Warner Bros. has parted ways with both Marketing chief Josh Goldstine, and president of international distribution Andrew Cripps. What’s behind the shakeup at the studio and how does that affect the company’s slate of releases set for 2025? Kim Masters and Matt Belloni dive in.
The blame game? After a year dotted with disappointing releases, Warner Bros. is shaking up its marketing and international distribution departments. “Warners had a pretty bad 2024 and specifically on the international side,” says Belloni. “For instance, the Twisters movie did very well in the US, but did not do well overseas, where Warners was the distributor. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice also did not really perform overseas. And then on the marketing front, I mean, Joker Two was a complete disaster. I don't think that was necessarily a marketing failure on its own, but typically when studios have off years the fingers come out.”
Big swings? 2025 marks the first year of artist driven releases greenlit by new Warner Bros. studio heads Mike DeLuca and Pamela Abdi. “They've got everything from the Ryan Coogler movie Sinners with Michael B Jordan, [to] the Bong Jun Ho movie, Mickey 17. They have the Paul Thomas Anderson movie that is supposed to come out this summer, and the Maggie Gyllenhaal movie, The Bride,” Belloni notes.
Risky business? With a history of big spending on talent, DeLuca and Abdi are going all in on multiple projects with budgets exceeding $100 million. “Clearly, the strategy is you gotta spend big to play big, to swing big, to hit big. And this is the year when we find out whether they're gonna hit big,” Belloni says.