A Hollywood upstart is looking to become a major player

But Ellison’s screenplay has a surprising twist: success. As the entertainment industry struggles to adapt to the economic realities of the streaming era, where layoffs and cost-cutting have become the norm at Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and NBCUniversal, Ellison has built his production company, Skydance Media, into a powerhouse. And a profitable maker of big-budget films and TV shows.

Now Larry Ellison, the 41-year-old son of the software billionaire and Oracle co-founder, is exploring a complex deal to take control of Paramount Global that could catapult him into media mogul status.

Ellison and investors in Skydance — whose hits include “Top Gun: Maverick,” “The Family Plan” and “Reacher” — are discussing a bid to acquire media giant Shari Redstone’s controlling stake in Paramount National Amusements’ parent company. If successful, they will later seek to merge Paramount with Skydance.

Although these deals are not certain, they have put Ellison in the spotlight, testing whether his prowess in the industry extends beyond casting successful shows and films. Such a deal would mark the beginning of a long-awaited reshaping of entertainment industry ownership after years of declining movie viewing, declining cable services and costly shifts to streaming.

“There are a lot of people who have strong relationships with a lot of money, and most of them step back after five years with their tails between their legs,” said Jason Blum, founder and CEO of horror film retailer Blumhouse. “His primary mission is mass-market entertainment and has built a financially successful company,” said Bloom, who currently has no business with Ellison.

Entertaining the crowds

Since its launch in 2010, Skydance has positioned itself as a go-to store for big-budget shows for streamers. When major studios like Warner Bros. and Disney to stop selling to Netflix and other streaming platforms and instead focus on building their own studios, Skydance has seen an opening and gone.

Her streaming credits include Arnold Schwarzenegger’s action show “Fubar” from Netflix, and the hit show “Reacher” from Amazon Prime Video, based on the Jack Reacher novels. Skydance has produced The Family Plan, starring Mark Wahlberg, for Apple TV+, which became the service’s most-watched movie ever after it debuted last month.

Skydance, which now has about 1,300 employees, has partnered with Paramount on Tom Cruise’s “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning: Part One,” as well as “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” and “Mission Impossible” add-on. “Top Gun” films are in the works.

The company has had missteps as well, including films like the Will Smith vehicle “Gemini Man” and “Terminator: Dark Fate,” which were critical and commercial disappointments.

A recurring knock on Ellison is that his tastes are ordinary. His sister Megan’s company, Annapurna Pictures, produces critically acclaimed films such as Booksmart, She Saad and Zero Dark Thirty, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2013. Skydance’s content has a more populist appeal.

That could be an asset in a city often criticized for being too coastal and isolated to greenlight film and TV projects.

“He doesn’t look down on the masses. He wants to create cutting-edge programming for millions of people,” said Anne Blanchard of Creative Artists Agency.

Skydance has committed hundreds of millions of dollars to animation, hiring John Lasseter, Pixar’s former chief creative officer, in 2019 as head of its animation unit, which has swelled to 800 employees. But it has had mixed success: Apple and Skydance have ended their animation partnership after just one film — 2022’s “Luck.” Its first Netflix animated film, “Spellbound,” is scheduled to debut later this year.

learning to fly

Raised primarily by his mother, Ellison was obsessed with aviation and movies as a child. He learned to fly a plane at age 13, and by his late teens, he was participating in air shows, performing competitive aerobatics, and guiding planes through complex maneuvers to entertain the crowds below.

When he wasn’t on the air, his mother would often take him and his younger sister, Megan, to the movies. The couple has been enjoying movies like “Star Wars” and “Rocky” at home.

To his father’s dismay, Ellison chose to study filmmaking at the University of Southern California, rather than attend an Ivy League school where he had been accepted. He dropped out of school in pursuit of real-life experience. With blond hair and steely blue eyes, he starred in the 2006 film “Flyboys” as a World War I fighter pilot in his 20s. The film – much of which was financed by his father – failed, as did a second film. “Northern Lights,” which he produced and starred in.

With money from his father and advice from mentors, including Steve Jobs and David Geffen, he launched Skydance. Advice on how to navigate the snake pit of Hollywood deal-making came from insiders like famed attorney Skip Brittenham and Jeff Berg, the powerful agent and Oracle board member.

Ellison’s father was close to Jobs, the Apple co-founder who was also the architect of Pixar Animation Studios, offering the young David a front-row seat to the creation of one of the most successful entertainment companies of the late 20th century. Lessons learned: It’s important to take a practical approach to things big and small, and don’t stop working on something until it’s great. He also learned from Jobs that while it’s important to know how to negotiate, no one goes to see deals, they go to see movies.

Ellison quickly proved himself a skilled dealmaker and producer. His first film from a co-financing deal with Paramount was the Western drama “True Grit,” which was a box office success and received 10 Academy Award nominations.

Executives who have worked with Skydance on films and TV shows said Ellison delves into project details and can talk about budgets, shooting schedules and marketing with experience. He’s willing to pick up the phone to lobby for projects he cares about.

Following Reacher’s successful debut on Prime Video in 2022, Ellison approached Amazon Studios president Gene Salke to make the case for ordering a series based on James Patterson’s Alex Cross novels. The project has been languishing there since 2020 and is starting to take off. Ellison told Salke that Amazon made a mistake by passing on “Cross,” which he thought could be another “Reacher.” An hour later, Salk called and gave the series the green light, said a person familiar with the conversation.

Permanent work

With Ellison’s attention to detail comes grumbling from those he works with that he can also be inflexible in jobs that often require compromise. Some studio executives say it doesn’t seem to differentiate between projects for which Skydance is a quiet financier versus a creative partner.

If Ellison’s deal to buy a majority stake in National Amusements is successful, it will give him control over a premium studio and an extensive library of films and TV shows. He will also have to decide the future of Paramount’s CBS broadcast network, a struggling cable company that includes MTV, Nickelodeon, and a 1,300-screen movie theater chain.

Paramount’s next owner will also have to decide whether to continue pouring money and content into its Paramount+ streaming service, which is battling larger, richer rivals.

In addition to the Ellison family, closely held Skydance stakeholders include private equity firms Redbird Capital Partners and KKR as well as Chinese video game and social media company Tencent Holdings. Skydance said it was valued at more than $4 billion in 2022 after raising $400 million in new capital.

While the studio doesn’t disclose its results, people familiar with its finances say it has been profitable for several years, including 2023. Skydance missed its expected revenues last year, largely due to labor strikes that shut down the industry for months. But it expects, the sources said, that it will meet its expectations in 2024 and 2025.

If Ellison fails to take control of Paramount, Skydance may still look to acquire smaller production companies to bolster its investment portfolio, people close to the company’s investors said.

“No one should underestimate their commitment to building a lasting business,” said Chris Hart, partner at United Talent Agency.

Jessica Twinkle contributed to this article.

Write to Joe Flint at Joe.Flint@wsj.com