Skydance co-CEOs David Ellison and Ynon Kreiz have plenty of reasons to be proud of their purchase of Warner Bros.
As Ellison said Monday during Skydance’s third-quarter earnings conference call: “We have approximately $40 billion (in films) of franchises that I think significantly strengthen the overall portfolio,” and “a new film will come to our service every two weeks; cinema is a major driver of acquisition and engagement on our platforms.”
Despite the potential benefits of the merger, Ellison and Kreiz also called attention to upcoming losses from Warner Bros.’ 2026 film slate.
Specifically, Ellison wasn’t shy about acknowledging that Paramount is in better financial shape than Warner Bros. on the features side. Today’s results do not include Warner Bros’ consolidated numbers since the merger closed in the fourth quarter, just five weeks ago; Yet the brass at Paramount have painted a less than rosy picture of what lies ahead.
Ellison said at the start of the call: “Paramount’s 2026 slate of films is expected to generate $500 million more in profits than last year. We have now acquired another company with mixed results across the business…”
He added: “We have headwinds, particularly in studios where Warner Bros films have underperformed this year and will weigh on fourth quarter results. We will apply the same playbook we used at Paramount: greenlight more selectively, prioritize profitable streaming growth over subscriber numbers, optimize linear and drive efficiency across the cost structure.”
“We’ve proven it works and we’re confident it will work again,” Ellison said, with the company still eyeing $6 billion in synergies from the merger.
Kreiz mentioned at the top of the call about the merger: “What I’ve seen is that the different parts of the business are in good shape. The Warner Bros. Discovery team has done a good job running their business and delivered the expected result through closing, with the only weak spot in the movie studio, and we’re looking to build on their good work.”
Skydance CFO Dennis Cinelli dug deeper into the red ink at Warner Bros, which just before the merger saw a major bombshell in the political satire starring Tom Cruise close. Excavatorwhich cost $160 million before worldwide P&A and grossed $50.3 million at the worldwide box office.
Cinelli said: “For the full year, Warner Bros. is on track with our underwriting plan, except for the near-term film slate. And Paramount remains on track for our 2026 guidance, which includes the high end of the profitability range at $3.9 billion in adjusted EBIDTA.”
The CFO added: “While Paramount’s film slate continues to perform well, this will be more than offset by the continued underperformance of Warner Bros. film slate. Based on this, we expect a $200 million headwind to adjusted EBIDTA in the fourth quarter. This includes films already released in the quarter as well as films we release in the future.”
The $200 million headwind is essentially Excavator
There was a report that Warner Bros.’ 2026 slate was bound to lose $800 million for the full year; we know from sources that this is false. Even with the expected success of Legendary’s next film The WB list is estimated to lose around $400 million, according to sources.
It hasn’t been a good year at the box office for Warner Bros, with global box office duds such as Supergirl, The Bride, Digger and no film grossing more than $100 million domestically. However, Burbank’s lot is slightly ahead of Paramount at the domestic box office year-to-date, from January 1 to November 9: $569 million (-70% from the same frame in 2025) to $537 million (+15% from 2025). Together, the two studios have a total of $1.1 billion at the domestic box office since the start of the year, behind Universal ($1.9 billion), Disney ($1.6 billion) and Sony ($1.4 billion). Paramount’s strengths were Scream 7 Horror movie
In another sign to Wall Street that it is trimming the fat, Skydance today announced the departure of prolific filmmakers James Gunn and Peter Safran as heads of DC Studios. They are replaced by Jeremy Latcham, director of Marvel in the early 2000s, who left the Disney-owned studio in 2017 before the explosion of Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War And
Ellison wasn’t quite pooping on Warner Bros today. He gave props to New Line’s upcoming Christmas 2027 event title Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum calling the film “a compelling theatrical offering.”
Gn bussni
