After serving for a month as Dauman's interim replacement, Bakish was promoted to CEO in December after running Viacom's international group for 10 years. Whether Bakish would entertain a sale of a minority interest in Paramount is unclear. Before losing a power struggle within Viacom to controlling shareholder Shari Redstone, Dauman was pushing for the company to sell a 49% stake in the studio for $4.9 billion to Dalian Wanda, the conglomerate controlled by China's richest man, Wang Jianlin, also involved in the abandoned Dick Clark deal. But Redstone never favored that transaction, and once Dauman was removed, it was shelved. Paramount released 18 films in 2016, generating $76.8 million, placing it in last place among Hollywood's six major studios, according to ComScore. By comparison, Disney 's ( DIS ) film group posted $3 billion in sales, followed by Time Warner 's ( TWX ) Warner Bros. with $1.9 billion.