Paramount Pictures’ Melrose Gate in Hollywood. Photo by Coolcaesar, cropped (CC BY-SA)
Paramount Skydance’s boss is all in on AI. On the company’s latest earnings call, CEO David Ellison said artificial intelligence “really has the potential to be the biggest creative unlock in modern history,” according to The Verge, comparing it to the CGI boom that gave us Jurassic Park and Terminator 2.
Key Takeaways
- Ellison said it’s “hard to imagine” AI won’t have a bigger impact on film than CGI and digital compositing did in the early ’90s.
- He argued AI tools could make budgets “more digestible” so studios can take more risks on original stories.
- Paramount Skydance has been building its own AI tools, which Ellison says will speed up projects across the company.
- He also said AI “will never be a replacement” for artists and that hand-crafted storytelling will carry a premium.
The Full Story
Ellison used The Terminator to make his case. The 1984 film cost about $4 million, he said, but “if you wanted to make that picture today, shot for shot, it’s $60 to 70 million.” His pitch: AI could bring those costs down and “help unlock more original storytelling.”
He framed it as a business shift too. Ellison said AI will “significantly” reshape Paramount Skydance, making content easier to produce, while arguing that “all of this makes the value of premium IP and live events more valuable, not less.”
Then came the reassurance aimed at Hollywood’s creative community. “In a world of AI slop, we think there will always be a premium for truly hand-crafted storytelling,” Ellison said. “We also continue to believe that artificial intelligence is a tool for artists and will never be a replacement for them.”
The comments land in a heavy week for the Ellison-run studio world. Skydance’s Motion Picture Group is also at the center of the DC Studios shakeup that sent James Gunn and Peter Safran out as co-heads.
The Social Conversation
Ellison’s remarks put him in the camp of studio chiefs selling AI as a cost-cutter and creative tool, while unions including SAG-AFTRA keep pushing for consent and pay protections around synthetic performers. Expect his “biggest creative unlock” line to be quoted on both sides of that fight.
