July is turning out to be the month of theme parks for me. Disney, Eagle Gold Mine (a stretch…but sort of), Santa Monica Pier and today, Warner Brothers Studio Tour. We did the Universal Studio Tour and Park last summer so this will complete two of the three suite (Carolyn tells me that next year we have to do Paramount). It’s nice and warm here in LA, not oppressively hot, but still sunny and warm. I’ve donned a new look for my theme park visits, having purchased a cheap straw gardeners hat yesterday at the Santa Monica Pier. I plan to put it to good use today and think about whether or not it’s something that will be benefit to me on board my royal Caribbean cruise next week (yet another version of a theme park…this time on the high seas) as I wander the decks and Carolyn, John and the girls (and probably Kim) do their thing on the various rides games and craft events they have planned during the four-day cruise. We are stopping in Avalon/Catalina and then Ensenada for our Mexico-Light visit. I’ve become very tolerant of theme parks over the years, and can sit a bench with the best of them. The secret to my success has become my acclamation by using my iPhone to dictate stories rather than typing them out on my iPad. I know how much my kids love theme parks so this approach to a few days each summer works just fine for me. They get their theme park time in and I get to spend some time with them.
This morning we’re early for the tour (no surprise), and it seems that being early works just fine for Warner Brothers. Warner Brothers Studios has been at the center of a great deal of financial and business controversy in 2026. First it was the battle Royale between Netflix and Paramount. Now it is the approval process for the deal to go through. Where things stand as of mid-July 2026 is that Paramount Skydance agreed to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery for $31 per share in cash, unanimously approved by both boards, and targeting a Q3 2026 close. Warner shareholders approved the deal in April 2026. The DOJ (the Trump Administration is in deep cahoots with the Ellison) approved the deal in June 2026 after an eight-month antitrust investigation, finding the acquisition would increase competition rather than harm it, with no divestitures or remedies required (imagine that!). But in July 2026, attorneys general from 12 states sued to block the acquisition, arguing it would reduce competition in film distribution, cable, and streaming. This suit is led by California’s Rob Bonta (again, no surprise given the Republic of California’s stand against Trump on almost everything). The proposed merger just hit its first significant speed bump when a judge granted a temporary restraining order prohibiting them from closing the deal pending the outcome of those suits. And the EU is also still reviewing the deal, having set July 22 as a new provisional deadline. Paramount has submitted concessions to address EU concerns. The UK regulator is also still reviewing it, and with Andy Burnham now installed as the British PM, it will be interesting to see how his new government will address the issue. The bottom line is that Paramount says it’s still aiming to close the deal by late September 2026 despite the state lawsuit, but between the multi-state antitrust suit and pending EU/UK approvals, that timeline isn’t locked in yet. What it will do to the flagging film industry is another matter altogether. I sense that we may be seeing the best part of the film industry during our tour today since nostalgia seems to be the biggest appeal of the film business as both Netflix and probably soon Paramount/Skydance/Warner Bros./Discovery figure out how delivering entertainment works best as a business going forward.
During COVID, it seemed like the big “gathering” events (stadiums, theaters, theme parks, etc.) were going to be toast, given the communicability/vulnerability issue of our species. I would have bet that we were moving to a more remote and stay-at-home world, but the world population didn’t play along with that concept. Man is a gregarious creature. Humans evolved as intensely social animals because sociality was a survival strategy long before it was a choice. A few threads explain why it runs so deep. To begin with, there is an evolutionary payoff. Early humans who cooperated by sharing food, defending against predators, raising children collectively, etc., all outcompeted those who went it alone. Groups caught more prey, spotted danger sooner, and pooled knowledge. Solitary humans rarely survived long enough to pass on their genes. Some researchers (the “social brain hypothesis”), argue human intelligence itself expanded largely to manage social complexity for tracking allegiances, reputations, obligations, and rivalries in groups. Big brains may be as much a social tool as a technical one. The attachment starts at birth. Human infants are helpless for years, far longer than other primates. That forces deep bonding between caregiver and child, and it wires attachment and connection-seeking into us from the start. Culture also depends on it. Language, tool-making, and accumulated knowledge only work because they’re transmitted between people. A human raised in total isolation wouldn’t just be lonely, they’d lack language, skills, and most of what we consider human capability. Chronic isolation shows measurable effects on stress hormones, immune function, and cognition. Belonging isn’t a luxury on top of survival, it functions as a survival need in its own right. To paraphrase Aristotle, who discussed the “political animal” of man, man is a theme-park animal, or so it seems.