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 staff earlier this week, signaling its plans to shake up the management of Robbins’ turf — the famed Paramount Footage on Melrose Avenue.
Robbins has led the film studio since 2021.
Longtime Ellison lieutenant Dana Goldberg and former Sony govt Josh Greenstein will collectively handle the studio as co-chairs. Don Granger, one other Skydance govt, 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 little one actor who joined Paramount, then often known as Viacom, in 2017. He led Paramount Footage 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 bought 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 vital employees reductions.
Controlling shareholder Shari Redstone additionally was trying to promote the corporate — including extra uncertainty for the rattled ranks.
Cheeks is the one senior Paramount govt 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, also stepped down as the Redstone era winds to a close.
“When I first walked onto the Paramount Pictures lot as a young filmmaker many years ago, I never imagined I’d one day be entrusted with leading this storied studio,” Robbins stated Wednesday in a word to his employees. “It has been one of the greatest privileges of my life to work alongside such an extraordinary group of people.”
In his word, Robbins touted efforts to reinvigorate sturdy franchises, together with “Sonic the Hedgehog,” “Scream,” “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” and “Mission: Impossible.”
His staff, together with Skydance, was behind the highest-grossing movie in Paramount’s century-plus historical past, “Top Gun: Maverick.”
