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Paramount Has Spent 100 Years in Hollywood. David Ellison Loved That. Until He Didn’t

The mogul says he’s considering moving his studio out of California. Not long ago, he was talking a big game about how a merger with Warner Bros. Discovery would boost the state.

August 11, 2026 6:18pm

“Paramount has deep roots in Southern California. My vision is to stay true to our roots,” wrote David Ellison in a letter to lawmakers representing the state in February.

What a difference a few months makes. Now the mogul is locked in a protracted legal battle with the attorneys general of California and 11 other states as he attempts to consummate a $111 billion megamerger with Warner Bros. Discovery. And he’s in a race against time before a ticking fee penalty of $7 million a day kicks in at the start of October if the deal isn’t done.

And each week, it seems, there’s a new leak suggesting the Paramount CEO may be exploring other options to move his company’s headquarters — and taking the idea seriously.

On Monday, it was Puck that kicked off another cycle when reporting that Ellison told staffers in a senior leadership meeting he plans to move the company headquarters out of state if the antitrust suit isn’t settled by Oct. 1, when that penalty fee begins. This leak underscores that urgent timetable and could be seen as both a negotiating tactic and a real consideration to pull up anchor for new shores.

As The Hollywood Reporter reported in July, Tennessee has been one of the states courting Paramount. Now add Texas, Georgia or another state to the list. The insinuation is that even if the merger eventually goes through, the two historic Hollywood studios could (theoretically) be moving out of their historic homes.

So the notion that Ellison would abandon Paramount’s historic place in Hollywood (literally: Paramount’s 65-acre lot, parts of it a century old, is the only big studio in the neighborhood, after all) to finalize his megamerger isn’t a new one. But this narrative also represents a notable change in tune from Ellison, a California native himself and the product of two California universities, who not long ago was courting state politicians to win their approval for his mega-transaction. In the same letter where he laid out his vision for Paramount staying “true to our roots,” he pointed out that it was his regime that relocated the company’s headquarters from New York to the Paramount studio lot in L.A. Paramount also made a commitment to produce more movies for theatrical release, “all of which means more activity in Hollywood and local jobs,” he claimed.

Read more: Paramount Has Spent 100 Years In Hollywood. Would David Ellison Move? – The Hollywood Reporter

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