David Ellison Says AI Could Be Film's Biggest Creative Unlock

Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison told investors on the company's earnings call that artificial intelligence could become "the biggest creative unlock in modern history" for film production, comparing its potential impact to the arrival of CGI in the early 1990s, according to The Verge.

What Did Ellison Tell Investors About AI?

Asked about the company's outlook on artificial intelligence during the call, Ellison said: "I think when you zoom out and look at production, AI really has the potential to be the biggest creative unlock in modern history," The Verge reported. He added that "it's hard to imagine that AI is not going to have a more significant impact" than CGI did when it reshaped filmmaking roughly three decades ago.

The remarks came during Paramount Skydance's latest quarterly earnings call, the venue where Ellison has laid out the studio's production and technology strategy since the Skydance-Paramount merger closed.

How Does Ellison Compare AI to CGI's Impact?

Ellison's framing rests on a direct historical comparison. He pointed to "the advent of CGI and digital composites in the early 90s" as the last technological shift of comparable scale, telling investors that era "gave birth to amazing stories like Jurassic Park and Terminator 2," per the Verge account of the call.

That comparison sets a high bar. CGI did not just change visual effects; it altered what stories studios were willing to greenlight, from dinosaur epics to shape-shifting villains that would have been impossible, or prohibitively expensive, to render with practical effects alone. Ellison's argument is that AI tools could trigger a similar expansion of what's financially feasible on screen.

What Does the Terminator Budget Example Show?

To make the economic case, Ellison cited the original Terminator. He said the film cost $4 million to produce, but that remaking it today "shot for shot" would run "$60 to 70 million," according to the Verge report of the call. He did not specify which costs have driven that increase or offer a sourced breakdown of the figures beyond the comparison itself.

Ellison's point was that AI tools could narrow that gap by making production budgets "more digestible," as he put it, potentially allowing studios to finance original, lower-budget projects that resemble the cost structure of decades past rather than today's inflated effects-driven tentpoles.

Will AI Replace Artists, Per Ellison?

Despite the scale of the comparison, Ellison was explicit that he does not see AI displacing creative labor. The Verge's headline frames his position as viewing AI as a potential replacement for traditional effects pipelines rather than for the people who make films, noting Ellison said AI "will never be a replacement" for artists.

That distinction mirrors the line studios have tried to draw publicly since generative AI tools began reshaping visual effects and editing workflows: that software can lower costs and expand what's achievable, while the creative judgment driving a production remains with writers, directors, and effects artists rather than automated systems.

Why Does This Matter for Paramount Skydance's Earnings Call?

The comments arrived in the context of Paramount Skydance's broader earnings discussion, where executives field investor questions about production spending, technology strategy, and the studio's competitive position. Ellison's remarks put him among a growing list of entertainment executives publicly betting that AI tools will reshape production economics rather than simply serve as a visual-effects shortcut.

Whether that bet pays off for Paramount Skydance specifically, in terms of lower per-film costs or a wider slate of greenlit projects, was not detailed on the call beyond Ellison's comparison to CGI and his Terminator budget example. Investors will likely look for more concrete production-cost data in future quarters to measure whether the "unlock" Ellison described shows up in the studio's actual slate and spending.

The full exchange, including Ellison's remarks on AI's potential role in production, was reported by The Verge from Paramount Skydance's latest earnings call.

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