Paramount International Co-Chief Govt Brian Robbins stepped down Wednesday, a day earlier than David Ellison’s Skydance Media absorbs the leisure firm.
The transfer was anticipated. Skydance unveiled it senior administration workforce earlier this week, signaling its plans to shake up the management of Robbins’ turf — the famed Paramount Photos on Melrose Avenue.
Robbins has led the film studio since 2021.
Longtime Ellison lieutenant Dana Goldberg and former Sony government Josh Greenstein will collectively handle the studio as co-chairs. Don Granger, one other Skydance government, turns into movement footage president, reporting to Goldberg and Greenstein.
Skydance’s $8.4-billion takeover of Paramount is scheduled to be finalized on Thursday.
Robbins is a longtime producer and former youngster actor who joined Paramount, then often called Viacom, in 2017. He led Paramount Photos and Nickelodeon, working to invigorate beloved franchises, earlier than being elevated in April 2024. Robbins then turned a part of the triumvirate of CEOs then tasked with operating the corporate after former Chief Govt Bob Bakish obtained bounced.
For 15 months, Robbins, CBS chief George Cheeks and cable programming head Chris McCarthy steered the corporate throughout a very tumultuous time with enterprise pressures, the lack of cable TV subscribers, and important workers reductions.
Controlling shareholder Shari Redstone additionally was seeking to promote the corporate — including extra uncertainty for the rattled ranks.
Cheeks is the one senior Paramount government who will keep on with the brand new possession. He turns into chairman of TV media, which incorporates the CBS properties and cable TV channels, together with MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and BET.
McCarthy, who oversaw profitable cable franchises, together with “Yellowstone” and “South Park, additionally stepped down because the Redstone period winds to an in depth.
“Once I first walked onto the Paramount Photos lot as a younger filmmaker a few years in the past, I by no means imagined I’d sooner or later be entrusted with main this storied studio,” Robbins stated Wednesday in a observe to his workers. “It has been one of many biggest privileges of my life to work alongside such a unprecedented group of individuals.”
In his observe, Robbins touted efforts to reinvigorate sturdy franchises, together with “Sonic the Hedgehog,” “Scream,” “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” and “Mission: Unattainable.”
His workforce, together with Skydance, was behind the highest-grossing movie in Paramount’s century-plus historical past, “High Gun: Maverick.”
