David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance makes its bullish pitch to Hollywood

In a Hollywood in economic contraction, much of Paramount’s appeal to producers and talent lies in the stability of its funding, which came primarily from Ellison’s father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, who invested $6 billion, and a consortium of other investors, including private equity firm RedBird Capital Partners.

On Nov. 10, Ellison is scheduled to deliver his first earnings call as CEO, during which he is expected to articulate the studio’s strategy and financial outlook just weeks after Paramount Skydance began laying off what is expected to be some 2,000 employees.

Ellison touted the technological sophistication he plans to bring to the studio, backed by Oracle’s computing platform and AI.

“We’re not going to be afraid of technology; we’re going to embrace it,” Ellison said at a news conference in New York after the Paramount deal closed in August.

In meetings with talent in recent weeks, Paramount executives shared a little more, discussing the company’s ability to find audiences for their films and shows among increasingly distracted consumers, in part by relying on targeted AI marketing tools.

The breakneck pace of deal-making, which has required Paramount lawyers to work weekends to review contracts, comes as Ellison is actively bidding to become the owner of another Hollywood studio, Warner Bros. Discovery.

Many industry sources are wary of entering into such a deal, saying they fear it could lead to more layoffs, less spending and a homogenization of the types of TV shows and movies produced. It’s reminiscent, eerily, of when Disney bought Fox in 2019, laid off 3,000 people, and dramatically reduced the number of Fox films that hit theaters.

“If the films all come from one company, how much risk are you willing to take? asked Daniel Loria, senior vice president of Boxoffice Company, a cinema e-commerce and data services company. “We’re just coming out of the Disney/Fox merger where we found that one plus one equals a lot less than two.”

Asked about a possible Paramount-Warner Bros. deal. Discovery, a manager of a mid-sized cinema chain, said he was “concerned”.

“It must be assumed that there will be a significant reduction in production,” he said. “It’s not good for movie theaters, it’s not good for consumers.”

Others in the industry have also raised alarms that the deal could lead to fewer opportunities. In a statement released in October, the Writers Guild of America called the prospect of a Paramount-WBD deal “a disaster for writers, for consumers and for competition” and pledged to work with regulators to block the merger.

But Ellison presents his company as a boon for theaters and moviegoers. He said he wanted Paramount to produce 20 films a year, up from 11 to 14 films a year currently, and that if it was successful in buying Warner Bros., the two companies combined would produce 30 films a year, which would match their current output.

To reach that level of production, Paramount is in expansion mode, signing a three-year distribution deal with Legendary Entertainment that will begin with a 2026 “Street Fighter” film and a 10-year lease for more than 285,000 square feet of production space in Bayonne, New Jersey.

Ellison rounded out his executive team, recruiting Skydance’s Dana Goldberg as co-president of Paramount Pictures and president of Paramount Television, former Sony executive Josh Greenstein as co-president of Paramount Pictures and vice president of platforms, and former Netflix vice president Cindy Holland as president of direct-to-consumer.

Paramount is even dabbling in genres that have largely disappeared from movie theaters over the past decade, like original R-rated comedies — the studio bought a specific script for a comedy called “Bald Eagles.”