David Ellison’s rocky box office history
Chairman and CEO Paramount David Ellison attends UFC 324 at T-Mobile Arena on January 24, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Jeff Bottari | UFC | Getty Images
If there is anything Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison knows full well that this is an impossible task.
Ellison, the producer of five of the “Mission: Impossible” movies, has been trying to buy this movie for a while. Warner Bros. Discovery almost six months. He sent an initial, unsolicited offer to WBD in September, encouraging the rival media company to explore a sales process that resulted in a deal. netflix famous Warner Bros. selling the movie studio and WBD’s prestige broadcasting assets.
Ellison submitted a hostile tender offer and was also invited back to the negotiating table with WBD under a seven-day exemption from Netflix. This week, Paramount increased its bid for the entirety of WBD.
Warner Bros. The movie studio is a big part of why Ellison is so determined to win over WBD’s board and shareholders.
Last year, Warner Bros. It became the second highest-grossing studio at the domestic box office. Paramount finished fourth.
A longtime Hollywood executive, Ellison has had great success at the box office, but his performance has been far from consistent.
While Netflix has had a rocky relationship with theatrical releases (disrupting the traditional business and opting to prioritize streaming movies for its subscribers for years), Ellison’s production company, Skydance, has followed tried-and-true theatrical tactics.
Taking ownership from Warner Bros. would be a game changer for both companies.
“If the merger is approved, the Warner Bros. acquirer will add tremendous strength to their portfolio in terms of both brand identity and revenue generation potential,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of market trends at Comscore. “So it’s understandable why competition is so fierce among potential suitors vying for the chance to buy the studio.”
The story of Skydance at the box office
Skydance released its first feature film in 2006; World War I drama starring James Franco as a US fighter pilot. According to Comscore data, the studio has released nearly 30 films in the last twenty years, most of them in partnership with Paramount.
Paramount and Skydance completed their Ellison-engineered merger in August.
Skydance’s biggest successes came from one source in particular: Tom Cruise. The studio’s six highest-grossing films worldwide star Cruise; these include the five “Mission: Impossible” movies and the 2022 hit “Top Gun: Maverick.”
Highest-grossing Skydance movies worldwide
- “Top Gun: Maverick” (2022) – $1.4 billion
- “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” (2018) – $791 million
- “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol” (2011) – $694 million
- “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” (2015) – $682 million
- “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” (2025) – $599 million
- “Mission: Impossible – Fatal Reckoning: Part One” (2023) – $571 million
- “World War Z” (2013) – $540 million
- “Star Trek Into Darkness” (2013) – $467 million
- “Transformers: Rise of Monsters” (2023) – $441 million
- “Terminator Genesis” (2015) – $440 million
Source: Comscore
Having a billion-dollar movie under your belt is no small feat, especially in the wake of the pandemic.
The theater industry has been in flux in recent years as consumer habits change, studios grapple with how long movies should play in theaters before hitting the domestic market, and potential releases are pulled from streaming.
For comparison, Disney It has released six billion-dollar movies since 2021: “Avatar: The Way of Water,” “Inside Out 2,” “Deadpool & Wolverine,” “Moana 2,” “Zootopia 2” and “Avatar: Fire and Ash.”
Warner Bros. had “Barbie” due in 2023, Universal had “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and Sony had “Spider-Man: No Way Home” in 2021, according to Comscore data.
Tom Cruise in “Top Gun: Maverick”
Source: Paramount
But “Top Gun: Maverick” is a bit of an outlier for Skydance. In addition to being the studio’s only billion-dollar film, it is also the only film in its domestic library to exceed 230 million dollars.
In fact, to date, just five of Skydance’s features have earned more than $200 million in the U.S. and Canada.
Skydance’s highest-grossing domestic films
- “Top Gun: Maverick” (2022) – $718 million
- “Star Trek Into Darkness” (2013) – $228 million
- “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” (2018) – $220 million
- “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol” (2011) – $209 million
- “World War Z” (2013) – $209 million
Source: Comscore
The production company has seen seven of its films generate more than $500 million in ticket sales worldwide; This would be a bigger success if the budgets of most of these films weren’t so high.
“The challenge for Ellison and Skydance, as for every studio, production company, and distributor, is to keep budgets in line, especially for the final installments of major franchises, as their returns are diminishing compared to previous releases to justify continued investment in these film franchises,” Dergarabedian said.
Of course, Skydance shares production costs with its studio partners, so it’s unclear exactly how much money the company allocates to each film it produces. Yet most franchise films have seen budgets balloon with each new installment.
Check out the latest “Mission: Impossible” movie. “Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning” earned $599 million at the global box office, the fourth-best debut for a film in the series. However, the film’s budget was reported to be $400 million. This is before marketing costs, which are usually about half the production budget.
General footage of TCL Chinese Theater promoting the new Tom Cruise movie ‘Mission: Impossible The Final Reckoning’ in IMAX on May 23, 2025 in Hollywood, California.
Aaronp/bauer-griffin | Gc Pictures | Getty Images
That means Skydance, along with Paramount, would have spent approximately $600 million before “The Final Reckoning” was released in theaters. $599 million from ticket sales is also shared.
Studios split box office revenues with theater operators, usually on a 50-50 split at the end of a film’s theatrical run.
The result is often a film that performs well at the box office but is unprofitable for the producing studios. And unlike some franchises — think Marvel, Star Wars or Harry Potter — Mission: Impossible doesn’t have a robust sales arm or as much demand from fans for things like toys, clothing or collectibles.
A mountain of content
By merging with Paramount, Ellison’s Skydance will now have more properties that fall within the definition of a production company. This includes the lucrative Sonic the Hedgehog franchise and upcoming movies like “Scream 7,” “Paw Patrol 3,” “Street Fighter,” “Scary Movie 6” and “Focker-in-Law,” the latest installment in the Robert De Niro-led Meet the Parents franchise.
But Paramount’s roster of franchises still isn’t as strong as the one WBD carries in its roster.
Still from Paramount’s “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” movie.
extraordinary
“Warner Bros. is one of the crown jewels of theatrical distribution,” Dergarabedian said. “Their film slate, relationships with filmmakers, brand recognition, and reputation as one of the leading and iconic film studios make them a coveted presence for every player in entertainment.”
WBD’s library includes DC superheroes Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Looney Tunes and Scooby-Doo. It is also the distributor of Legendary’s Dune and the Godzilla and King Kong franchises.
“In Paramount’s particular case, the studio’s box office market share often struggled to keep pace with its competitors and its own peak performance in the years leading up to 2015,” said Shawn Robbins, director of analytics at Fandango and founder of Box Office Theory. “While occasional hits like Sonic, A Quiet Place and the Scream series have provided bright spots, as well as ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ providing lightning in a bottle four years ago, some of the studio’s most bankable intellectual properties have seen diminishing returns among modern moviegoers.”
Paramount Skydance needs consistency at the box office, and well-known and beloved franchises are one way to do that. Of course, just having a big name doesn’t guarantee box office success, but it does reduce box office success. barrier to entry.
“Paramount is seizing every opportunity it can find following the recent end of Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible franchise, Transformers’ decline from its biggest blockbuster dollar days, and Star Trek’s cinematic inactivity as that brand refocuses on multi-release series aimed primarily at older audiences,” Robbins said.
Disclosure: Versant is the parent company of CNBC and Fandango.
