Skydance boss backs original films and names Sinners his 2025 favourite

David Ellison wants his bigger Skydance to make original films, not live on franchises alone.

Ellison named Warner Bros.’ Sinners as his favourite film of 2025. He made the comment when asked how he could back creative risks while carrying heavy borrowing, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The numbers are stark. Skydance is saddled with $80 billion in debt. Ellison said the combined business would still spend more on content than Disney or Netflix.

That spending power comes from scale. Skydance already controls Paramount Pictures, Paramount+, CBS and cable brands. Its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery would add the Warner Bros. film studio, HBO, CNN and DC under Ellison and his team.

Leadership is changing at the top of the film business. Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy, the Warner Bros. film chiefs who oversaw Sinners, are not staying on. Skydance Motion Picture Group’s Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein will oversee both film studios. Former Mattel boss Ynon Kreiz joins as Ellison’s new co-CEO.

The plan is to keep Warner Bros. and Paramount creatively independent. Each will hold its own slate, a line-up of films, while the company choreographs the release schedule so the two studios do not clash over dates. Ellison promised 30 films a year between the two studios.

The physical bases stay too. Both the Warner Bros. and Paramount lots, the studio sites with sound stages and offices, will remain open. The idea is for one to focus primarily on film and the other primarily on television and streaming. Ellison also promised to keep CNN and CBS News editorially separate.

The combined Paramount–Warner Bros. Discovery company will be called Skydance, Ellison said on 2 October, according to Reuters. The merged group targets $6 billion in cost savings. The deal was set to close on 6 October, according to Variety. Ellison is chairman and chief executive of Paramount Skydance.

Ellison’s team had earlier flagged games, animation and sport as growth areas after the planned Paramount merger. That background points to where extra investment could go beyond cinemas and television.

For viewers, this means familiar names stay on the poster but share an owner. Two studios. Two line-ups. One calendar and one purse.