NEW YORK, NY – SEPTEMBER 29: Brian Robbins poses at the Reinventing Social Entertainment panel in … [+]
Brian Robbins is moving up at Paramount Pictures. The Wall Street Journal has published a piece on how the actor turned producer has taken over for Jim Gianopulos as chairman and chief executive of Paramount Pictures.
Robbins started his entertainment career as a teen heartthrob on the 1980’s sitcom, Head of the Class. He went on to produce teen dramas such as Smallville and One Tree Hill. He later worked as a director and producer on films like Norbit. He also ran Paramount Players, a film production label of Paramount Pictures, which made movies including Dora and the Lost City of Gold. Robbins also serves as the President the children’s channel, Nickelodeon.
During his time at Nickelodeon, the studio released Paw Patrol: The Movie on Paramount+ and in theaters. The success of the movie made a strong case for Robbins’ leadership. “There were a lot of people who didn’t think a preschool movie could carry the weight of a theatrical release,” Mr. Robbins said previously on the movie. New ideas and children’s media seem to be what Paramount needs in the streaming landscape.
Focusing less on blockbusters is a new direction for the company. With theater closures leading to an escalation of the streaming wars, having new blood might be what the studio needs.
“Look at Disney, Universal and Warner. What’s the conversation? It’s about streaming,” Robbins said to the Wall Street Journal. “We know where consumer behavior is going. Not only is there a chance to reach and capture a bigger audience, but for the first time, media companies are going to have a direct relationship with their customers.”
While streaming is now a part of the conversation, Robbins also hopes to have the studio releasing as many theatrical releases by 2025 as it did before the COVID-19 pandemic. The last year saw the company sell much of their movie slate to other streaming services before they debuted their own, Paramount+.
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While Paramount is hopeful under the new chairman, the shake-up in leadership may have caused internal confusion. Variety reported on alleged internal strife due to new leadership.
Robbins is set to push the company towards being a contender in the streaming space and a background in youth TV may help him directly do that. A focus on the next generation of streaming users may allow Paramount and more specifically Paramount+ to advance in the highly packed field of streaming services.
