Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery are close to becoming one company, but the debate now extends beyond Hollywood. The question is what happens when two major suppliers of films to West African screens become one negotiating force.
The $110 billion deal would combine Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros., two of the five Hollywood film distributors. In July, 12 U.S. state attorneys general sued to stop the acquisition, arguing that the merger would reduce competition for theatrical releases and strengthen the studios’ leverage over cinemas. California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed an emergency motion seeking to prevent the deal from closing. The Block the Merger Coalition has continued to challenge the transaction and moved this week to oppose the settlement. As of September 25, a federal judge has not yet approved the settlement, so the merger remains pending.
The concern matters in West Africa because Hollywood supplies a large part of the cinema business. FilmOne’s 2025 Anglophone West Africa box office yearbook recorded ₦15.6 billion in revenue across 122 cinemas in Nigeria, Ghana and Liberia. Hollywood accounted for 48.8 percent of the market, while Nollywood took 49.4 percent. Warner Bros. generated about ₦2.26 billion, and Paramount Pictures about ₦582 million. Together, they accounted for roughly ₦2.84 billion in box office revenue.
That makes the supply of Hollywood releases a commercial issue for local cinema exhibitors. Cinemas need a flow of titles that can draw audiences. A blockbuster can fill multiple screenings and drive concession sales. When a cinema has fewer strong titles to programme, it has fewer opportunities to keep seats occupied and recover the fixed costs of running the building.
Those costs are already difficult in Nigeria. Cinema operators have pointed to diesel, electricity, rent and other operating expenses as pressures on the business. Industry reporting has also shown that Hollywood releases can have a major effect on weekly footfall. A blockbuster’s value extends beyond one screening. It can help carry the economics of an entire week.
The merger’s critics are worried about more than the number of films. The states’ complaint argues that Paramount and Warner currently compete with theatres over revenue splits, minimum ticket prices, discounts, screen allocation and theatrical windows. Removing one independent negotiating party, the states argue, could leave theatres facing less favourable terms.
That argument is based on the U.S. exhibition market, so it should not be treated as proof that Nigerian or Ghanaian cinemas will automatically receive worse contracts. West African distributors and exhibitors still operate under their own agreements and market conditions. Exhibitors in smaller markets have fewer ways to replace a major studio title when it disappears from a schedule.
There is also a reason the merger’s effect may be less severe than the original warning suggests. Paramount has said the combined company will increase film output, and the settlement requires at least 30 theatrical films a year for the first two years and 32 a year for the next three. It also requires at least four independent films annually and limits fees charged to theatre operators for three years.
Those commitments could protect cinemas from the sharpest version of the feared supply contraction, but they do not guarantee that West African screens will receive those films. The quota covers the combined company’s theatrical output, while regional release schedules still depend on local demand, distribution agreements, marketing budgets and each territory’s value.
So, does the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger threaten African cinema revenues? It creates a real risk because West African exhibitors rely on a concentrated pool of Hollywood suppliers, and Warner Bros. and Paramount together generated about ₦2.84 billion in regional box office in 2025. The deal’s theatre protections may limit some of the downside, but they cannot remove the concern about bargaining power. For African cinemas, the real question is how many films reach their screens, on what terms, and whether exhibitors still have enough leverage to make the business work.
