Hollywood's top executives' pay soared to $1.4 BILLION during pandemic

2023-06-02

REVEALED: Hollywood’s top executives’ pay soared to $1.43 BILLION at the height of the pandemic – up 50% from 2018 with Warner Bros. Discovery boss David Zaslav raking in nearly $250 MILLION in 2021 alone

Top Hollywood executives received over $1.4 billion as they enjoyed a lucrative pandemic-era pay rise
Endeavor CEO Ariel Emanuel made the most during Hollywood’s COVID bounce, as he raked in over $308 million in 2021
The sharp discrepancy in pay comes as the Writers Guild of America continues to strike over a lack of financial opportunities

While millions of Americans were trapped inside as the COVID-19 pandemic raged on, Hollywood executives were cashing in.

Over $1.4 billion was raked in by West Coast bigwigs in 2021, up a startling 50 percent from 2018.

And with the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) strike continuing this month, fueled by accusations of low pay and poor benefits, the chasm between Hollywood’s working class and their bosses has never been greater.

‘If they don’t have any money to give us raises, then how did they — the executives in the C-suite — amass such record salaries,’ said Mike Royce, a studio executive who spoke to The LA Times on the WGA picket line.

Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav topped the list of the highest paid Hollywood executives over the last five years at almost $500 million

Endeavor CEO Ariel Emanuel made the most during Hollywood’s pandemic bounce, as he raked in over $308 million in 2021

At the same time writers and studio runners slammed their lack of financial opportunities, high-powered executives reaped record profits.

Topping the list of those who took home the biggest salaries was Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav, who made over $498 million from 2018 to 2022.

Unsurprisingly, his most lucrative year was in 2021, when he raked in a titanic $246 million. This windfall also came before his landmark merger between Warner Bros. and Discovery, in a deal worth in excess of $40 billion.

Zaslav’s haul that year was only beaten by Ari Emanuel, the CEO and director of expansive media conglomorate Endeavor Group Holdings, at $308 million.

Emanuel’s salary topped $346 million over the same five-year timeframe of 2018 to 2022, through his company’s ownership of Hollywood’s largest talent agency alongside a slew of sports media companies including the NFL, NHL, UFC.

Data on the Hollywood rich list came from an LA Times analysis of research compiled by Equilar Inc. The research center also found Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has made $209 million since 2018, closely followed by embattled Disney chief Bob Iger at $195 million.

Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch, pictured in October 2019, took home $174 million between 2018 and 2022

Embattled Disney CEO Bob Iger was one of just a few top-earning executives to make more in 2018 than he did in 2021

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings poured millions into expanding the streaming service during the pandemic, as he took home over $41 million during its peak

Iger was one of only two of the top 10 earners on the list who made more in 2018 than he did during the pandemic height in 2021, at $65 million and $45 million respectively.

Fox dynasty Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan each made $174 and $171 million respectively, who were beaten out by another Netflix executive Ted Serandos at $192 million.

Comcast president and CEO Brian Roberts came in eighth on the list with $170 million, while former-Paramount boss Joseph Ianniello made $152 million despite leaving the company in 2020.

Although Ianniello missed out on the 2021 bounce many of his counterparts enjoyed, Endeavor’s executive board chairman Patrick Whitesell capitalized, with the $123 million he made that year contributed to almost all of his $143 million haul from 2018 to 2022.

An image of a picket line from the last time Hollywood writers went on strike in 2007

WGA members are striking over a lack of financial opportunities and workers rights

Top executives in showbusiness almost all received a significant pandemic bounce, as everyday Americans turned to streaming services to fill their days.

The era saw major media corporations including Netflix and Disney pour millions into content creation and expansion to woo their growing viewership.

Notably, this led to a dramatic dip in financial fortunes in 2022, amid a tumbling stock market and a fall in media investment.

For Zaslav, this meant his 2021 salary fell by over $207 million to just $39 million, while Emanuel saw his earnings dip by a striking $289 million in 2022.

‘The primary pressure on executive pay in Hollywood is driven by the decline in growth, particularly in streaming, seen in the aftermath of the pandemic,’ said Kevin Klowden, chief global strategist at the Santa Monica-based Milken Institute, to the LA Times.

Despite the fall in fortune, those on the WGA picket line insist they deserve a far larger compensation than their executives.

‘They’re well-heeled. The writers are right to be turning the Hollywood spotlight onto the compensation of the people at the top of the ladder, because certainly the folks farther down aren’t sharing in the spoils,’ said Llyod Greif, chief executive of LA-based investment bank Greif & Co.

‘They don’t call it Tinseltown for nothing — but tinsel in this case is platinum.’

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