As Hollywood’s big five studios become the big three-and-a-half, CEO David Ellison has announced a fresh masthead for the newly merged company. Ignoring our many thoughtful suggestions (Warner’s Mount, Super Pario Bros. and Evil Wanker Inc. topped our internal poll), Skydance Media founder Ellison has named his new conglomerate, er, Skydance. “Paramount and Warner Bros. ... Warner Bros/Paramount to change name to Skydance
As Hollywood’s big five studios become the big three-and-a-half, CEO David Ellison has announced a fresh masthead for the newly merged company.
Ignoring our many thoughtful suggestions (Warner’s Mount, Super Pario Bros. and Evil Wanker Inc. topped our internal poll), Skydance Media founder Ellison has named his new conglomerate, er, Skydance.
“Paramount and Warner Bros. shaped over a century of culture”, the CEO posted to the social media platform growing like a fungus from Twitter’s code base earlier today, making ominous use of the past tense.
“By combining them, we aren’t rewriting history,” he continued, heading off accusations he’s planning some sort of Wikipedia find-and-replace heist. “We’re equipping these iconic studios with a more powerful engine. Together, we are Skydance: a creative-first home for bold, quality storytelling.”
It may be some time before audiences notice the change – Ellison has committed to keeping Warner Bros and Paramount distinct for the next five years, meaning the logo at the start of your next cinema trip probably won’t look very different (unless Skydance sneaks its own name in first). Once that five years is up, however? Just look again at that use of the past tense…
Between them, Skydance, Universal and Disney will control 75 per cent of the the US cinemagoing market, based on 2025 figures. With Sony covering just seven percent last year, the modern theatrical experience is almost completely dominated by these three companies.
The new company, which shares an only coincidental linguistic similarity to dystopian Terminator-providers Skynet, crossed its final regulatory hurdle when a judge approved the settlement between Ellison and a twelve-state coalition on Wednesday. Ellison and newly appointed co-CEO Ynon Kreiz now have the enviable task of managing the organisation’s roughly $80bn of combined debt and making $6bn in savings, presumably by firing a few people less important than they are.
