The 'kid' takes over: David Ellison becomes a Hollywood colossus

The age of the Hollywood mogul was supposed to be over. Movies are dead, haven’t you heard? Even the grandest studio — Warner Bros — had started to resemble a relic of a powerful past. Then came a “kid.” 

David Ellison, the son of the Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, was 23 when he arrived in the movie capital in 2006. Hollywood insiders laughed behind his back. He was dumb money to be fleeced, another star-struck rich guy with a checkbook. A 2015 GQ profile ran with the headline “The Kid Pays for the Picture.”

 On Monday, after a remarkable, almost inconceivable run of dealmaking and brinkmanship, Ellison — all of 43 years old — stood on the verge of adding Warner Bros. Discovery to his Paramount Skydance, giving him control of two businesses that helped invent the movie and television industries. A settlement with 12 states cleared the antitrust lawsuit that was the remaining obstacle to the $111 billion takeover.

 

 “David’s about to become the Hollywood equivalent of Superman, Caesar and Midas combined,” Joseph M Singer, a veteran film financier and former studio executive, said in an email. “He won’t just be sitting at the table. He’ll have extraordinary influence over who gets a seat.”

 Singer had publicly opposed the sale deal. “I believe David’s intentions are good and his ambitions genuine,” Singer said on Monday. “But I remain concerned that this concentration of power is not in the interests of our business. I hope I am proved wrong.”

 The Ellison family’s ties to President Trump — which included a dinner that David Ellison hosted in April “honoring the Trump White House” — have made many Democrats and a sizable contingent in Hollywood wary of his growing power. His empire will now span CNN and CBS News; HBO, MTV, BET, Comedy Central and TNT; the Paramount+ and HBO Max streaming services; and two of Hollywood’s oldest movie studios.

 Put another way, Ellison will soon have Batman, Harry Potter, Captain Kirk, Wonder Woman, Ethan Hunt, Maverick and SpongeBob SquarePants reporting to him.

 “We vehemently oppose the agreement to allow David Ellison to take over Warner Bros Discovery,” a campaign called Block the Merger said in a statement. “This is a bad deal for the future of film, entertainment, independent journalism and a strong democracy in this country.” The campaign was organised by the Future Film Coalition.

 In an email to Paramount employees on Monday, Ellison said he expected the Warner Bros Discovery takeover to close in about two weeks. 

 “This is the first time since Walt Disney that you will have a family own and control a major Hollywood company with this level of hands-on management,” said Gerry Cardinale, a Paramount board member. Cardinale is the founder of RedBird Capital, the second-largest investor in Ellison’s deal for Warner Bros Discovery. “There’s a changing of the guard taking place,” Cardinale added, referring not only to Ellison’s ascension but also to an owner-operated model that Hollywood had largely abandoned.

 Along with the mountain of debt, Ellison’s new company will need to contend with a cable-TV business that is shrinking as viewers continue to cut the cord. He must also integrate two enormous companies — he has promised $6 billion in savings — while navigating internal turmoil and political and editorial pressures at CBS News and CNN. Despite owning two major streaming services, Ellison will still be competing against Netflix and YouTube.

 He also faces Hollywood’s most basic problem: How to make movies and TV shows that enough people want to watch. It was only 13 months ago that he completed an $8 billion deal to buy Paramount, home to CBS, MTV, Nickelodeon and its namesake movie studio. 

 In the email to employees, Ellison positioned the closing not as a culmination but as a beginning. “Closing is really just the starting line,” he said, adding: “I’m confident we’re going to build something special together in the years ahead. Let’s go!”