The Skydance is Falling!

I should think of a category for my random missives but I haven’t thought of a good name yet.

There was a bunch of big news out of Skydance today. One that people have glommed onto that has zero importance IMO is the name of the new company. David Ellison has decided to keep Skydance, the name of his 20 year old production company, as the name of the new behemoth that he and his dad have purchased. People are bashing the decision but I think that’s mostly because they want to bash Ellison. To me, it makes perfect sense. First off, it’s just the name of the overall company. Does anyone care that Facebook and WhatsApp are part of META? Does most of America remember that Google is actually Alphabet? And personally, I feel like Disney would have been better off changing their overall name. It’s weird to me that Disney+ now has all of his grown up fare on it and isn’t a kids friendly destination and also the Disney name wouldn’t be facing the brunt of hate from Star Wars stands who aren’t fans of much of anything that’s come from the franchise since the Mouse House took over.
Also, just in terms of just plain basic facts, the guy who was in charge of Skydance bought the Paramount and WB/Discovery so it’s just how it is; they are owned by Skydance now.

There’s also one of my deeply held truths - few brands have less meaning than major motion picture studios. If Jeopardy or trivia nights had a category with film titles and people had to name the studio that made it, I think most people would struggle. Smaller companies have brands - A24, Neon, Blumhouse, etc. - but when is the last time someone saw the Paramount logo before a trailer and sat up at attention? How many filmgoers have ever said “Man, I miss 20th Century Fox.”? Yes, Warner Brothers and Paramount are iconic, old school brands but they have long passed the era that they meant anything.

The bigger issue was that Pam Abdy and Michael Deluca were let go from running Warner Brothers’ movie division and now one person is going to oversee both Paramount and WB. Again, I think Hollywood is terrible with brands so I do wonder if this means that both studios will basically just be extensions of Skydance, which would be a shame because Ellison’s output is mostly IP based - sequels, remakes, reboots, and the occasional movie based on a best seller. Abdy and Deluca didn’t have a spotless record - nobody does - but they have taken big swings and I feel like they hit more than they miss. It would have been nice to see them hold onto WB and that would be the studio for original fare while Paramount because the new Skydance and just made franchises and Tom Cruise movies.

Ultimately, though, I feel like with most Hollywood mergers, this one isn’t going to work. The level of debt that the Ellison’s are taking on is insane. The entertainment world is in complete disarray and the mediums are changing more and more every day and I’m not sure there’s really been a single exec who I think has figured any of it out. In one of the weirder twists, Netflix seems to be the most tuned in; while all of the studios are trying to figure out how to be Netflix, Netflix seems to be pivoting to be more like YouTube.

It will be interesting to watch this all unfold and a bit worrying since almost half of the megacorp is owned by Middle East interests but my hope is that people are inspired by this to create their own smaller studios, which probably is the smarter idea anyway since in the more fractured entertainment world we have now, niche products are often a better investment. Horror has blown up but I really believe that if a company focused on quality romance and rom-coms, they could blow up like Blumhouse and Atomic Monster. I definitely think a crime/heist/thriller company would be an easy brand to establish.

In the end, does it really matter? I know in terms of fewers jobs and what not, it’s a huge blow but in terms of entertainment and the business, Skydance seems like it is going to be more of the same just with a new name. I have a low regard for most of the people running these studios and nothing I’ve seen out of Skydance makes me think it’s going to get better or that they are going to come up with the next big innovation that rehapes the business. Except maybe moving out of California but, let’s be real, that’s already kind of happened for the working class of Hollywood.