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Last year's compensation for the CEOs of some of America's largest entertainment companies, including Disney, Warner Bros., Netflix and five others, earned an average of $34.8 million in 2023, according to new data.
important facts
CEO compensation at five of the nation's largest mass entertainment companies (Warner Bros., Liberty Media, Disney, Lionsgate, and Netflix) increased by more than 20% from 2022 to 2023.
Lionsgate CEO John Feltheimer saw a significant increase (284%) in total compensation from $5.6 million to $21.5 million from fiscal year 2022 to fiscal year 2023; That was in part due to a $10 million cash bonus, $7.2 million more than last year.
Bob Iger was paid $15 million by Disney in 2022 after returning as CEO of the company at the end of the same year, but his income will increase 110% to $36.1 million when he returns full-time in 2023. 2021 (still less than the $45.9 million he was paid in 2021), he left the company for the first time largely due to the drop in Disney's stock price.
Netflix's Greg Peters became co-CEO of the company in January 2023, and the promotion increases his 2023 salary by 29% to $40.1 million (up from 2022 as COO and Chief Product Officer). Revenue was $28.1 million).
Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts will earn $35.5 million in 2023, an 11% increase; Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei will earn $28.7 million in 2023, an increase of 28%; Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav's earnings rose 26.5% to $49.7 million. Since the year before last.
At movie theater chain AMC Entertainment, CEO Adam Aron will earn $25.4 million (up 7%) after the board and board of directors agreed to cut target compensation by 25% to appease disgruntled shareholders. ) earned. His 2023 compensation includes $17.9 million in stock awards and a $6 million bonus.
Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish and Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos' compensation in 2023 is down slightly, but their compensation is roughly in line with their 2022 income, with Bakish earning $31.3 million. (down 2%), and Sarandos $49.8 million (down). 1%).
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$23.7 million. According to salary consulting group Equilar, this is the average salary for CEOs of the 100 largest companies in 2023. CEO compensation at these companies increased by an average of 11.4%, according to the data. Entertainment CEOs' salaries rose almost twice that amount, with an average increase of 24.7% across the eight companies listed above.
Main background
Production companies and distributors last year grappled with months of actor and writer strikes and box office revenues that still haven't recovered to pre-pandemic highs. Dozens of productions have been postponed, with many films pushed back to 2025, including “Blade,'' “Snow White,'' and Pixar's “Elio.'' Domestic box office revenue in 2023 managed to reach the $9 billion mark just before the movie ended. But many feared the industry would never reach the milestone of returning to pre-COVID-19 sales. Early box office projections for 2024 called for domestic sales of about $8 billion, but analysts raised that estimate this month to $8.2 billion after the first quarter was slightly better than expected. Disney added Moana 2 to its 2024 release calendar between the initial prediction and the April update, while Universal added Abigail and Wild Robot.
tangent
Streaming has become the king of the game when it comes to entertainment stock performance in 2023, but the stock prices of many legacy companies are still well below their pandemic peaks. Lionsgate is up 88% in 2023 following its acquisition of eOne from Hasbro and the announcement of its separation from Starz earlier this year, while Netflix is up more than 60% that year. Disney stock was mostly flat in 2023, while Comcast and Warner Bros. rose 26% and 21%, respectively. But since 2021, Paramount has fallen about 90%, Lionsgate about 50%, Disney about 40%, and Netflix and Comcast each about 20%. Warner Bros. Discovery stock is down about 70% from its peak at the time of the merger in 2022.
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