In this articleWBDPSKYFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNTChairman & CEO Paramount David Ellison attends the UFC 324 event at T-Mobile Arena on January 24, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Jeff Bottari | Ufc | Getty ImagesIf there’s one thing that Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison knows well, it’s an impossible mission.Ellison, producer of five of the “Mission: Impossible” films, has been trying to buy Warner Bros. Discovery for nearly six months. In September, he sent an initial, unsolicited offer to WBD, prompting the rival media company to explore a sale process that resulted in an agreement with Netflix to sell the famed Warner Bros. film studio and WBD’s prestige streaming assets. Ellison launched a hostile tender offer and, separately, was welcomed back to the negotiating table with WBD under a seven-day waiver from Netflix. This week, Paramount upped its offer for the entirety of WBD. The Warner Bros. movie studio is a big part of why Ellison has been so committed to winning over WBD’s board and its shareholders.Last year, Warner Bros. was the second-highest grossing studio at the domestic box office. Paramount was fourth. [embedded content]A longtime Hollywood executive, Ellison has produced some massive hits at the box office, but his track record has been far from consistent. Where Netflix has a fraught relationship with theatrical releases — disrupting the traditional business and opting for years to prioritize streaming films for its subscribers — Ellison’s production company, Skydance, has followed the tried-and-true theatrical playbook. Taking ownership of Warner Bros. would be a gamechanger for either company.”If a merger were to be approved, the entity that then grabs up Warner Bros. would add tremendous horsepower both in terms of brand identity and revenue generating potential to their portfolio,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at Comscore. “So, it is understandable why the competition is fierce among the potential suitors vying for their chance to acquire the studio.”A history of Skydance at the box officeSkydance released its first theatrical feature in 2006, a World War I drama featuring James Franco as a U.S. fighter pilot. Over the last two decades, the studio has launched nearly 30 films, the majority of which were in partnership with Paramount, according to data from Comscore. Paramount and Skydance completed their merger, engineered by Ellison, in August. Skydance’s biggest successes have come from one source in particular — Tom Cruise. The studio’s six highest-grossing films globally all star Cruise, including five “Mission: Impossible” films and the breakout 2022 hit “Top Gun: Maverick.”Highest-grossing Skydance films globally”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 — Dead Reckoning: Part One” (2023) — $571 million”World War Z” (2013) — $540 million”Star Trek Into Darkness” (2013) — $467 million”Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” (2023) — $441 million”Terminator Genisys” (2015) — $440 millionSource: ComscoreHaving a billion-dollar film under your belt is no small feat, especially in the wake of the pandemic. The theatrical business has been in flux in recent years as consumer habits have shifted, studios grapple with how long movies should play in cinemas before hitting the home market, and streaming siphons away potential releases.For comparison, Disney has released six billion-dollar films since 2021: “Avatar: The Way of Water,” “Inside Out 2,” “Deadpool & Wolverine,” “Moana 2,” “Zootopia 2” and “Avatar: Fire and Ash.” Warner Bros. had 2023’s “Barbie,” Universal had “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” that same year, and Sony had “Spider-Man: No Way Home” in 2021, according to Comscore data.Tom Cruise in “Top Gun: Maverick”Source: ParamountHowever, “Top Gun: Maverick” is a bit of an outlier for Skydance. In addition to being the studio’s only billion-dollar film, it’s also the only film in its library to exceed $230 million domestically. In fact, only five of Skydance’s features to date have generated 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 millionSource: ComscoreGlobally, the production company has seen seven of its films generate more than $500 million in ticket sales, which would be a bigger feat — if budgets for many of these films weren’t so high.”The challenge for Ellison and Skydance, as it is for every studio, production company, and distributor, is to keep budgets in line particularly for latter installments of major franchises as these tend to have diminishing returns as compared the earlier releases to justify the continued investment in these movie franchises,” said Dergarabedian.Of course, Skydance split production costs with its studio partners, so it’s unclear exactly how much the company put toward each film it produced. Still, many of its franchise films saw budgets balloon with each new installment. Look at the most recent “Mission: Impossible” film. “Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning” generated $599 million at the global box office, the fourth-best showing for a film in the franchise. However, the film had a reported budget of $400 million. That’s before marketing costs, which usually run at about half of the production budget. General views of the TCL Chinese Theatre promoting the new Tom Cruise film ‘Mission: Impossible The Final Reckoning’ in IMAX on May 23, 2025 in Hollywood, California.Aaronp/bauer-griffin | Gc Images | Getty ImagesSo, Skydance in conjunction with Paramount would have spent an estimated $600 million ahead of the “The Final Reckoning’ …
