Paramount Skydance reasserted its plans to quickly ramp up the number of films it puts in theaters, announcing in its first earnings call since its merger this past summer that it seeks to release at least 15 films annually starting next year.
CEO David Ellison said at Bloomberg Screentime last month that he wanted to get his new motion picture group’s output to 15 films per year starting in 2027, but that goal has been moved up in the company’s latest release.
“Our 2025 film slate has underperformed, with most titles expected to miss their lifetime profit targets. This presents an opportunity to recalibrate, and we are focused on making the necessary improvements to our future slate,” the release published on Monday read.
“At the same time, we plan to grow our theatrical output to at least 15 films annually beginning in 2026. While this rebuilding process will take time, we are confident that our strategy positions us to deliver quality films that will resonate with audiences worldwide and drive sustainable growth,” the release continued.
Paramount has a current domestic gross total for the year of $458 million from six in-year releases and four 2024 holdovers, equating to a 6.5% domestic market share. Even with Edgar Wright’s “The Running Man” and Nickelodeon’s “The Spongebob Movie: The Search for SquarePants” still to come later this year, Paramount will miss the $884 million domestic total that it posted last year off the back of films like “Sonic the Hedgehog 3,” “A Quiet Place: Day One” and “Gladiator II.”
In a call with investors, Ellison reiterated that the theatrical model is essential to his vision for Paramount, pointing to the successful partnership between Skydance and Paramount on their biggest hit, “Top Gun: Maverick.”
“When we were just a standalone company at Skydance, we had an incredible partnership with Paramount, but we’ve consistently delivered hits on all of the platforms that we’ve worked on. What we’re really doing now is taking everything that we’ve learned at Skydance, and that incredibly powerful creative content engine, partnering it with the phenomenal creative engines at Paramount to really be able to get the scale across all of our growth businesses,” he said.
That plan to increase theatrical output has been hailed by AMC Theatres CEO Adam Aron in recent earnings calls as a reason for optimism when it comes to the future of movie theaters. But exhibition execs have privately told TheWrap that they are deeply anxious about Paramount or another major studio acquiring Warner Bros., which is expected to reveal more about its future by the end of the year as it goes on sale.
Ellison largely sidestepped questions about a potential acquisition of Warner during the earnings call, but insiders with knowledge of Ellison’s plans have told Bloomberg that should a Paramount-Warner merger go through, the CEO envisions that the creative heads at Warner would stay at the studio under Paramount’s ownership even as other divisions such as distribution and marketing are merged. He also hopes to use technology such as AI to reduce production costs and allow the combined studio to release as much as 30 films per year.
But the insiders who spoke to TheWrap were skeptical that any Warner merger could lead to anything but fewer films for their screens, citing how 20th Century Studios has only released a maximum of five films per year since its 2019 acquisition by Disney, compared to 12-17 films as 20th Century Fox.
