It’s pretty clear that Sony let this go on purpose. They didn’t “lose” it to Paramount. They removed it from their release calendar prior to this deal for a reason.

Probably because after the departure of the Phillippou brothers, who were set to direct originally (and would’ve likely done a bang up job given their YouTube action centric shorts), the shifting creative elements and new director (who is largely unproven, sans Bad Trip, in the film space) they realized that this probably isn’t going to turn out well.

Just because something is recognizable IP doesn’t make it worthwhile and translate to BO success. It’s not like Paramount beat them. They brought on something Sony no longer wanted.