We’re still not entirely convinced that Paramount Skydance‘s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery will close and clear all the regulatory hurdles (state and federal) it will need for the two companies to merge, but that isn’t stopping CEO David Ellison from making it public what their intentions are concerning the theatrical side of their offer.
Ellison has just stated they’re “committed” to releasing 15 movies from Warner Bros. Pictures and possibly another 15 from Paramount Pictures for a combined slate of “at least” 30 features, which is an ambitious declaration given the pecking order of prime release dates and other competing films. Also, reaffirming a 45-day theatrical window “before their films debut on home entertainment platforms,” something that Netflix‘s Ted Sarandos had already committed to in their previous deal.
“As we have said consistently, we are committed to delivering a broad pipeline of high-quality storytelling, including 15 theatrical films per year per studio, for a total of at least 30 films annually,” Ellison said on a conference call on Monday (via Variety). “We really believe that movies should be seen in theaters.”
Also, Ellison went on to call WB’s output from 2025 “a powerhouse slate” citing projects such as James Gunn‘s “Superman” (Ellison plans to keep Gunn and Peter Safran running things at DC Studios) and “A Minecraft Movie,” although it was noticable he stopped himself from lavishing any praise on Ryan Coolger‘s “Sinners” and Paul Thomas Anderson‘s “One Battle After Another,” two creator-driven original genre projects that have dominated the award season and happened to have anti-racism messages within their narratives.
The CEO mentioned his previous experience at Skydance for being able to manage big film projects at varying scales. “When you look at the theatrical space, which is something we deeply, deeply believe in, large franchises and big pieces of intellectual property are launched in theaters, period,” Ellison said. “I personally learned this lesson in 2022. We basically had the largest theatrical box office film with ‘Top Gun: Maverick,’ which became a cultural phenomenon, grossing $1.5 billion…At the same time, we released ‘The Adam Project‘ that summer on Netflix, which, at the time of its release, was the most successful film in Netflix… [it] previewed incredibly well with audiences but did have a different cultural resonance.”
One of those new projects announced since Ellison’s takeover of Paramount Pictures is a feature film based on the popular military video game shooter “Call of Duty,” that has Taylor Sheridan set to write, and Peter Berg attached to direct. A possible standby project while they figure out the future of similar established IP franchises like “Mission: Impossible” or “G.I. Joe.”
Talk is talk; we’ll see if David Ellison and Paramount Skydance are going to be true to their word or are simply making promises that will make their takeover easier for shareholders to accept. We’ve seen with other high-profile mergers, like with Disney and 21st Century Fox, leading to a MASSIVELY reduced theatrical output from 20th Century Studios and Searchlight Pictures, so color us skeptical of their true intentions.
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