At tonight’s premiere of Amazon Prime Video‘s Melania documentary, Donald Trump had something to say about some other streamers and studios.
Asked by Deadline’s Ted Johnson if he was opposed to Netflix‘s $83 billion acquisition of Warner Bros movie, TV, HBO and digital assets, POTUS replied: “Well, I am looking at the whole thing. I have a great feeling.”
Though the David Zaslav-run Warner Bros Discovery has agree to the deal with the Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters-led streamer, David Ellison and Paramount are still hope to snag all of WBD with a $108 billion hostile takeover action or derail the Netflix’s effort in the courts and halls of power. Taking his case to Congress and up against accusations that a WB-owning Netflix would have an unfair domination of the streaming market, Sarandos is set to testify before the Sen Mike Lee (R-UT) chaired Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee on February 3
With that in mind, Trump Thursday said: “I like both of them very much. It looks to me like one of them is very much a monopoly if they are able to do this deal. So we will see how it all works out.”
Go to the 0:56 to watch the exchange between Trump and our Mr. Johnson at the Melania opening here.
Giving hope and pain to both sides simultaneously the latest comments by Trump on the multi-billion battle came as the former Apprentice host was walking the black carpet at the premiere of the Melania documentary tonight at the Kennedy Center.
Directed by the once shunned Brett Ratner, the very authorized biography of the very private and choreographed First Lady hits theaters on over 1,200 screens on Friday, with a streaming run to follow on Amazon Prime Video. In a deal that the Jeff Bezos-launched streamer has insisted is not intended to curry favor with the White House and will almost certainly see them losing money, Amazon paid $40 million for the film and has coughed up around $35 million to promote it. At the same time, unseen by critics and looking to see Mrs. Trump paid over $25 million, Melania could make $3 to $5 million this weekend, mainly from rural Red State audiences.
Either way, the docu has put the two-timed First Lady and third Trump wife in the spotlight and the name of Amazon’s streaming service on the lips of everyone in political and entertainment circles. Even for masters of distraction like the Trump team, the Melania film has shifted focus away from the chaos of ICE killing Americans and abducting individuals, including children, Russia’s war on Ukraine, another government shut down, and protests and bloodshed continue in Iran.
Insisting again and again that they are the only ones who will get regulatory approval (wink: Larry Ellison in particular is as close with Trump as anyone can be) in anywhere near a timely fashion in the WBD dust-up, Paramount last week extended their shareholders deadline from January 21 to February 20. So far, WBD shareholders have not coming running over in big numbers.
(L-R) David Zaslav, Ted Sarandos, Greg Peters & David Ellison
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