Lots of negativity in this thread, but that seems to be par for the course for any fandom. Personally I'm cautiously optimistic.

Skydance produced/co-produced (often partnering with Paramount) on a number of franchise movies, including Star Trek, Mission Impossible, Jack Reacher, Top Gun, GI Joe, Terminator, The Old Guard and Spy Kids. Some of their productions have been well-received (eg Mission Impossible, Top Gun Maverick) and others less so (Terminator Genysis and Dark Fate, although personally I quite liked Dark Fate). They've also produced smaller, critically acclaimed movies like True Grit, Annihilation and Air; as well as their share of dreck of course, like Geostorm.

What I think is clear though is that Skydance is primarily interested in big franchises, so if they were to acquire Paramount, I think more Star Trek movies would very likely be in the works which, as a fan, I'd be happy about. I know there's an argument that Trek is best suited to TV, but some of the best Star Trek has been big screen Star Trek. And studios are more willing these days to have franchises run across both TV and film (MCU, DC, Star Wars), granted with mixed success.

Re Larry Ellison's involvement - my guess is that he'd be a silent partner, putting some of his personal fortune - rather than Oracle's funds - to help out his son. I believe he did the same thing for his daughter, Megan Ellison's, whose company Annapurna Pictures he helped fun and which went on to produce films like Her, Zero Dark Thirty, Phantom Thread and Books Smart (and the stage musical A Strange Loop). I doubt Larry Ellison will take a hands-on role in the management of Skydance.

I'm not convinced that downplaying the fact that the movie is a musical is good marketing strategy. Misleading the audience tends to produce lower audience scores. And while Mean Girls did open to good box office numbers (the referenced $33 million over four days), I think the second week dropoff will be telling. The Color Purple also opened quite strong, but fell off rapidly.

Wonka of course has been a box office success, but I think the difference is that most people associate the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie as a musical (and I'd argue the original Gene Wilder movie has more cultural currency than the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp version), whereas most people think of The Color Purple and Mean Girls as being a straight drama and comedy respectively. Wonka is also a prequel, so audiences probably didn't have as many locked-in expectations, whereas Mean Girls and The Color Purple are basically promoted as remakes.