David Ellison’s rocky box office history

If there’s one thing that Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison knows well, it’s an impossible mission.

Ellison, producer of five of the “Mission: Impossible” films, has been trying to buy Warner Bros. Discovery for nearly six months. In September, he sent an initial, unsolicited offer to WBD, prompting the rival media company to explore a sale process that resulted in an agreement with Netflix to sell the famed Warner Bros. film studio and WBD’s prestige streaming assets.

Ellison launched a hostile tender offer and, separately, was welcomed back to the negotiating table with WBD under a seven-day waiver from Netflix. This week, Paramount upped its offer for the entirety of WBD and unseated Netflix’s deal after the streamer declined to match the revised bid.

The Warner Bros. movie studio is a big part of why Ellison has been so committed to winning over WBD’s board and its shareholders.

Last year, Warner Bros. was the second-highest grossing studio at the domestic box office. Paramount was fourth.

A longtime Hollywood executive, Ellison has produced some massive hits at the box office, but his track record has been far from consistent.

Where Netflix has a fraught relationship with theatrical releases — disrupting the traditional business and opting for years to prioritize streaming films for its subscribers — Ellison’s production company, Skydance, has followed the tried-and-true theatrical playbook.

Taking ownership of Warner Bros. would have been a game changer for either company.

“If a merger were to be approved, the entity that then grabs up Warner Bros. would add tremendous horsepower both in terms of brand identity and revenue generating potential to their portfolio,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at Comscore. “So, it is understandable why the competition is fierce.”