In what has been heavily rumored, Paramount Global Co-CEO and President and CEO of Paramount and Nickelodeon, Brian Robbins, is expected to depart the Melrose Lot following Skydance’s acquisition of the entertainment conglomerate,
Deadline is reporting.
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| Brian Robbins | Getty/Paramount/Deadline |
This was also evident this morning as Robbins’ name was left off the
list of executives who’ll be leading the new company once the $8 billion merger becomes official on Thursday, August 7.
A Paramount spokesperson couldn’t be reached for comment.
Last week, following the
FCC clearance of the Skydance-Paramount marriage, Robbins’ fellow co-CEO Chris McCarthy announced his departure. Paramount Co-CEO George Cheeks is making the jump to the new merger, continuing to oversee the CBS Network.
There’s no word on what’s next for Robbins, but it would not be shocking if he starts a new entertainment enterprise. Before Paramount, the executive founded Gen Z multiplatform media company
Awesomeness, which was ultimately acquired by DreamWorks Animation in 2013, and
then by Viacom in 2018.
The Paramount veteran of eight years and former star of
Head of the Class gained oversight of the Paramount motion picture studio in September 2021, taking over for Chairman and CEO Jim Gianopulos. Known for electrifying Nickelodeon brands with downstream and ancillary revenues, it was assumed at the time Robbins wouldn’t be a fierce advocate of theatrical in the conglomerate’s quick embrace of its streaming arm Paramount+. But instead, Paramount Pictures led the charge to bring movies back to theaters in 2022. During Robbins’ reign, the studio yielded the biggest-grossing movie of Tom Cruise’s career with
Top Gun: Maverick at $1.49 billion. That movie is also technically Paramount’s biggest global-grossing title (not counting 1997’s
Titanic, which it only had domestic on, with that James Cameron feature earning $674.3M stateside).
A testament to his executive prowess in minting franchises from theatrical to retail, Robbins’ animated reboot of
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and embrace of Spin Master’s
PAW Patrol were not only solid hits at the box office but also achieved more than $2.5 billion in consumer products revenue in 2023 alone. Other high points during the Robbins’ regime included
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 & 3, the Spyglass reboot of
Scream,
A Quiet Place: Day One, and
Mission: Impossible duo
Dead Reckoning and
Final Reckoning.
If there was a defining moment for Robbins since taking over for Gianopulos, it was his ability to pivot Paramount+ movies — i.e., horror film
Smile and
musical Mean Girls — from streaming to theatrical. While studios mulled theatrical day-and-date coming out of the pandemic, and even jettisoned prized big-screen franchises to their OTT services (like Disney with
Hocus Pocus 2), Robbins had the guts to go all in on theatrical for
Smile in 2022. With a global gross of $217M,
Smile became the studio’s third most-profitable movie in the last decade. A
2024 sequel raised the franchise’s worldwide cume to $356M.
In April 2024, following the departure of President and CEO Bob Bakish, Robbins was elevated alongside Cheeks, President and CEO of CBS; and McCarthy, President and CEO, Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks, to the
role of Co-CEO of Paramount Global. In the role, Robbins oversaw the filmed entertainment division’s creative strategy, multi-platform and worldwide business operations including Paramount Pictures, Paramount Animation, Paramount Home Entertainment, Paramount Pictures International, Paramount Licensing Inc., and Paramount Studio Group.
In his role as President and CEO of Nickelodeon, Robbins had global oversight of all creative, strategic and business operations for Paramount Global’s kids- and young-adult-focused brands, where he led the continued growth of
SpongeBob SquarePants across TV, theatricals and consumer products among other Nickelodeon IP. During his run as Chief Content Officer, Movies & Kids & Family, Paramount+, Robbins continued to grow Nickelodeon’s live-action, animated kids and family programming, which also includes
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,
Good Burger 2,
Pet Sematary: Bloodlines,
Monster High and the
Sonic the Hedgehog spinoff series
Knuckles, which in its first 28 days on Paramount+ clocked 11 million-plus global hours and
ranked as the No. 1 Kids and Family Paramount+ series ever in terms of hours.
Among Robbins’ Executive Producer credits are CW series
Smallville and
One Tree Hill, Nickelodeon’s
All That - which he
brought back for a new generation in 2019 - and
Kenan & Kel, Disney Channel’s
So Random and Spike TV’s
Blue Mountain State. He also produced the popular WB series
What I Like About You and HBO’s
Arli$$. In the feature film world, his directing and producing credits include
Varsity Blues,
Hardball and
Coach Carter, among others.
Stream a Mountain of Entertainment, including your Nickelodeon favorites on Paramount+! Try it FREE at ParamountPlus.com!
