EXCLUSIVE: The Warner Bros Motion Picture Group is undergoing 10% cuts, we’ve learned. This follows Monday’s news about how leadership is getting split between the new Warner Bros and Discovery Global.
Layoffs are across marketing, distribution, production, strategy, operations and theatre ventures.
We hear these cuts have been in the planning since the early part of this year. Leadership assessed what was needed in the current global marketplace, and these strategic changes shift away from a U.S./international management model to a global structure approach.
Here is the note from Motion Picture Group Co-Chairs Pamela Abdy and Michael De Luca:
Team Motion Pictures –
Earlier this year, in collaboration with leaders across the film division, we undertook a thoughtful assessment of our current structure and began the work to transform our business as we transition from a US Home Office/International model toward a fully global structure.
The exploration led to important conversations and insights to better understand how we reach audiences, what fundamental shifts should be implemented as teams work together across the world to collectively engage today’s moviegoers, and what the division needs to be successful.
In partnership with our P&C colleagues, and with these new learnings, we spent a lot of time thinking about how we evolve our teams to ensure films made here at Warner Bros. continue to receive world class release campaigns, and we engross audiences with the kind of memorable in-theater experience only the big screen can offer.
Adapting how we work often calls for evolution, and the future of how we run this business has required us to make some very difficult decisions, including staffing adjustments that will impact members of the Motion Picture Group. This week, your department leadership will share what these strategic changes mean for you and your teams. In the coming weeks and months, we will work with leaders around the world to shape and implement this global operating model in a way that reflects local needs and realities.
We know news like this is never easy, and we are tremendously grateful to our departing team members whose contributions throughout their time at Warner Bros. Pictures has made a lasting impact on both of us, and so many of you. They each have a lot to be proud of.
We know this group will continue to achieve great things together while we remain focused on what’s ahead.
With gratitude,
Mike & Pam
