RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Warner Bros. Discovery would like you to focus on its second quarter 2026 streaming revenue — up 9 percent to $3.1 billion — because the box office was ugly.
Theatrical revenue dropped 46 percent from the comparable quarter last year as Supergirl and The Bride bombed. Making matters worse, their comps were to Q2 2025 hits A Minecraft Movie and Sinners .
WBD's advertising revenue sunk 22 percent as Turner continues to feel the sting of no NBA. TV/streaming programming highlights in the June quarter included Euphoria , House of the Dragon , The Pitt , and the final season of Hacks .
Wall Street forecast Warner Bros. Discovery would record $9.21 billion in quarterly revenue. Another miss: WBD reported total revenues of $8.717 billion; net income was $100 million.
And yet, Paramount Skydance still wants it.
The process — and the drama — continues for David Ellison's $111 billion takeover of WBD. There have been regular calls emanating from the U.S. and abroad to block the deal. It was originally supposed to be Netflix that bought the "WB" piece of "WBD," but Ellison swooped in with an even bigger check and a promise to absorb the company in its entirety.
A coalition of a dozen states are attempting to block Paramount/WBD; the case will go to trial in March 2027 . Meanwhile, beginning Oct. 1, 2026, Paramount Skydance must begin paying a ticking fee of $7 million per day to WBD shareholders. The ticking fee is only paid out if the deal closes.
Ellison believes the opposition is politically motivated and centers on his potential oversight of CNN's editorial content. He already controls CBS News, which has undergone many changes since Ellison's Skydance merged with Paramount Global.
"The issue is whether I can be trusted as a steward of Warner's CNN. There has been speculation about my politics, my loyalties, my intentions," he wrote in a recent New York Times op-ed . "Unfortunately, I can't give anyone a view into my heart and mind, but I can share this: I have regularly voted for candidates of both parties; I hold some views that would be called conservative and others that would be called liberal, just like most Americans; and when it comes to our news operations, I do not aspire to lead these companies to bend their newsrooms to my views. I believe that news should be based on facts and truth."
There were no updates provided on the pending deal within Warner Bros. Discovery's earnings report.
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