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.

By the early 2000s, Paramount had developed a reputation for seeking profitability through conservative fiscal decisions that stymied the studio from taking big swings with its films. At a time when rival Walt Disney Co. was gobbling up big franchises like computer animation studio Pixar and superhero brand Marvel Entertainment, Paramount was breaking up with the Steven Spielberg-cofounded DreamWorks SKG, reflecting its more budget-conscious approach.

Ellison has been clear that revamping the film studio is one of his major priorities.

Under the new regime, Paramount aims to nearly double its output of theatrical films to 15 a year, with plans to eventually scale up to 20 movies annually.

As part of that lineup, studio executives have said they intend to lean into popular franchises, including "Star Trek," "Top Gun" and "Transformers," while also cultivating filmmaker-led originals. The studio recently landed an original project from Oscar-nominated director James Mangold that will star Timothée Chalamet.

Beyond these big productions, studio executives said they are also interested in family films, R-rated comedies, the ever-popular horror genre and stories that appeal to Middle America.

What's not on the agenda? Executives say they're eschewing low-cost movies made only for the Paramount+ streaming service, underscoring the studio's focus on its theatrical business. That could be especially appealing to filmmakers.

Big spending isn't enough on its own.

Long-term success will depend on minimizing streaming subscriber churn, housing a stable of recognizable franchises and maintaining a solid library, said Ric Prentiss, managing director at Raymond James. Reliable technology that provides relevant streaming recommendations to subscribers is also a must, he said.

The increased content spending comes as competitors have largely cut back after several years of bulking up their own streaming services to compete with Netflix. The belt-tightening at Hollywood studios, coupled with the lingering effects of the pandemic and dual writers' and actors' strikes in 2023 have constrained production spending, making it tougher for filmmakers to find buyers for their projects.

Paramount, in particular, was stuck in a bit of a holding pattern over the last year, as the company awaited confirmation of its new ownership and federal approval of its takeover by Ellison's Skydance Media. Even before then, Paramount's buying habits were constrained by its heavy debt and past penchant for share buybacks, making it difficult for them to invest deeply in new content.

But now that the deal has closed, bringing with it a cash infusion from Ellison and private equity backer RedBird Capital Partners that shored up the company's balance sheet, filmmakers and industry analysts see Paramount's new approach as one of marketplace aggressor.

"Everybody's excited for the new Paramount," said Jon Kamen, chief executive of RadicalMedia, which has produced films such as "Lady Gaga: Inside the Outside" and "Britney: For the Record" for Paramount-owned MTV. "Those hires that they've made, the commitments that they've made to creative talent, it's very indicative of the fact that they intend to be a serious player."

Yet at the same time Paramount embarks on this multibillion-dollar content buildup, it is also slashing costs closer to home.

The company has promised Wall Street that it would find more than $2 billion in spending cuts. Executives haven't divulged the exact size and timing of the cuts, although reports suggest the thousands of layoffs would occur in November when Ellison and his team present their business strategy and corporate structure to investors.

"It's going to be painful. Layoffs are always hard," Paramount President Jeff Shell told reporters during a briefing on the Melrose Avenue movie lot earlier this month, stressing that Ellison's team plans to evaluate the operations, then make one deep cut.

"We don't want to be a company that has layoffs every quarter," Shell said. "It's important to us to get [the layoffs] done … in one bigger [sweep] and then be done with it."

Analysts also question how long Paramount's aggressive spending spree will continue. After all, other Hollywood studios embarked on a similar endeavor during the streaming wars, only to cut back when the glut of streaming shows and movies didn't result in massive amounts of subscribers, and by extension, profitability.

"For those who are selling content, ... now you have another buyer who's willing to spend," said Brent Penter, associate analyst at Raymond James. "The question will be, to what degree is that? What level are they willing to continue to spend at over time?"

(Los Angeles Times staff writer Meg James contributed to this report.)

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