It’s 2029…Los Angeles is a ghost town. 100,000 illegal street vendors cook rat meat in front of abandoned Paramount Studios, the Bronson Gate covered in graffiti. The Jay Luchs window signs fading in the sun, soon to be kindling for a zombie meth cook fire that burns down half the block as Nithya rides her bike down the new $200M bike lane she got done. She chimes her bell as she glides past the graffiti-stained regal gates of the Paramount homeless shelter, long since abandoned by the movie studio. This isn’t science fiction…it’s the most obvious and predictable reality for Los Angeles. Bonehead Bob Bonta’s jihad against Paramount is so much more destructive than anybody realizes.
Of course, the list of legendary companies fleeing CA has become a meme, it’s so extensive. The leaders in California should have taken notice when In-N-Out left. It’s perhaps the most iconic California brand, and not only is it booming in Tennessee, but the owner, herself, personally moved to Franklin, because it’s a better place to raise her family and run a business. When even billionaires feel like it’s too hard to live in California, we would normally call that a clue. But, no, the greasy-haired morons in Sacramento continue to whistle past the graveyard, and another iconic California brand, Paramount Studios, is set to leave, and when they do, the immediate domino effect of its departure will collapse the state, entirely.
And don’t get it twisted; they are leaving. Bonehead Bonta continues to impotently claim that this is a bluff, though he’s noticeably less confident in that claim in recent interviews. Communists at the WGA and unhinged former actors/socialist activists like Mark Ruffalo continue to pretend like David Ellison is lying to scare Bonta into backing off the merger lawsuit…but they don’t understand: Paramount has to leave. It’s not even a choice for Ellison…it’s their accountants.
By the time Bonta and Paramount have their first settlement conference in October, Paramount will have already racked up over $100M-$200M in ticking fees due to Bonta’s interference in the acquisition of Warner Bros. Ellison made Top Gun: Maverick for $177M, and it grossed over $1.5B. Not only did David Ellison employ more than 1,000 people over the course of 2 years with that production, but those insane box office returns trickle down to back more productions downstream that continue to employ film-workers for years. Imagine what Paramount could be doing with all that money that they’ll hemorrhage just waiting for Bonehead Bonta to hop on a Zoom call, where they won’t resolve anything; the fees will continue to rack up after that. How many people could they employ with that lost money? How many great movies could they make with St Thomas of Cruise? But thanks to Bonehead Bonta, now that money isn’t going to local grips, gaffers, drivers, caterers, and set builders…it’s going to service Warner Bros $37B in debt. It’s going to a bank for interest fees. Zero productivity. Bonta is forcing Paramount to just stack up that film budget money and set it on fire, like the Joker.
Paramount has to leave. It’s now just basic math. Remember, Paramount-Skydance is a publicly-traded company; David Ellison has an obligation to his shareholders. Because of the authoritarian overreach of Bonehead Bonta, he’s facing a potential $7B crater in his company’s operating expenses, and there’s only one solution for this in order to save Paramount from financial calamity; move to Tennessee. Ellison has already announced that Paramount plans to do 30 theatrical releases per year. Do the math. If you take a conservative average of $50M per film, that’s $1.5B per year, $15B over ten years. California does jack shit to incentivize film production, so if Tennessee is offering Paramount tax incentives even close to 20%, they can demonstrate to shareholders an immediate plan to recoup half the losses from Bonta’s lawfare. And that doesn’t even factor in the lower operating costs and cost of living in business-friendly, right-to-work Tennessee. Realistically, by simply shifting operations to the Volunteer State, Ellison can recover all the losses from this merger battle without cutting a single expense or employee at the company. Remember…he is OBLIGATED to do this for his shareholders. Everyone is trying to read the tea leaves with Ellison…questioning whether he actually wants to leave…it doesn’t matter whether he wants to or not. He has to.
It wouldn’t be a big move for Ellison, anyway. He lived in Tennessee for a decade. His father is setting up shop in Nashville, already. Nearly everyone else we know has left California for Nashville. His family’s homes got rocked by the Palisades Fire…the real question is why wouldn’t he leave? This state is actively hostile towards him and his company, and he now has to deal with CCP-backed protests at his studio lot where screeching communist harpies from the China-funded CodePink hire banner planes to fly vulgar epithets over Hollywood for a million people to see. Why would he stay here? Because the studio lot is here? Do you know how easy it is to build outside of California? Go to Nashville…there are cranes everywhere. They just build stuff. Things don’t get mired in regulatory purgatory outside of California. In Texas and Tennessee, if you want to build, the state gets out of your way.
Furthermore, even if Bonta were to come to his senses and drop this insane jihad of his…how can he be trusted ever again? What about the next jihad? This lawsuit is so meritless and so bizarre…this kind of chaotic move is totally unpredictable and insane, and you cannot operate a business without clear visibility on your operational future. The kind of disruptive lawfare that Bonta has put on the table for the film industry here is a signal that this state is too chaotic and unpredictable to invest in. All of our friends who fled California because of the insane Covid restrictions all felt the same way: they just can’t trust the state anymore. Of course they all knew eventually the crazy restrictions would roll back, people would come back to their senses, and get back to normal life, but it’s not just about the current thing; it’s about the next thing.
Once you know what this insane government is capable of, you can’t trust them anymore. Sure, they’re destroying your business this time because of Covid, but about JoeVid next time? What about when they call a “climate emergency”? What about when the billionaires all leave and we have to lay off half of CalFire and the whole state burns down? Don’t forget, Paramount’s own western backlot in Agoura, Paramount Ranch, burned down in the 2018 Woolsey Fire. It’s not about the current thing…it’s about the next thing. The trust is gone. Nobody has faith in California after Covid. And if you thought the Covid exodus was bad for California, just wait til you see the Bonta exodus.
When Paramount leaves, all they need is one good quarter, and the floodgates will open for the rest of industry. Every studio will leave. Nothing anchors the film industry to CA anymore, and if the bean-counters can make movies cheaper in TN, plus pay no income tax? Game over. You used to need to be in LA if you wanted to be in the business. All the studios were physically here, and all the celebrities lived here; LA was a magnet because it had the status. But now, everyone is leaving. LA isn’t cool anymore. Lots of actors live out of state or even out of the country.
Spielberg doesn’t live here anymore, Mel Gibson’s house burned down, Nic Cage’s driveway collapsed…why stay here and do battle with naked drug zombies and drugged out psychos ramming their SUVs into buses every day? LA just isn’t cool anymore. It used to be, not all that long ago, when you were traveling and you told people you were from LA, their eyes got wide and they were so impressed. Now? They wince and ask “is it really that dirty now? Are there really naked homeless people everywhere?”. LA has lost all of its value as a social status symbol and – trust me – that’s literally all that matters to famous people. Nothing makes celebrities panic more than feeling like they’ve lost their status…OK, maybe running out of coke. But you know what I mean.
If the celebrities don’t care about LA anymore, and government doesn’t care about the economy anymore, what good reason would a production company have to stay? Cameras are cheap now. All the lights are LEDs, so you don’t need big generators, drones have replaced helicopters; production footprints have never been smaller and required less infrastructure. Film production is very portable now. Studios are pragmatic. They prioritize the bottom line. They relocate to film in Hungary and Canada because they can shave a few bucks off their budgets…once Paramount pumps out a few movies that are in the black a month faster because they have less overhead in Tennessee…it’s going to be an instantaneous departure for everyone else. If they can be more profitable in a state that everyone is moving to anyway, you think the lawyers aren’t going to do it in the blink of an eye? Netflix is basically shifting all their production operations to New Jersey; if California can’t even retain the Silicon Valley studios, what hope is there for anyone else?
Paramount is the only legacy studio still actually headquartered in Hollywood. Their gorgeous Bronson Gate is a defining icon of Hollywood, itself. The company was founded 114 years ago by Jewish Hungarian immigrant, Adolph Zukor. They have produced the most legendary pictures in Hollywood history, from The Godfather, Titanic, Forrest Gump, Indiana Jones, The Untouchables, The Truman Show, Saving Private Ryan…Paramount IS Hollywood. But now, ironically, the studio that made Chinatown has been battered enough by Los Angeles and is finally saying “forget it, David…it’s Chinatown”.
When Paramount leaves, that’s a wrap for Hollywood. According to a new study, it will cost California $21B in economic output and 58,000 full-time jobs. Paramount is the smallest of the major studios. Just imagine the bloodbath when the giants leave.
You are watching Bonehead Bob Bonta slaughter California’s golden goose right before your eyes, just to raise a scalp for his antisemitic, anti-capitalist voter base to kick him some votes before the election. When Bob Bonta runs for Governor (trust me, he is running), he may as well celebrate his election of the Golden Ghost Town by literally lighting the Hollywood sign on fire. Maybe Netflix can do one of their murderer-celebration Monster series about how Bonta killed California.
Please God don't let these Californians that move to Tennessee ruin it like the did the Golden State.
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