Why Is Shari Redstone, Ruler of a Vast Media Kingdom, Weighing a Sale?

Paramount Pictures, the storied studio behind hits like “The Godfather” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” has had several owners over the last century: Its co-founder Adolph Zukor. The industrial conglomerate Gulf+Western. At one point, it was a stand-alone public company.

But for nearly three decades, Paramount’s fate has been controlled by the Redstone family, after its pugnacious patriarch, Sumner Redstone, won a bidding war for the studio in 1994.

That may be about to change. Shari Redstone, Mr. Redstone’s daughter, is weighing a sale of her family’s controlling interest in Paramount’s parent company just five years after she won a fight to retain control of her family’s media empire.

Suitors for both Ms. Redstone’s stake and the company she controls are already lining up, including Warner Bros. Discovery, the owner of HBO and the Warner Bros. movie studio, and Skydance, the movie studio that helps produce hit Paramount franchises like “Top Gun” and “Mission: Impossible.”

So far, the pursuit of Paramount has the makings of a drama fit for the silver screen. Here’s the story so far:

Who is Shari Redstone, and how did she get control of the company?

Ms. Redstone, 69, presides over a vast media empire that includes Paramount Pictures, MTV, Nickelodeon and CBS. But her rise to the top was not simple.

For years, Ms. Redstone toiled away at National Amusements, the theater chain that doubles as a holding company for Paramount. A lawyer by training, she demonstrated an early aptitude for the media business but was overshadowed by her aging father, who refused to relinquish control even as his mental capacity waned.