Paramount Skydance CEO: AI's impact will surpass CGI, may become the biggest creative breakthrough in film history
Paramount Skydance CEO Ellison said on an earnings call that AI's impact on filmmaking could exceed that of CGI, and that it is one of the greatest creative unlocking tools in modern history. He cited "Terminator 2" as an example: it cost about $4 million to make at the time, while recreating it shot-for-shot today would cost $60 million to $70 million, and AI is expected to lower costs in some stages. Paramount Skydance is developing its own AI tools for use across multiple business areas, and Ellison stressed that AI should be a tool for artists rather than a replacement.
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In the company's latest earnings call, Ellison discussed the potential impact of generative AI on filmmaking. He said that from the perspective of the entire film production industry's development, it is hard to imagine that AI will ultimately not have a more profound impact than CGI. He called AI one of the largest creative unlock tools that may emerge in modern history, and believes this technology can help filmmakers break through the constraints of traditional budgets and production capabilities.
To illustrate the impact of technological progress on the film industry, Ellison cited the 1991 classic science fiction film "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" as an example. The film's production cost at the time was about $4 million, while if one wanted today to remake a work of equivalent scale according to the original shots and visual effects, the cost could reach $60 million to $70 million.
In his view, the continuously rising cost of film production has made it increasingly difficult for some creative but commercially risky projects to obtain investment. AI tools are expected to change this situation by reducing the cost of some production stages, enabling film companies to take on more creative risks and attempt original stories that were difficult to realize in the past.
Ellison said Paramount Skydance is developing its own AI tools and hopes to apply them to multiple business areas of the company. With these tools, content production will become easier, project progress is expected to accelerate, and the company's overall way of working may change accordingly.
He particularly emphasized that AI will not weaken the value of high-quality intellectual property (IP) and live entertainment events, but may instead make them more important. As the volume of AI-generated content rapidly increases, the market may see a large number of automatically generated works of uneven quality, while content with truly unique creativity, mature storytelling and polished production will become even scarcer.
Ellison called this phenomenon a world flooded with low-quality AI content. He believes audiences will always be willing to pay for stories truly crafted with care by creators, so Paramount's film brands, classic characters and high-quality content assets will still have important commercial value in the future.
At the same time, he also sought to respond to concerns among film and television industry creators that artificial intelligence will replace human jobs. Ellison emphasized that artificial intelligence should become a tool for artists, not a replacement for artists. He believes AI's role is to help creators realize their ideas and expand creative space, rather than to eliminate the central place of humans in story conception and artistic expression.
These remarks also reflect that Paramount Skydance is adjusting its own technology strategy. As film production costs continue to rise, streaming competition intensifies, and major entertainment groups face increasing profit pressure, using AI to improve production efficiency has become an important issue in Hollywood.
However, AI's entry into film and television production still faces a series of controversies, including copyright, actors' likeness rights, writers' labor rights, and creator compensation. Previously, Hollywood writers' and actors' unions listed the use of artificial intelligence as an important issue in labor negotiations, demanding that production companies explicitly restrict AI-generated content from replacing human creators' work.
Ellison's views show that Paramount hopes to find a balance between technological progress and traditional creative production: on the one hand, using AI to reduce production costs and speed up projects; on the other hand, continuing to rely on mature IP, professional artists and high-quality original content to maintain competitiveness.
From "Jurassic Park" to "Terminator 2," CGI once changed the visual world the film industry could present. Now, Paramount's management hopes AI can bring similar or even greater changes. However, whether technology can truly reduce the production costs of high-quality films, and whether the saved funds will translate into more original works rather than simply being used to compress labor costs, still remains to be verified by future actual projects.