With a crucial deadline approaching in an antitrust lawsuit challenging Paramount's $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, Rob Bonta, the California attorney general spearheading the opposition, spoke at The Atlantic Festival in New York. Paramount, he said, was responding to "a straight-up, black-and-white, bread-and-butter, meat-and-potatoes antitrust case" by threatening to leave California.

Twenty-four hours later, Mr. Bonta was calling the other 11 states party to the suit and striking a different tone. He feared Paramount was going to follow through on its threat and said it was time to settle. On Monday, the two sides announced a settlement that eliminated the last significant obstacle to a deal uniting two iconic movie studios.

The settlement disappointed some of Mr. Bonta's allies, but pressures had been building for months. The states' case was far from a legal slam dunk. Paramount's relocation threats terrified Californians and worried prominent state Democrats, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, who leaned on Mr. Bonta to settle.

For David Ellison, the states' lawsuit was the last battle in a campaign in which Paramount beat out Netflix for Warner Bros. The deal stands to make a Hollywood heavyweight out of Mr. Ellison, backed financially by his father, Larry Ellison.