Actor Mark Ruffalo is refusing to accept Paramount Skydance's roughly $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, vowing to continue his opposition even after a federal judge cleared the last legal obstacle to the deal. U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín approved Paramount's settlement with 12 state attorneys general on Sept. 30, allowing the merger to proceed.
Hours after the ruling, Ruffalo posted on X that the merger «will stifle creativity, weaken free speech, and cost people their jobs» and called it «a bad deal for this country» that «should never have been approved.» He described the outcome as «incredibly disappointing» for the hundreds of thousands of people who opposed it, but insisted it was «not the end.»
«This grassroots movement isn't going to fade away and neither is our resolve,» Ruffalo wrote. «This was never about just one merger: this was about fighting back against corrupt oligarch billionaires trampling the interests of everyday people to line their own pockets. We're still in that fight. Join us.»
The settlement, reached Sept. 21 with the states and led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, resolves a lawsuit filed in July that sought to block the deal outright. Under the consent decree, the combined company must release at least 30 films in theaters per year for the first two years, then 32 per year for the following three years. At least four films annually must be independent productions.
Each counted film must remain in theaters for at least 45 days, and wide releases cannot reach subscription streaming for at least 90 days. The company must also spend at least an additional $300 million a year on U.S. film production above Paramount and Warner Bros.' combined 2025 levels. It cannot sell or close either studio's Los Angeles-area lot for at least five years.
Missing the annual film quota carries a $30 million penalty per film, with the money split among entertainment-industry health and retirement funds, the Motion Picture & Television Fund and a National Association of Attorneys General fund. A shortfall would also force Paramount to sell its minority stake in Miramax.
Within 180 days of closing, the company must create a five-member News Editorial Independence Board of established journalists. The board will set editorial principles for CBS News and CNN and resolve disputes over alleged violations. Colorado and Washington joined the broader settlement but declined to sign off on the editorial board terms.
Shortly after the ruling, Paramount announced that Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz will join the company on Oct. 5 as co-CEO of the combined company alongside David Ellison. Ruffalo's criticism has extended beyond Paramount CEO David Ellison to include his father, Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison, who personally guaranteed $40.4 billion to back his son's pursuit of Warner Bros.
The feud escalated on Aug. 21 when Ruffalo shared a video on Instagram of Safra Catz, Oracle's executive vice chair and a Paramount board member, describing «really profoundly scary technologies» Oracle provided to Israel's military after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. Ruffalo warned those technologies «will most likely be merged into one of the largest media conglomerates in the world and one day used on you.»
Paramount responded that it was «troubled when antisemitic tropes are invoked in purported service of a business dispute,» adding that words like «genocide» and «apartheid» applied to a corporate transaction «aren't just wrong—they're a bridge too far.» The company urged those involved to «lower the temperature, not raise it.»
Ruffalo fired back the next day, calling the accusation «appalling and fundamentally dishonest» and saying that criticizing a military technology contract or the executives who supply it is not the same as criticizing Jewish people. He added that scrutinizing the Ellisons and the deal's threat to editorial freedom is «fair and necessary,» noting the merger would hand one family control over CNN, HBO and Warner Bros., backed in part by foreign money.
Before the settlement was announced, Ruffalo had publicly pressed Bonta not to make a deal, writing on X: «Don't you dare @AGRobBonta, do not cave.» He cited thousands of filmmakers and more than 75,000 signatories urging the attorney general to keep fighting the merger.