Hail to the king: Trump will steer battle for the future of Hollywood

1 hour ago 1

Opinion

December 9, 2025 — 3.59pm

The starting bell has been rung for the battle between entertainment industry corporate titans on which the future of Hollywood rests. And the world’s greatest showman, Donald Trump, is playing referee.

The former producer and host of reality television blockbuster The Apprentice has already staked his claim.

Donald Trump and Larry Ellison, the father of Paramount head David Ellison.

Netflix and Paramount Skydance are both in the hunt to take over Warner Bros Discovery – the owner of valuable franchises including Harry Potter and Game of Thrones. The outcome of this tussle will redraw the Hollywood corporate map.

Trump is almost certainly going to have the final say on who wins and who gets fired in this $160 billion contest. Should Trump get to decide the fate of the deal? Probably not. But that’s unlikely to stop him.

The Warner Bros board would typically assess both offers and make a recommendation to its shareholders based on price, and then those shareholders would ultimately decide.

If there are regulatory issues that come into play – and a combination of Netflix and Warner Bros certainly sets off alarms - then antitrust agencies such as the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission step into the ring.

Netflix and Paramount Skydance are vying to take over Warner Bros.

Netflix is the monster of the streaming industry around the world and has an 18 per cent share of the market in the US. That said, Paramount is also a large enough player that its Warner Bros tie-up would also attract the attention of competition regulators.

But experience has shown that Trump doesn’t concern himself with the conventional matrix of decision-making or governance. He could place plenty of obstacles in the way of either bidder.

In the US, Trump plays king – just try to stop him issuing a decree on Hollywood.

The showbiz-obsessed president has twice this year threatened to impose a 100 per cent tariff on foreign-made films, which he says are decimating domestic content production.

Donald Trump in The Apprentice season 5.

Further complicating the outcome is the fact that the two firms vying for Warner Bros are not both bidding for apples. Paramount wants all of Warner Bros while Netflix only wants HBO, the Hollywood studios and the streaming assets.

Also, Netflix is offering cash and its own shares as payment, while Paramount is offering just cash (which shareholders generally prefer). This makes valuation of the offers a bit murkier.

However, both the corporate predators understand it’s not just about money, but leaving Trump feeling loved up.

At first blush, Paramount appears to have the inside running.

Paramount’s offer includes financing from Affinity Partners, the investment firm run by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, several Trump-friendly Middle Eastern government-run investment funds and the Ellison family. Larry Ellison, the world’s second-richest person, who has been referred to inside the White House as the “shadow president”, is the father of Paramount head David Ellison and also has close ties to the White House.

Netflix co-chief executive Ted Sarandos has personally courted Trump, meeting him at the White House last month and last year at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida.

There are unconfirmed reports that Sarandos received a positive hearing about Netflix’s plans to make a move on Warner Bros.

But measuring the chances of either bidding party by reading the off-the-cuff Trump commentary or media speculation is a minefield of interpretive guesswork.

When asked about the Netflix deal on Sunday, Trump said it would “go through a process” and that “it is a big market share. It could be a problem.”

Bets on prediction marketplace Polymarket showed a 23 per cent chance of Netflix closing the acquisition by the end of 2026, down from about 60 per cent just before Trump’s comments, according to Fortune.

The following day Trump criticised CBS’s 60 Minutes following an interview the program had with congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a supporter-turned-critic of Trump. He said CBS parent Paramount is “no better than the old ownership”.

There is a long way to go in the race for Hollywood. So place your bets.

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