Tony Gilroy Calls the Paramount-Warner Merger ‘Tragic.’ His Film Cost $36 Million.

Tony Gilroy used the world premiere of his new film to call the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger “tragic” — and the film he was premiering is the argument attached to the complaint. It’s called “Behemoth!”, and it was produced for $36 million. Variety describes it as representative of the mid-budget, adult-oriented drama that once sustained Hollywood’s theatrical business and allowed filmmakers like Gilroy to make a name for themselves. Put those two facts together and a legible worry appears: a merger puts two major studios under one roof, and the tier most exposed to consolidation is the one between the micro-budget and the franchise tentpole — where a filmmaker gets a first shot at something ambitious but not guaranteed, and where there is no obvious defender in a merged studio’s release calendar. Gilroy’s language is a judgment, not a finding. Whether consolidation shrinks that tier is a question about slates and greenlights, answered by release schedules rather than at a premiere. Still, opening a $36 million adult drama is a neat way to make the case: the endangered thing was the film itself.