Refresh for updates… Hours after the Skydance-Paramount merger closed last week, the new studio leadership group led by co-chairs Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg (who also serve as Vice Chair of Platforms and Chair of Paramount Television, respectively) sent a loud message to the town that they meant business, closing a deal for the hot Timothée Chalamet-James Mangold package High Side, which Deadline first told you about.
It was a bold move and a bolt of energy that told the town Paramount 2.0 wasn’t looking to cut back on its upcoming feature slate, rather to make good on the promises made during merger talks. All of this was underscored this afternoon at a Los Angeles presser for the new Paramount.
“One of our biggest priorities is restoring Paramount as the No. 1 studio for filmmakers and talent in the world,” Paramount’s new CEO David Ellison said today at the media gathering. “Great filmmakers make great movies. For us, we’re going to strategically scale the amount of content for our streaming service as well as studios.”
The new entertainment conglom, which prevented a further collapsing of the motion pictures studios, even had the No. 1 exhibition boss, AMC’s Adam Aron, giddy on an earnings call Monday about the prospects for more movies on the big screen. Paramount in recent years has averaged 11 to 14 feature films. Greenstein during today’s presser said the goal is for 15 movies a year ASAP, followed by 20 movies a year in the near future.
Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg
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“Paramount has been cash-hampered in recent years, which has caused them to greenlight fewer movies than they might have liked to. It appears to us that Skydance is cash-rich, and it would be our expectation that Skydance will be releasing more movies coming out of Paramount than Paramount has been releasing in recent years,” said Aron.
While High Side is still a ways off, the new top feature brass — which also includes President Don Granger — has plenty of projects to dive into as they get settled into their new office space on the Melrose lot. From high-profile franchises that have a been at the center of their release schedules for decades to new original stories featuring A-list talent, below is a list of where things stand on several properties that could help build the future slate.
Slate status report
While it might seem like a high jump for the new administration to succeed, particularly at a studio that lost Marvel to Disney in 2009, it’s only recently that Paramount saw some of its best grosses in more than a decade. In 2022, Top Gun: Maverick, Tom Cruise’s highest-grossing movie ever (and technically Paramount’s too at a global level), rallied its annual grosses to $1.29 billion domestic, and $2.6 billion global. And Ellison’s Skydance had a tremendous amount to do with that success, having co-financed 50% of Top Gun: Maverick. No doubt making Top Gun 3 a reality will be a prime to-do for Greenstein, Goldberg and Granger.
Other musts for Greenstein and Goldberg as expressed this afternoon are four-quadrant family movies and R-rated comedies.
Speaking of co-financing, what happens now that the studio’s biggest co-financer is now the owner? Sources tell us that the plan is for the new Paramount on future big tentpoles — like Star Trek and Top Gun — is to keep the upside completely. Any slate co-financing is bound to happen on mid-sized budget movies that have risk potential.
Paramount president Jeff Shell, who was known as being a proponent of window crunching during his run at NBCUniversal, will continue to look at maximizing theatrical window value at the new Paramount. However, Cindy Holland, Chair of Direct to Consumer, emphasized, “Made for streaming movies aren’t a priority for me.”
The previous Brian Robbins-led Paramount regime leaves behind a trove of high-end talent production deals for the new C-suite to tap, i.e. Ryan Reynolds, Damien Chazelle, Jon Krasinski, the genre label 18hz led by Walter Hamada which has the movie Primate upcoming, and Smile producer Temple Hill.
While High Side marked the first major package the studio purchased, when it comes to the first films to go into production sources say its too early to know given that no greenlights have been given and the top brass is getting settled. That said, insiders say films like The Rescue with 1923‘s Brandon Sklenar in talks to star has a strong chance given the ties the project has to the current regime.
Another high priority for the Skydance-owned Paramount is Star Trek, with which Ellison has been involved since the 2013 sequel Star Trek Into Darkness.
“Star Trek is a priority across the company,” said Goldberg.
As of right now, Paramount is developing a film in the Star Trek franchise that features brand new characters; it has Andor director Toby Haynes on board to direct with Seth Grahame Smith writing and Simon Kinberg and J.J. Abrams producing. The studio has another installment with Captain Kirk, Spock and the rest of usual characters returning with Abrams producing and Steve Yockey writing.
One project the studio is sure to have an eye on: what to do with the next installment in the Top Gun franchise after the sequel blew away box office records? “Top Gun is a priority for us,” said Goldberg. Though it has not been formally announced, news broke in 2023 that Ehren Krueger had begun working on a script for the next film. Star and producer Tom Cruise has focused on the most recent Mission: Impossible films, so not much has moved forward. But now that Cruise is off those projects and looking for his next film, don’t be surprised if movement starts to pick up.
On the Transformers front, the franchise saw a rebooted live-action film, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts ($442M global box office), starring Anthony Ramos, in 2023 and an animated pic, Transformers One, bow last year. Prior to the sale, the studio had three separate scripts in development including one that sources say has Michael Bay returning to the franchise. Those scripts should be ready for new leadership to take a look at shortly.
The most recent high-profile franchise to get a release date for its next installment was A Quiet Place Part III, which the studio recently dated for summer 2027. John Krasinski is back to write and direct, though no cast is attached at this time.
Following the success of the animated pic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, the studio moved fast on a sequel, dating the next film for September 17, 2027. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg are back to produce, with Jeff Rowe, Kyler Spears and Yashar Kassai directing. They also have a live-action version based on the graphic novel that has Hamada producing.
Other titles include the Olympics pic Winter Games starring Miles Teller and Hailee Steinfeld; a Ferris Bueller spinoff the studio had been developing pre-merger, titled Sam & Victor’s Day Off, most recently hiring Ben Zazove and Evan Turner for a rewrite; and What Kids Want, with Bill Holderman and Erin Simms attached to rewrite the script and direct.
There are a number of Skydance development titles coming over that include The Rescue; an untitled John Tuggle film starring Superman star David Corenswet; a film based on the Mike Hammer books starring Matthew McConaughey, with Nic Pizzolatto writing; and The Traveler, with Lee Isaac Chung attached to direct. While not confirmed at this time, it is fair to say that these Skydance priority pics will now become priority projects at Paramount.
Release schedule
Below is the current Paramount 2025-2026 release date schedule.
2025
Roofman – Oct. 10
Regretting You – Oct. 24
The Running Man – Nov. 7
SpongeBob Movie: The Search for Squarepants – Dec. 19
2026
Scream 7 – Feb. 27
Untitled Trey Parker/Matt Stone/Kendrick Lamar movie – March 20
Scary Movie – June 12
PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie – July 24
The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender – Oct. 9
2027
Children of Blood & Bone – Jan. 15
The Angry Birds Movie 3 – Jan. 29
Untitled K-Pop movie – Feb. 12
Sonic the Hedgehog 4 – March 19
A Quiet Place III – July 9
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem 2 – Sept. 17
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