probe and even break up mega media mergers. As attorneys general meet with Paramount this weekend over a potential deal, Ruffalo is continuing to apply pressure.
Ruffalo wrote, 'Don’t you dare, [Rob Bonta], do not cave,' on X on Saturday, urging the AG to reject the deal. He and other supporters are stepping up their efforts to sway public and political opinion against the deal.
What this adds
The petition Ruffalo is promoting aims to gather support from the public to pressure the AGs to reject the deal.
Background
Actor Mark Ruffalo is urging California Attorney General Rob Bonta not to cave on a potential settlement deal over the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger.
The FCC has allowed foreign investors to hold up to 49.5% of the combined Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery company.
Warner Bros. is a brand name that has been used by several multinational mass media and entertainment companies and corporations, mostly based in the United States, with attributions to Warner Bros. Pictures, a major American film studio founded on April 4, 1923, and the original namesake.
What's confirmed
- Hollywood actor Mark Ruffalo is not the one to back down, and he has urged the California attorney general Rob Bonta and his coalition of 11 other state AGs to do the same.
- The actor recently took to his X, formerly Twitter, and asked Rob and his coalition of AGs not to settle their lawsuit against Paramount Skydance and keep David Ellison from acquiring Warner Bros.
- 5,670 filmmakers put their necks on the line for you to fight this merger.
- Can you show up outside his AG office in Oakland tomorrow at 5pm to reject this backroom deal?
- Actor Mark Ruffalo has urged California Attorney General Rob Bonta and 11 other state AGs not to settle their antitrust lawsuit against Paramount Skydance over its proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.
What's still developing
- The comments proved divisive, spurring Paramount to call Ruffalo’s “antisemitic” and sparking warring industry petitions, criticizing and supporting the actor.
- Ruffalo has publicly opposed the merger for months.
- In August, Ruffalo posted on Instagram about Oracle's ties to the Israeli military, sharing a clip of former Oracle chief executive Safra Catz addressing the Israeli-American Council National Summit in 2024.
- “The rumored ‘deal’ to usher the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger forward is an insult to everyone who has stood up against this harmful transaction and to the hundreds of thousands of workers, journalists, and consumers who will be hurt if it goes forward,” the DC-based group told Deadline today of reported behind-closed-doors negotiations underway right now.
- “This is such bullsh*t,” an industry insider told Deadline this morning of the ParaBros talks.
- “Thousands of industry leaders took a risk when they spoke out publicly about the harm the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger would cause,” said the outfit, which also counts Noah Wyle, Denis Villeneuve, Atsuko Okatsuka, Damon Lindelof and Sofia Coppola among its backers.
- On Saturday, the 4x Oscar nominee called on Rob Bonta to “reject the deal” that he and other AGs are currently negotiating with the Ellison-run Paramount ahead of a scheduled March 2, 2027 federal antitrust trial.
- The people don’t want it!… Block the Merger, with support from Ruffalo, Bryan Cranston, Hannah Einbinder, Jane Fonda, Noah Wyle, Denis Villeneuve, Sofia Coppola and more, previously released a statement on the settlement talks.
- “AG Bonta and his fellow state AGs should reject this deal, stand strong, and fully block the merger with no concessions.” As leaks of talks between the AGs, led by California’s politically ambitious Bonta, and Paramount flooded the media late Friday, AG Bonta’s office did not respond to Deadline’s request for comment.