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.
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 Aug. 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. The exec before Paramount founded Gen Z multiplatform media company Awesomeness which was ultimately acquired by DreamWorks Animation in 2013, and then by Viacom, in 2018.
The Paramount vet of eight years and former star of Head of the Class gained oversight of the Paramount motion picture studio in Sept 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 that Robbins wouldn’t be a fierce advocate of theatrical in the conglom’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 its 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 they only have domestic on, that James Cameron directing 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 Spinmaster’s PAW Patrol, were not only solid hits at the box office, but achieved over $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: Dead Reckoning & 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 (i.e. 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 his oversee of Nickelodeon, Robbins brought in a partnership with the NFL, which led to the first time an AR driven NFL wildcard game, leading to the first ever NFL Super Bowl alternate-telecast on Nickelodeon, hosted by all the Nick IP of characters (i.e. SpongeBob and Patrick). This telecast went on to win an Emmy.
Robbins joined Paramount in 2017 as the first President of Paramount Players, after which he became President of Nickelodeon in 2018, and then President, Kids & Family Entertainment, for ViacomCBS (now Paramount).
In April 2024, following the departure of President and CEO Bob Bakish, Robbins was elevated alongside George Cheeks, President and CEO of CBS; and Chris McCarthy, President and CEO, Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks, to the role of Co-CEO of Paramount Global. In this 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 Nick 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 11M-plus global hours and ranked as the No. 1 Kids and Family Paramount+ series ever in terms of hours.
Among Robbins’s EP credits are CW series Smallville and One Tree Hill; Nickelodeon’s All That and Kenan and 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 many others.
