Skydance Media CEO David Ellison known as the artistic course of a “community” the place “both sides of this disagreement actually need one another to move forward. So, my hope is that we can find a path to compromise so that everybody can get back to work and we can position ourselves for success going forward.”
“We are not a member of the AMPTP, and some of my closest friends are the writers and actors that we work with to create content. And, we literally work with every member on the AMPTP side,” he stated throughout a Q&A on the Goldman Sachs Communacopia media convention in Las Vegas when requested in regards to the strike – day 127 for the WGA and day 54 for SAG-AFTRA.
The annual investor occasion is generally restricted to public firms. At privately-held Skydance, “We want to always make sure we position ourselves to be able to be a publicly-traded company,” Ellison stated. Major buyers embrace the Ellison household, KKR, PurpleBird Capital Partners, CJ Entertainment and Tencent. He stated he expects extra consolidation in media and leisure and that Skydance is positioned to benefit from “appropriate” alternatives — no specifics.
He touted what he known as sturdy natural development on the firm based in 2010 because it’s expanded from movie and tv into animation, with former Pixar chief John Lasseter main the cost, sports activities content material beneath a enterprise with the NFL, and gaming. Skydance has 1,200 staffers globally throughout 5 divisions, together with 800 in animation, he stated, and has been “consistently profitable.”
In July, the corporate closed a brand new five-year, $1 billion credit score facility led by J.P. Morgan, doubling the quantity of a previous credit score association led by the financial institution.
Formed with a deal at Paramount, Skydance continues its collaboration there with franchises Mission: Impossible, Transformers, Star Trek and Top Gun: Maverick. It’s labored with Netflix (The Old Guard, The Adam Project); Amazon (Jack Ryan, Jack Reacher) and has a multi-year settlement with Apple for a slate of live-action films.
Apple TV+ was the house of the primary animated movie for each, Luck, final yr, to be adopted by Spellbound. Skydance Animation has acquired the rights to Brad Bird’s (The Incredibles, Ratatouille) subsequent movie Ray Gunn, and has an general cope with Rich Moore (Zootopia, Wreck-It Ralph). There’s an enormous potential upside in animation the place hits can “become a family heirloom that can be rewatched and re-watched,” Ellison stated.
Interactive choices embrace The Walking Dead Saints & Sinners and recreation offers with Marvel and Lucasfilms.
In 2022, Skydance launched a sports activities content material three way partnership with the NFL inaugurated by the Ben Affleck and Matt Damon movie AIR in theaters and streaming on Amazon. Docuseries NFL Draft: The Pick Is In was simply renewed for a second season on Roku. “I think sports is one of the true pieces of appointment television, and it has been underexploited and untapped for a long time,” Ellison stated. “We saw a massive audience not being served.”
As the majors proceed to pivot to steaming, “Some companies will emerge stronger than ever. Others will have a harder time,” he stated. “We purposefully did not build distribution…We sit in the middle.”