Warner Bros. (WBD) Wins Best Picture as Paramount (PSKY) Takeover Nears

TLDR

• Warner Bros. Discovery won 11 Oscars at the 98th Academy Awards, including Best Picture for One Battle After Another
• Sinners took four awards; Michael B. Jordan won Best Actor
• Paramount agreed last month to buy Warner Bros. Discovery for $81 billion, beating Netflix in a bidding war
• Warner’s studio division adjusted EBITDA rose 54% to $2.55 billion last year
• WBD stock was up 0.5% to $27.27 in premarket; Paramount (PSKY) ticked up 0.2% to $9.74

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Warner Bros. Discovery had the best night in Hollywood on Sunday, walking away with 11 Oscars at the 98th Academy Awards. But the win comes at a bittersweet moment — the studio is weeks away from being absorbed into Paramount Skydance.

Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc., WBD

One Battle After Another, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, led the charge with six trophies, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor. It’s a story of violent resistance in a dystopian America — and apparently, Oscar voters were all in.

Sinners picked up four more awards. Michael B. Jordan won Best Actor for his role playing twin brothers in the film, and used his speech to thank Warner Bros. for “betting on original ideas and artistry.”

Amy Madigan also won Best Supporting Actress for Weapons, another Warner release. Three films, 11 wins — it was a clean sweep.

Paramount CEO David Ellison agreed last month to buy Warner Bros. Discovery for $81 billion. Ellison, backed by his father Larry Ellison — co-founder of Oracle — beat out Netflix in a drawn-out bidding war to close the deal.

The combined company would merge two of Hollywood’s biggest studios. Paramount has said it expects to pull $6 billion in cost savings from the deal. Ellison has pledged to release 30 films a year split evenly between the two studios.

Warner’s Box Office Track Record Drove the Deal

Warner’s studio division posted adjusted EBITDA of $2.55 billion last year — a 54% jump. The gains were driven by Sinners, A Minecraft Movie, and Superman.

So far in 2026, Warner’s Wuthering Heights and Paramount’s Scream 7 are among the top box-office performers. The momentum hasn’t slowed.

Winning Oscars doesn’t typically move the needle much financially for studios directly, but it can push streaming numbers up as viewers look up award-winning titles.

Other Studios at the Ceremony

Netflix took home seven Oscars. Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein led with three wins, including hair and makeup, production design, and costume design. Netflix also won Best Animated Feature for KPop Demon Hunters.

NBCUniversal’s Focus Features unit won Best Actress for Jessie Buckley’s role in Hamnet. A24’s Marty Supreme came in with nine nominations — including Best Picture — but walked away empty-handed.

Disney’s 20th Century Studios picked up one Oscar for visual effects on Avatar: Fire and Ash. Apple took Best Sound.

WBD stock was up 0.5% to $27.27 in Monday premarket trading. Paramount was up 0.2% to $9.74.

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