Skydance now runs two of Hollywood’s legacy film studios. A look at the new company, by the numbers
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David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance has completed its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, bringing two of Hollywood’s most storied legacy film studios under one mammoth media and entertainment conglomerate named Skydance.
Now, Skydance must decide how to make the most out of a trove of entertainment assets, including the HBO Max and Paramount+ video streaming services, a film library that includes “Star Trek,” “Barbie,” “Top Gun,” “Harry Potter,” and “Superman,” and two major news organizations, CNN and CBS News.
All are under the direction of Ellison and his new co-CEO Ynon Kreiz.
Here’s a look at the new company, by the numbers:
$81 billion
How much it cost Paramount to buy Warner, excluding debt. Skydance acquired Paramount last year for $8 billion.
Around $80 billion
Skydance’s estimated net debt following its acquisition of the two movie studios, according to Morningstar.
Around $550 million
Warner CEO David Zaslav’s “golden parachute,” or compensation package, that he is set to receive now that the merger is closed. This is the value Warner Bros. assigned to the executive’s severance, stock awards and health coverage in a March regulatory filing.
The compensation package is about 68 times more than “Digger,” Warner’s last movie as a standalone studio, brought in domestically this past weekend.
$10.99
What you will pay monthly for HBO Max’s basic plan, which includes ads. The cost of an ad-supported monthly subscription to Discovery+ is $5.99, while the Paramount+ ad-supported Essential plan costs $8.99 a month. The subscription costs increase for each of the services’ ad-free plans.
Nearly $70 billion
What Skydance says its annual revenue now is following its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. Prior to the merger, Paramount Skydance and Warner had a combined revenue of $65.3 billion for the 12 months ended in June, according to FactSet.
$77.71 billion
The market cap for Warner Bros. Discovery as of Monday, before the merger closed. That is about seven times greater than what Paramount Skydance’s market capitalization was on the same day.
30
Number of movies Ellison promised the combined studios would release per year in the first two years after the merger. The number rises to 32 in the three years after that. Ellison made the promise as part of a settlement with 12 states that sued to block the merger.
11.8%
Share of total TV viewing that cable, broadcast and streaming properties owned by Paramount (6.5%) and Warner Bros. Discovery (5.3%) accounted for in July, according to Nielsen.