NEW YORK (AP) — Movie studio Paramount on Monday agreed to settle an antitrust lawsuit filed by 12 states, the last big obstacle blocking the company's $81 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery in a deal that would transform the movie industry landscape.
In the settlement, which still needs to be approved by a judge, Paramount agreed to terms including a five-year movie production plan and to invest $1.5 billion in domestic movies.
State attorneys general say the settlement guarantees investment in domestic movie production and provides worker protection. But analysts say the deal is still likely to lead to less competition in the industry — and higher prices for consumers.
“Where I’m looking at this is through the consumer’s point of view and resoundingly consumers are concerned about price hikes and they are preparing for price hikes,” said Forrester research director Mike Proulx. “They care less about the theatrical releases and some of the other industry terms. What they care about is how this is going to hit their wallets.”
Here's a closer look at the biggest terms Paramount agreed to in the settlement:
Paramount said it will spend $1.5 billion over five years, or $300 million a year — on top of what it spent in 2025 on filming domestically. According to the state attorneys general, currently only about 5% of Paramount's production is in the U.S.
Paramount also said it would create a five-year, $25 million fund for buying independent films.
The movie studio agreed to make 30 films a year in the first two years and 32 films a year in the following three years. It also said it will release at least four independent films each year.
That dovetails with plans Paramount chairman and CEO David Ellison has previously laid out to grow the combined company's movie slate to more than 30 movies a year.
But the agreement includes penalties: If Paramount doesn't produce the required amount, the company will be forced to sell Miramax Studios and pay $30 million to health care and retirement trust funds associated with worker unions.
Paramount has said it would look for ways to save some $6 billion through job cuts in “duplicative operations” when the deal goes through.
Under the settlement, Paramount will create a $47.5 million workforce fund for training and career development for laid-off workers. It also agreed to honor previously established collective bargaining agreements and bargain in good faith with unions.
Under the agreement, Paramount won't have to sell cable channels. But the company will have to hold negotiations over basic cable channels under Paramount and Warner Bros. separately for five years. If it doesn't, it might have to sell some channels under the agreement. The agreement also calls for the creation of a board to ensure that Warner-owned CNN and CBS, owned by Paramount, maintain editorial independence.
FILE - The Paramount Pictures water tower is seen in Los Angeles, Dec. 18, 2025, with the Hollywood sign in the distance. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Venezuelan man shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer was in custody Monday at an ICE detention center in Texas after he was released from a hospital with a bullet still lodged in his back, the man's attorney said.
Speaking by phone during a news conference, Wilber Rafael Garces Perez said doctors didn’t remove the bullet because it’s near his spine. He said ICE pressed for him to be released quickly from the hospital so it could move him to a detention center. He said he had received no pain medication or treatment there, and had slept on the floor, before eventually being given a “pill” by a nurse on Monday.
Perez, 28, was making a DoorDash delivery in Austin on Sunday when his car was “sideswiped” twice by ICE officers in an unmarked truck, immigration attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch told reporters Monday. He was taken to a hospital, she said, but was released later Sunday into ICE custody with the bullet still inside him.
Perez said ICE officers didn’t ask him to stop or turn on any flashing lights until after they had sideswiped him. He said he did a U-turn and was trying to park when the officers rammed his car and shot him in the back of the neck.
“I am not doing well due to the gunshot wound, and I have not received the medical attention that I require,” Perez said, speaking in Spanish over the phone as a member of his attorney's staff translated during the news conference.
Perez was being detained at the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, about 130 miles (209 kilometers) southwest of Austin, Lincoln-Goldfinch said. She said Perez told her in a prior phone call that he was being interrogated.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, has released little information and has not said what prompted the shooting. In a statement early Monday, the department said it was investigating the shooting of a Venezuelan man in the U.S. illegally who “had a final order of removal.”
Homeland Security did not immediately respond to email messages seeking further comment on the shooting.
Perez entered the U.S. legally in 2024 after using CBP One, a program begun under President Joe Biden that set up appointments with U.S. authorities to be considered for asylum, Lincoln-Goldfinch said. President Donald Trump ended the program on his first day in office.
Perez's attorneys said he was an asylum seeker and had a valid work permit, Lincoln-Goldfinch said. She said a judge issued a deportation order for Perez after he missed a hearing in immigration court because the hearing notice was sent to a former address.
“Not that being out of status would justify any of this at all,” Lincoln-Goldfinch said of the shooting in a social media post.
The shooting occurred amid a surge in ICE enforcement across the U.S. during Trump's second term. During the summer, it reported more than 50,000 monthly arrests in July and August — a first for the agency.
Immigration officers have come under intense scrutiny amid a series of shootings during the crackdown. At least four people have been fatally shot by federal officers during immigration enforcement operations this year.
Local advocates, leaders of the civil rights group the League of United Latin American Citizens and two Democratic congressmen who represent parts of Austin called during the news conference for the creation of an independent body to review use-of-force incidents by ICE and refer suspected crimes to prosecutors.
They also urged Congress to ban ICE officers from making traffic stops, saying the officers are undertrained and too quick to resort to violence.
Austin Mayor Kirk Watson, a Democrat, has said he wants local police to have a role in investigating the shooting. Watson said it wouldn’t be appropriate for ICE to investigate on its own.
The area beneath an overpass where a large crowd of protesters had gathered Sunday near the shooting scene was quiet Monday. Trash-filled plastic bags were left below concrete pylons marked with anti-ICE graffiti.
Amid discarded police tape, people left candles, flowers and a sign that read “Justice for Wilber.”
Associated Press journalist Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed.
People speak during a demonstration where a man was shot in his vehicle by an ICE officer, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Joel Angel Juarez)
Authorities deploy non-lethal weapons near a demonstration where a man was shot in his vehicle by an ICE officer, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Joel Angel Juarez)
A man photographs a spray-painted surface that reads "death to immigration enforcement" near the site where a man was shot in his vehicle by an ICE officer the day before in Austin, Texas, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Flowers and candles are seen near the site where a Venezuelan man was shot in his vehicle by an ICE officer in Austin, Texas, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Flowers and candles are placed, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026, near the site where an ICE officer shot a Venezuelan man during a traffic stop the day before, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Jesse Bedayn)
People protest where local authorities say a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer (ICE) shot and wounded a man in Austin, Texas, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Joel Angel Juarez)
Flowers and candles are placed, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026, near the site where an ICE officer shot a Venezuelan man during a traffic stop the day before, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Jesse Bedayn)
