Tom Cruise praises ‘awesome’ Paramount-Warner Bros deal, urges Hollywood to rally behind deal

During an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, Cruise praised Paramount CEO David Ellison’s plan to produce 30 movies per year under the combined company.

“They’re going to deliver 30 movies,” Cruise said. “It’s a community to me. It’s not an industry. The people in these studios are not just people in the studios. They’re my family.”

“I know we’re going to get those 30 movies,” Cruise continued. “I want us all to come together as a community to help make those 30 movies. It’s not just going to be, you know, Paramount doing it. Everyone’s going to need all the help of every artist to be able to do it.”

Cruise also said that if Ellison wanted to revive Hollywood, the film industry needs to support him.

“We’ve got to help each other to do it,” Cruise added.

The proposed $111 billion merger has faced significant opposition, including from a group of state attorneys general seeking to block the deal. The attorneys general argue that combining the two film giants would create competition concerns, citing that the merged company would control nearly one-third of the theatrical motion pictures and nearly one-third of basic cable programming.

A federal judge has temporarily paused the merger from taking place amid the lawsuit.

Paramount had reportedly considered moving its headquarters out of California if the state's attorney general filed an antitrust lawsuit seeking to block the merger. California Governor Gavin Newsom had increased state funding for the antitrust litigation surrounding the deal.