Is Hollywood About to Lose Paramount to Texas?

Paramount may be preparing to leave California for Texas, and the responsibility for that threat does not begin with the studio. It begins with a state government willing to put thousands of jobs and a major merger at risk. According to the New York Post, Paramount head David Ellison has been considering Austin as a new home for the studio if California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s antitrust lawsuit blocks the planned merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. Paramount has not formally committed to the move, but the company is reportedly in advanced talks about the Bluebonnet Business Center in east Austin. The property includes Building 4, a 415,000-square-foot cross-dock facility at 9219 Old Manor Road. That may not sound like the glamorous Paramount lot in Los Angeles, but Hollywood is a business before it is a postcard. Studios need space, workers and predictable rules. California’s government is making all three harder to secure. Variety reported that Ellison is ready to begin moving Paramount out of California on Oct. 1 if settlement talks with Bonta have not started. “Ellison told Paramount senior execs last week that he’s prepared to relocate Paramount (and Warner Bros., too, if ...