Tennessee wants Paramount Skydance, and it isn’t being subtle about it.
“As Paramount Skydance writes its next chapter, Tennessee offers a compelling proposition: a state where creativity and technology converge, where talent is developed intentionally, and where innovation is embraced,” Tennessee Deputy Gov. Stuart McWhorter wrote in a July 2 letter to Paramount CEO David Ellison, first reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
The pitch landed at an awkward moment for Paramount’s relationship with its home state. California Attorney General Rob Bonta led a coalition of 12 states that sued on July 13 to block Paramount’s proposed $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, arguing the merger would shrink competition and cost audiences money and variety. Days before that lawsuit landed, Semafor reported that Ellison’s own advisers had been pushing him to shift production spending out of California altogether.
McWhorter’s letter didn’t stop at flattery. “We would welcome the opportunity to share our vision for how Tennessee could help shape the future of Paramount Skydance and its talented team,” he wrote, according to The Hollywood Reporter, offering to sit down with Ellison directly. A Paramount spokesperson confirmed the letter was authentic but otherwise declined to comment.
The idea isn’t as far-fetched as it might sound to anyone who pictures Hollywood permanently welded to the Pacific Coast Highway. Ellison lived on and off in Tennessee for 11 years, from 2014 to 2025, selling his home there only after Paramount’s acquisition of Skydance closed. His father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, is building a massive new headquarters for the tech company in Nashville, after Oracle left California for Texas back in 2020.
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Paramount would hardly be the first marquee name to make the jump south. Nissan relocated its US headquarters from Gardena to Franklin, Tennessee, in 2005, chasing lower costs, and Mitsubishi Motors followed in 2019. CKE, the parent company of Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s, moved its headquarters to Franklin in 2018. In-N-Out, still overwhelmingly a California chain, opened a corporate office in Franklin in 2023, and owner Lynsi Snyder has since moved to the state herself.
“There’s a lot of great things about California, but raising a family is not easy here. Doing business is not easy here,” Snyder said of her decision.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee framed the state’s appeal in similar terms. “Companies choose Tennessee because they recognize the strength of our workforce, our strategic location and our ability to support long-term growth,” Lee said in an emailed statement. “Tennessee’s success comes from our commitment to helping businesses thrive.”
The numbers back him up, at least on paper. Tennessee has no state income or property tax and leans on a 7% sales tax instead, alongside a stack of credits and grants for relocating businesses. California, for its part, lost its longtime title as home to the most Fortune 500 companies this year, ceding the top spot to Texas in June.
For Movieguide® readers, the stakes go beyond corporate accounting. Paramount currently has shows like MATLOCK, NCIS and TRACKER filming in California, and the studio’s roughly $30 billion in annual spending helps sustain the crews, sets and small businesses that keep Hollywood productions running. Ellison has also been lobbying in Washington for a federal movie tax incentive, a sign that even if he stays put, the industry’s cost pressures aren’t going away anytime soon. Where movies get made shapes who gets to make them and what stories eventually reach families, which is reason enough to watch this one closely rather than assume it’s already settled.
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