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David Ellison has a rocky history at the box office. Buying Warner Bros. could fix that
Chairman & CEO Paramount David Ellison attends the UFC 324 event at T-Mobile Arena on January 24, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Jeff Bottari | Ufc | Getty Images
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.
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 be 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 among the potential suitors vying for their chance to acquire the studio.”
A history of Skydance at the box office
Skydance released its first theatrical feature in 2006, a World War I drama featuring James Franco as a U.S. fighter pilot. Over the last two decades, the studio has launched nearly 30 films, the majority of which were in partnership with Paramount, according to data from Comscore.
Paramount and Skydance completed their merger, engineered by Ellison, in August.
Skydance’s biggest successes have come from one source in particular — Tom Cruise. The studio’s six highest-grossing films globally all star Cruise, including five “Mission: Impossible” films and the breakout 2022 hit “Top Gun: Maverick.”
Highest-grossing Skydance films globally
- “Top Gun: Maverick” (2022) — $1.4 billion
- “Mission: Impossible — Fallout” (2018) — $791 million
- “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol” (2011) — $694 million
- “Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation” (2015) — $682 million
- “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning” (2025) — $599 million
- “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning: Part One” (2023) — $571 million
- “World War Z” (2013) — $540 million
- “Star Trek Into Darkness” (2013) — $467 million
- “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” (2023) — $441 million
- “Terminator Genisys” (2015) — $440 million
Source: Comscore
Having a billion-dollar film under your belt is no small feat, especially in the wake of the pandemic.
The theatrical business has been in flux in recent years as consumer habits have shifted, studios grapple with how long movies should play in cinemas before hitting the home market, and streaming siphons away potential releases.
For comparison, Disney has released six billion-dollar films since 2021: “Avatar: The Way of Water,” “Inside Out 2,” “Deadpool & Wolverine,” “Moana 2,” “Zootopia 2” and “Avatar: Fire and Ash.”
Warner Bros. had 2023’s “Barbie,” Universal had “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” that same year, and Sony had “Spider-Man: No Way Home” in 2021, according to Comscore data.
Tom Cruise in “Top Gun: Maverick”
Source: Paramount
However, “Top Gun: Maverick” is a bit of an outlier for Skydance. In addition to being the studio’s only billion-dollar film, it’s also the only film in its library to exceed $230 million domestically.
In fact, only five of Skydance’s features to date have generated more than $200 million in the U.S. and Canada.
Skydance’s highest-grossing domestic films
- “Top Gun: Maverick” (2022) — $718 million
- “Star Trek Into Darkness” (2013) — $228 million
- “Mission: Impossible — Fallout” (2018) — $220 million
- “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol” (2011) — $209 million
- “World War Z” (2013) — $209 million
Source: Comscore
Globally, the production company has seen seven of its films generate more than $500 million in ticket sales, which would be a bigger feat — if budgets for many of these films weren’t so high.
“The challenge for Ellison and Skydance, as it is for every studio, production company, and distributor, is to keep budgets in line particularly for latter installments of major franchises as these tend to have diminishing returns as compared the earlier releases to justify the continued investment in these movie franchises,” said Dergarabedian.
Of course, Skydance split production costs with its studio partners, so it’s unclear exactly how much the company put toward each film it produced. Still, many of its franchise films saw budgets balloon with each new installment.
Look at the most recent Mission: Impossible film. “Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning” generated $599 million at the global box office, the fourth-best showing for a film in the franchise. However, the film had a reported budget of $400 million. That’s before marketing costs, which usually run at about half of the production budget.
General views of the TCL Chinese Theatre promoting the new Tom Cruise film ‘Mission: Impossible The Final Reckoning’ in IMAX on May 23, 2025 in Hollywood, California.
Aaronp/bauer-griffin | Gc Images | Getty Images
So, Skydance in conjunction with Paramount would have spent an estimated $600 million ahead of the “The Final Reckoning’s” release in theaters. And that $599 million brought in from ticket sales gets split.
Studios share box-office proceeds with theater operators, typically in a 50-50 split by the end of a film’s run in theaters.
The result is often a movie that performed well at the box office, but ultimately was not profitable for the studios that produced it. And unlike some franchises — think Marvel, Star Wars or Harry Potter — Mission: Impossible doesn’t have a robust merchandising arm or as much demand from fans for things like toys, apparel or collectibles.
A mountain of content
In merging with Paramount, Ellison’s Skydance now has more properties that fall under the production company’s designation. That includes the lucrative Sonic the Hedgehog franchise and upcoming films like “Scream 7,” “Paw Patrol 3,” “Street Fighter,” “Scary Movie 6” and “Focker-in-Law,” the latest installment in the Robert De Niro-led Meet the Parents franchise.
However, Paramount’s slate of franchises still aren’t quite the heavy hitters that WBD carries on its roster.
Still from Paramount’s “Sonic the Hedgehog 2.”
Paramount
“Warner Bros. is one of the crown jewels of the theatrical distribution,” said Dergarabedian. “Their slate of films, filmmaker relationships, brand recognition, and reputation as one of the premier and iconic movie studios makes them a coveted asset by any player in the entertainment space.”
WBD has in its library DC’s superheroes, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Looney Tunes and Scooby-Doo. It is also the distributor of Legendary’s Dune and Godzilla and King Kong franchises.
“In Paramount’s specific case, the studio’s box office market share has often been challenged to keep pace with competitors and its own peak performance in the years leading up to 2015,” said Shawn Robbins, director of analytics at Fandango and founder of Box Office Theory. “While occasional hits such as the Sonic, A Quiet Place, and Scream franchises have provided bright spots, plus ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ catching lightning in a bottle four years ago, some of the studio’s most bankable IP has seen diminishing returns among modern moviegoers.”
Paramount Skydance needs consistency at the box office and well-known and beloved franchises are one way to do that. Of course, just having a big name doesn’t guarantee box-office success, but it lowers the barrier to entry.
“Paramount is looking to mine every opportunity it can following the recent conclusion of Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible series, the regression of Transformers from its biggest blockbuster dollar days, and the cinematic dormancy of Star Trek as that brand has been re-focused toward multiple streaming series targeted at its predominately older audience,” Robbins said.
Disclosure: Versant is the parent company of CNBC and Fandango.
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Vellayan Subbiah, a scion of the Murugappa family, has reached a settlement with other promoter branches to realign ownership
Cholamandalam Investment Finance
Vellayan Subbiah, a scion of the Murugappa family, has reached a settlement with other promoter branches to realign ownership across key group companies, according to a report by Moneycontrol.com, citing people familiar with the matter. The agreement is expected to see Subbiah give up stake exposure linked to Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company while consolidating his position in Tube Investments of India and CG Power and Industrial Solutions.
The arrangement, finalised after more than two years of negotiations, forms part of a broader plan by the Murugappa Group to separate ownership of the century-old conglomerate among three promoter factions while ensuring business continuity. Under the settlement, Subbiah is expected to relinquish exposure to Cholamandalam Investment — the group’s flagship lending arm — and instead retain and strengthen his alignment with Tube Investments and CG Power, including taking over or retaining stakes tied to those companies within the extended promoter structure, the report said. Emails sent to Subbiah and the Murugappa Group did not receive a response until publication.
The realignment follows prolonged internal discussions over the division of the diversified business empire, which reported revenue of more than $9 billion in FY23, after five generations of joint ownership through the family holding company Ambadi Investments.
Negotiations had earlier faced hurdles due to significant valuation divergences across group companies. As previously reported by The Economic Times on August 19, 2024, the turnaround of businesses overseen by Subbiah — particularly CG Power, Tube Investments and Cholamandalam Finance — had emerged as a sticking point in share-swap discussions among family factions.
The revival of CG Power proved especially pivotal. Since Tube Investments acquired control in 2020, CG Power has deleveraged, restored profitability and benefited from investor interest in domestic manufacturing, railways, power equipment and electronics supply chains. Its stock has surged since the takeover, making it one of the group’s most valuable listed assets. Tube Investments has also diversified beyond its legacy engineering base into green mobility, contract manufacturing and specialised industrial segments, strengthening its market position.
Cholamandalam Investment, meanwhile, has grown into one of India’s most valuable non-bank lenders, with a market capitalisation exceeding Rs 1 lakh crore. The uneven appreciation in these businesses complicated efforts to carve out three equal promoter blocs, with one faction seeking revisions to earlier share-swap assumptions and another resisting reopening agreed terms, people cited by Moneycontrol.com said.
Promoter ownership across Murugappa companies is largely routed through holding vehicles rather than direct individual shareholdings, but the concentration of value highlights why these firms were central to negotiations. The promoter group’s roughly 51–52 percent stake in Cholamandalam Investment is estimated to be worth about Rs 55,000–60,000 crore at current market levels. In Tube Investments, promoter ownership of around 45–46 percent translates into holdings valued at approximately Rs 20,000–22,000 crore. Through Tube Investments’ controlling position in CG Power, the promoter group effectively holds about 58–59 percent of that company, valued at roughly Rs 45,000–50,000 crore.
Beyond these, the family controls about 56–57 percent in Coromandel International, worth around Rs 18,000–20,000 crore; 42–43 percent in Carborundum Universal, valued near Rs 9,000–10,000 crore; and 44–45 percent in EID Parry, worth roughly Rs 3,500–4,000 crore. Tube Investments also indirectly controls about 70 percent of Shanti Gears, valued at approximately Rs 2,500–3,000 crore.
The final arrangement appears to align ownership more closely with operational leadership. Subbiah, a fourth-generation member of the family, is widely credited within the group for steering the revival of CG Power and expanding Tube Investments into new manufacturing and mobility segments, making these businesses natural anchors for his promoter bloc under the new structure.
The Murugappa Group, which comprises nearly 30 companies across fertilisers, engineering, financial services, abrasives, sugar and mobility solutions, operates under a long-standing governance charter that separates ownership from management, the Moneycontrol.com report noted.
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February 26, 2026, 10:51 IST
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RBI has summoned senior officials of Yes Bank following a major data breach involving the Yes Bank–BookMyForex multi-currency forex card
Reserve Bank of India headquarters in Mumbai.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has summoned senior officials of Yes Bank following a major data breach involving the Yes Bank–BookMyForex multi-currency forex card, two people aware of the development told The Economic Times (ET).
According to the report, card details and CVV numbers of several users were allegedly compromised. The central bank has sought a detailed explanation from the bank on how its systems may have been breached and the sequence of events that led to the exposure of sensitive customer data.
“The RBI has sought a comprehensive briefing from Yes Bank’s senior management on the root cause of the breach, the timeline of events, and the adequacy of the bank’s cybersecurity framework,” one of the persons cited by ET said. “The regulator wants clarity on how sensitive card data, including CVV numbers, may have been exposed and what immediate containment measures have been implemented.”
Yes Bank declined to comment on the RBI’s queries but said an internal investigation had identified fraudulent transactions involving 15 merchants in a Latin American country on February 24. Transactions worth Rs 2.54 crore were approved across 5,000 customers, while 688 unauthorised attempts amounting to around Rs 90 lakh were blocked. The bank said it is working with the card network to initiate chargebacks and ensure that affected customers do not face financial losses.
Separately, BookMyForex said it does not store customers’ sensitive card information and that its systems were neither breached nor compromised during the period in question.
The RBI has also sought details on how sensitive card data—particularly CVVs—was stored and protected, whether encryption and prescribed security protocols were followed, and why existing cyber controls failed to prevent the breach. In addition, the regulator is reviewing the timeline of detection and reporting, the robustness of third-party risk management and oversight, the number of customers impacted, and the steps taken to block cards, prevent misuse and mitigate losses. It has also asked for clarity on internal accountability, supervisory lapses and remedial measures to prevent a recurrence, ET reported.
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February 26, 2026, 07:53 IST
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