By Lucas Manfredi

Ariel Investments co-founder John Rogers Jr. isn’t mincing words about the months-long drama surrounding Paramount Global, calling the scrapped deal between Shari Redstone’s National Amusements and David Ellison’s Skydance Media the “most screwed up sale and governance I’ve ever seen.”

“It’s just a once in a generation kind of screw up,” the executive, whose firm owns a 1.8% stake in Paramount, told TheWrap in an interview on Wednesday. “It just doesn’t make any sense. You have all these great assets, great IP, great history and they’ve found a way to destroy value. It’s just pretty extraordinary.”

By Jeremy Fuster

Sony Pictures is getting into the movie theater business, as it has acquired Alamo Drafthouse and its 35 dine-in cinemas.

As part of the sale, Alamo Drafthouse will continue to operate all of its existing locations as well as the annual Fantastic Fest genre film festival in Austin. Michael Kustermann will remain CEO of the company and will report to Sony Pictures president/COO Ravi Ahuja.

By Alexei Barrionuevo, Emily Smith, and Lucas Manfredi

The future of Paramount was thrown into chaos on Tuesday after Shari Redstone scuttled a long-planned sale of the struggling entertainment company to Skydance Media, leaving a major Hollywood studio bobbing in uncertain waters.

Why did she do it? An individual close to the deal said Redstone communicated her decision to cancel the pending sale to Skydance on Tuesday morning — even before Paramount’s special committee was meant to meet on the matter.