How did a $110 billion endgame make Warner Bros. Paramount’s biggest prize?

The corporate name on top is changing to Skydance , but the labels most viewers see aren’t. Warner Bros. and Paramount will continue as entertainment brands, and the libraries that power them — from HBO series to DC movies and Harry Potter — remain in place. A court-approved settlement also bakes in commitments around theatrical production and U.S. investment, plus editorial safeguards involving CNN and CBS News.

A federal judge cleared the $110 billion Paramount–Warner Bros. Discovery merger on Sept. 30, 2026.

The combined company will carry the Skydance name, with David Ellison steering creative and strategy alongside co-CEO Ynon Kreiz. Behind the scenes, the new giant faces roughly $80 billion in debt and has outlined $6 billion in cost savings.

What actually changes

For viewers, the immediate impact is more about ownership than logos or titles. The settlement’s theatrical commitments signal that big Warner releases are still meant for movie theaters, even as the merged company recalibrates its streaming and TV business.

• Corporate parent: the combined company will be called Skydance.
• Brands that stay: Warner Bros., Paramount and HBO continue as labels you’ll see on movies and shows.
• Leadership: David Ellison and Ynon Kreiz will run the company.
• Money math: about $80B in combined debt and a target of $6B in savings could mean tighter slates and fewer risky bets in the near term.
• What’s in the vault: DC, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones , Looney Tunes, classic films like Casablanca, plus CNN’s news operation.

How Warner got here

Warner’s century-long run was built on big swings. The studio helped usher in talkies with The Jazz Singer in 1927, then stacked up eras of hits and filmmaker relationships: Casablanca, Looney Tunes, later Harry Potter, The Dark Knight, The Matrix , The Hangover, and HBO staples like Friends, Game of Thrones and The Big Bang Theory . Christopher Nolan made nine of his first 13 features at Warner before moving on.

The modern unraveling came with debt and streaming whiplash. AT&T bought Time Warner in 2018 for about $85 billion, then spun it into WarnerMedia and merged with Discovery in 2022. During the pandemic, WarnerMedia put its entire 2021 theatrical slate on HBO Max the same day as theaters — a move that angered filmmakers and preceded Nolan’s exit to Universal. Under cost pressure, Warner Bros. Discovery shelved the nearly finished Batgirl, pulled Scoob! Holiday Haunt, and briefly moved to scrap Coyote vs. Acme before selling it to Ketchup Entertainment. Even as Barbie became a global phenomenon, the company was still lugging around tens of billions in debt.

That mix — bruised balance sheet, priceless IP — turned Warner into a prize. Netflix circled. Paramount Skydance, newly under Ellison, came back with a hostile offer pegged at $108.4 billion. After 12 states challenged the combination, a federal judge approved a settlement that cleared the way on Sept. 30, 2026. The merged company now targets about $6 billion in cost savings.