Warner Bros film chiefs to exit as $110bn Paramount merger closes
Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy will leave Warner Bros. when Paramount Skydance finalises its $110 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery on Oct. 6, Variety reported. Multiple sources told the outlet the pair will not be part of incoming owner David Ellison's management team. The news was first reported by Puck.
The change is swift. Ellison has brought in former Mattel chief executive Ynon Kreiz as co-CEO, with responsibility for day-to-day operations and for joining the two businesses together. It is a large integration task, spanning studios, cable channels and streaming.
On the film side, Paramount film heads Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein are expected to oversee both movie studios after the merger. The deal provides for each studio to release 30 films a year. That is a lot of films.
De Luca and Abdy arrived at Warner Bros. in 2022 from MGM, where they ran the film operation. They were hired to lead Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema, with joint charge of global production, marketing and distribution, The Hollywood Reporter reported at the time. In their early months they also looked after DC, the home of Batman and Superman, while chief executive David Zaslav searched for a permanent DC boss.
Talk of a change has circulated before. In March 2025, Warner Bros. Discovery's chief executive had started meeting candidates to replace De Luca and Abdy, according to Bloomberg. The pair stayed in post through the sale process that followed.
Paramount Skydance emerged as the winning bidder for Warner Bros. Discovery after Netflix stepped back from bidding, according to the Associated Press. Ellison, who leads Paramount Skydance, will now set the structure for the combined group.
For cinemagoers, the names at the top matter because they approve what gets filmed and when it reaches cinemas. What makes this stand out is the scale of the handover, with two film studios and 60 releases a year due to sit under one leadership team.
