The entertainment giant released hundreds of pink slips as Hollywood continues to run amid the coronavirus pandemic.
WarnerMedia has embarked on a round of layoffs with the entertainment giant leaving hundreds of staff members amid the coronavirus crisis that has plagued Hollywood with tentable tent poles and production shutdowns. Sources say the first wave of layoffs is expected to be around 600 employees, with a heavy focus at Warner Bros.
The fired employees include Warner Bros. CFO Kim Williams, Warner Bros. World President Jeff Schlesinger for World Television and Ron Sanders, President Warner Bros., World Theater and Home Association Association and Executive Vice President, International Business Operations.
The pink slips were handed out in departments that cover film and TV and come in the wake of a major restructuring at the company that WarnerMedia Entertainment saw and passed directly to consumer president Bob Greenblatt and content manager and TBS, TNT and TruTV president Kevin Reilly week dismissed. The cuts also follow a series of Hollywood layoffs and furloughs that have affected agencies such as CAA and Endeavor and such studios as Universal, Disney and Lionsgate.
“Jeff, Ron and Kim are all highly esteemed members of my senior leadership team, and we will be forever grateful for the many significant and lasting contributions each of them has made to Warner Bros.,” said Ann Sarnoff, chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. and newly announced head of WarnerMedia’s Studio and Networks Group. “I thank them all for their dedication and years of service, and wish them all the very best in their next chapters.”
Sanders added: “Warner Bros. is known for being the most famous studio in history. The talent is unattainable, both on the creative and business sides, and I am honored to have been entrusted with the trust of a large portfolio of companies around the world for the past 30 years. ”
Sources say that the base of Warners in Atlanta, with scores of staff in cable TV operations and marketing divisions, was particularly affected. Like other media conglomerates, disruptions with other similar divisions from other divisions are one of the first to go.
On the movie front, Warner Bros. not been immune to the challenges that have rocked the industry. The studio moved its highly anticipated summer film Tenet multiple times (it will open internationally on August 26, followed by a U.S. release in select cities over Labor Day weekend). The studio also crashed the Wonder Woman continued on the original date of the summer release, such as the John Chu helmet and Lin Manuel Miranda-penned musical In height (the former is scheduled to open October 2, and the latter moved to summer 2021).
The changes come as WarnerMedia, under new CEO Jason Kilar, puts its newly launched streamer HBO Max front and center. The service, which launched May 27, was hoping to convert many of linear cable network HBO’s 30 million-plus subscribers, costing the same amount. But HBO Max added just 1.1 million HBO customers and 3 million retail customers in its first month. The outage was hampered by the company’s ongoing negotiations with Amazon and Roku over bringing the app to their connected TVs. More than two months after its launch, HBO Max is not yet available on either platform.
“It’s been a great 37-year run, with 26 as president of International Television Distribution, spanning six mergers, millions of miles traveled, thousands of programs sold and billions of dollars generated,” Schlesinger said. “Ultimately, it took a global pandemic and a complete reorganization of the company for me to travel over the last hard drive. I always hope to remember myself as the only studio performer who celebrated in the good old days in an ‘International Screenings’ ride in the studio on the back of an elephant. ‘
Williams added: “Warner Bros. has a unique and beautiful history; inherent and iconic, it’s one I’m proud to be a part of. It is also full to the fullest and brightest. I will cherish my time at this great company. ”
The restructuring comes as legal media companies continue with major changes of executive suite amid a landscape that places streaming increasingly more than the top priority. Last week, NBCUniversal outlined a similar strategy and completed all business operations under Frances Berwick, while a search continues for an exec to oversee programming on entertainment over streamer Peacock, such as NBC and the suite of cable networks. ViacomCBS, for its part, has also consolidated its executive lines over the past year — plus, with Chris McCarthy adding a growing number of networks to its purview. The new coronavirus has forced many legacy media companies to penalize costs amid declining profits, with many insiders realizing that the restructuring must have been good before the pandemic created an economic reason to do so.
The global pandemic has shut down movie theaters from Beijing to New York as social distance becomes the new normal all over the world. Studios including Warners have been forced to shut down production on large tent piles as of last night Fantastic beasts and where to find them.
A number of studio parent companies had addressed the fallout from the virus crisis including WarnerMedia owner AT&T and signaled austerity measures to come. On March 20, when the fallout from the pandemic became clear, the telecom giant said it was canceling planned share purchases, including a rapid share purchase with Morgan Stanley to buy back $ 4 billion of its stock, for financial flexibility to maintain. “The impact of the pandemic may be material, but due to the evolving nature of this situation, we are currently unable to estimate the impact on our financial or operational results,” said AT&T.
