Mark Ruffalo is not giving up his fight Of utmost importance Skydance’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discoveryeven if the deal is completed just days after closing.
On September 30, U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín approved Paramount’s settlement with 12 state attorneys general. This removed the last legal obstacle to the merger, which cost around $111 billion. Hours later, Ruffalo went to X to condemn the outcome.
“This merger will stifle creativity, weaken free expression and cost people their jobs – it is a bad deal for this country and should never have been approved,” Ruffalo wrote on X. “This is an incredibly disappointing result for the hundreds of thousands of us who campaigned against it, but it is also not the end.”
“This grassroots movement will not disappear, and neither will our resolve,” the post continued. “This was never just about a single merger: this was about standing up to corrupt oligarch billionaires who trample on the interests of ordinary people to line their own pockets. We are still in this fight. Join us.”
Shortly after the verdict, Paramount made the announcement Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz will join the company on October 5th. He will serve as co-CEO of the combined company alongside David Ellison.
Ruffalo’s feud with the Ellisons
Ruffalo was one of Hollywood’s most vocal opponents of the deal. His criticism extended beyond Paramount CEO David Ellison to include Ellison’s father, oracle Co-founder Larry Ellison. The elder Ellison personally guaranteed $40.4 billion back his son’s pursuit of Warner Bros.
The feud escalated on August 21 when Ruffalo posted a video of Safra Catz on his Instagram story. Catz is vice chairwoman of Oracle and a former CEO and also sits on the board of Paramount. In the clip, from a 2024 Israeli-American Council summit, she describes “truly deeply frightening technologies” that Oracle provided to the Israeli military after the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.
Ruffalo warned that these technologies “will most likely be consolidated into one of the largest media conglomerates in the world and one day deployed to you.” He added: “See how [Catz] revels in what we have come to view as a genocide built on an apartheid system of oppression run by Oracle.”
Paramount said in a statement that it was “disturbing when anti-Semitic tropes are used in the alleged service of a business dispute.” The statement continued: “Words like ‘genocide’ and ‘apartheid,’ when applied to a corporate transaction, are not just wrong – they go a bridge too far and trivialize the very real suffering these words are intended to describe.” The company urged those involved to “lower the temperature, not raise it” and said it would not tolerate any prejudice.
Ruffalo struck back at X on August 22nd. “The accusation that I am anti-Semitic is appalling and fundamentally dishonest,” he wrote. “Criticizing the actions of the Israeli prime minister, a military technology contract, or the executives who deliver it is not the same as criticizing the Jewish people. This critical and necessary dialogue is then dishonestly portrayed as anti-Israel. To be clear, my views are based on my own political beliefs and should never be interpreted as hostility toward the Jewish people, for whom I have deep love and respect.”
He then turned back to fusion. “This merger has real consequences for real people and for the entire country,” he wrote. “It is fair and necessary to scrutinize the Ellisons, including Oracle’s business based on data, surveillance technology and government contracts, and the serious threat to editorial freedom and loss of livelihood for thousands of families. The $111 billion deal would give one family control of CNN, HBO and Warner Bros., backed in part by foreign money whose influence over editorial decisions has never been fully explained to the public.”
What’s in the settlement?
Paramount settled with the states on September 21, led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta. The coalition sued in July to block the deal entirely.
Under the consent decree, the combined company must release at least 30 films per year in theaters for the first two years, then 32 per year for the following three years. At least four films per year must be independent productions. Each film counted must remain in theaters for at least 45 days, and major releases cannot be available on subscription streaming for at least 90 days.
“The company must also spend at least an additional $300 million per year on U.S. film production beyond Paramount and Warner Bros.” combined level 2025. It will not be possible to sell or close the property of either studio in the greater Los Angeles area for at least five years.
Missing the annual film quota costs the company $30 million for each film it fails to meet. That money will be split between entertainment industry health and pension funds, the Motion Picture & Television Fund and a fund run by the National Association of Attorneys General. However, a shortfall would also force Paramount to sell its minority stake in Miramax The penalty per film probably carries more weight.
The company must also incorporate a fiver within 180 days of closing News Editorial Independence Board of established journalists. The board will establish editorial policies for CBS News and CNN and resolve disputes over alleged violations. Colorado and Washington joined the broader agreement but declined to sign the terms of the redaction.
“Don’t give in”
Before the settlement was announced, Ruffalo publicly urged Bonta not to make a deal.
“Don’t you dare @AGRobBonta, don’t give in,” he wrote
The number 5,670 appears to refer to the open letter organized by the organization block the Merger Coalition, which was signed by thousands of film and television professionals who opposed the deal. After the terms of the settlement were announced, five coalition groups filed an amicus brief asking the judge to reject what they called a “toothless” settlement: Free Press, the Committee for the First Amendment, the Freedom of the Press Foundation, the Future Film Coalition and the International Documentary Association.
Martínez-Olguín still agreed to the settlement. She wrote that objectors’ hopes that the decree “reaches further – achieves more – do not rise to the level of violations of the law.”