George Clooney: Hollywood Being Consumed by Amazon, Walmart

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George Clooney recently sat down with GQ magazine to discuss Paramount Pictures’ impending sale to Skydance. The deal, worth an estimated $8 billion, was agreed upon in early July. Clooney, who has a long history with Paramount, shared his thoughts on the sale. He directed “Suburbicon” in 2017, which was released domestically by Paramount. The studio is also known for backing some of his notable works, such as “Up in the Air,” for which Clooney received an Oscar nomination for best actor.

Clooney expressed his sentiment about the sale, saying, “Paramount’s one of the great original studios. But some of it you just have no say in. Because the business, it’s all getting eaten up. It’s like everything — it’s all getting eaten up by big Walmarts and Amazons around the world. Our version of mom-and-pop shops in a small town is Paramount.”

According to Variety, Skydance and its partners aim to invest over $8 billion to revitalize Paramount. The deal claims an enterprise value of $28 billion, with Skydance’s valuation standing at $4.75 billion.

The sale of Paramount to Skydance is poised to bring significant changes to Hollywood’s studio landscape. Clooney highlighted the broader trend of acquisitions by major corporations like Amazon, which now owns MGM Studios. However, Walmart has not yet ventured into bidding for a studio. Clooney also mentioned how changes in studio management have diminished Hollywood’s ability to cultivate movie stars.

“They haven’t developed stars the way the studio system used to,” Clooney explained. “We kind of were at the very end of that, where you could work at a studio and do three or four films, and there was some plan to it. And I don’t think that’s necessarily the case anymore. So it’s harder for you to sell somebody something on the back of a star.”

Clooney added that despite these changes, it’s a favorable time for young actors. “Because when I was a young actor, if you looked at the back of the ‘LA Times’ every Monday morning they had the 64 shows that were made. And of those 64 shows, if you’re actually on one of them, you’re trying to be in the top 20 to keep your show on the air. But that was it. And then the studios were doing five films a year. Now there are 600 shows, so there’s a lot more work for actors.”

Next for Clooney is the crime thriller “Wolfs,” directed by Jon Watts. The film stars Clooney and Brad Pitt as rival fixers hired for the same job. “Wolfs” will have its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival before streaming on Apple TV+ starting September 27. The movie will also have a limited one-week theatrical run beginning September 20.