One studio is spending big

Paramount regime seals massive deals in a trying time for film and TV. Can that last?

- SAMANTHA MASUNAGA

"STRANGER THINGS" creators and brothers Ross, left, and Matt Duffer will leave Netflix for Paramount.

Shortly after taking over Paramount, new Chief Executive David Ellison threw down the gauntlet — he wanted his studio to be the top destination for the most talented filmmakers and artists in the business.

It wasn’t just words.

Already, Ellison has made a $7.7-billion deal for UFC media rights, closed two massive deals that will pay the creators of “South Park” more than $1.25 billion over five years to secure streaming rights to the popular cartoon, and lured Matt and Ross Duffer of “Stranger Things” fame away from Netflix with a “wide-ranging” and exclusive four-year television, streaming and film deal.

That spending spree — along with new big-name studio hires — has ignited hope and enthusiasm among Hollywood’s creatives, who have weathered the industry’s recent downturns, consolidation and Paramount’s own stingy ways.

With new, deep-pocketed buyers of film and TV projects taking charge of a major studio, sellers are salivating, even as the company’s employees brace for a significant wave of layoffs.

But will the spending onslaught be enough to turn around the storied studio?

“There is a path to achieving what they want to achieve — becoming relevant again, becoming a place for great storytelling, having exciting programming that pumps blood into Paramount+ and helps it to grow,” said J. Christopher Hamilton, a practicing entertainment attorney and a professor at Syracuse University. "But the issue is, long-term, can you sustain this business?" Though Paramount has a legacy of sterling film credentials, such as "Chinatown," "The Godfather" and "Forrest Gump," the movie studio has languished in recent decades.