Entertainment Company CEOs Saw Raises Almost Twice As Large As The Average Executive, New Data Shows

Topline

The compensation of CEOs of some of America’s largest entertainment firms last year rose at a rate of more than double that of the average chief executive at the country’s largest companies, new data shows, with the top executives of Disney, Warner Bros., Netflix and five other companies earning an average of $34.8 million in 2023.

Key Facts

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Big Number

$23.7 million. That was the average pay for CEOs of the 100 companies with the largest revenue streams in 2023, according to pay consulting group Equilar. CEOs of those companies saw their compensation rise 11.4% on average, the data says. The rise in entertainment CEOs salaries almost doubled that, rising 24.7% on average at the eight companies mentioned above.

Key Background

Production companies and distributors grappled with months-long actors’ and writers’ strikes last year and box office earnings that still haven’t bounced back to pre-pandemic highs. Dozens of productions were delayed and release dates on films like “Blade,” “Snow White” and Pixar’s “Elio” were pushed back, many to 2025. The 2023 domestic box office managed to hit the $9 billion mark just before the end of the year, though many feared the industry wouldn’t hit the milestone on the journey back to pre-COVID sales. Early box office projections for 2024 put domestic sales at around $8 billion, but analysts have upped that estimate this month to $8.2 billion following a slightly stronger-than-expected first quarter. Disney added “Moana 2” to the 2024 release calendar between the initial estimate and the April update, and Universal added “Abigail” and “The Wild Robot.”

Tangent

Streaming was the name of the game when it came to entertainment stock performance in 2023, though shares are still way down from their pandemic peaks for many of the legacy companies. Lionsgate was up 88% in 2023 after the acquisition of eOne from Hasbro and an announcement it would separate from Starz this year, and Netflix gained more than 60% on the year. Disney shares largely stayed flat in 2023 while Comcast and Warner Bros. rose 26% and 21%, respectively. From 2021, however, Paramount is down roughly 90%, Lionsgate is down around 50%, Disney roughly 40% and Netflix and Comcast are each down roughly 20%. Warner Bros. Discovery shares are down about 70% from peak at the time of their 2022 merger.

Further Reading

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