Why the highest paid CEO of Hollywood survived Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Ryan Reynolds even though the studio botched $ 38 billion | Hollywood
May 10, 2025 06:10 AM Ist
Hollywood's best paid CEO won $ 87 million in 2024, even if his studio failed to close a mega merger of $ 38 billion.
The concept is that the actors – the stars, in fact – earn the most money in the world of cinema. For many, it makes sense. Their faces are on posters; Their names attract the crowd to theaters. Thus, when the films make millions, the actors should be rewarded for their contribution. The highest paid actor in the world, Dwayne Johnson, won $ 88 million in 2024 his cinema roles. It is a heavy sum. But surprisingly, a non-actor won $ 87 million the same year. And this man is the best paid CEO of Hollywood, a studio director who won the largest superstars on the planet. (Read also: Paramount Global replaces CEO Bob Bakish with a troika of executives))
Hollywood's best paid CEO
The Hollywood Reporter has unveiled His list of highest paid CEOs in Hollywood for the year 2024 earlier this week. The report revealed that the most paid CEO in the world of entertainment had in fact left the scene over a year ago. Bob Bakish, the former CEO of Paramount Global, made $ 87 million in 2024. But there is a catch. Bakish left Paramount in April 2024. Then, how did he manage to surpass “ heavy strikers '' like Ted Sarandos de Netflix and Bob Iger de Disney? The salary of $ 87 million in Bakish included a high starting package worth $ 69.3 million, catapulting at the top.
The following names on the list after him are Ted Sarandos from Netflix ($ 61.9 million), Greg Peters from Netflix ($ 60.3 million), David Zaslav from Warner Bros Discovery ($ 51.9 million) and Bob Iger from Disney ($ 41.1 million). The best -paid CEO of Entertainment – Jennifer Witz from Siriusxm – is in sixth place with profits of $ 37.1 million in 2024.
Bakish even withdrew some of the best Hollywood stars in 2024. Ryan Reynolds ($ 85 million), Brad Pitt ($ 32 million), Hugh Jackman ($ 50 million) and Tom Cruise ($ 19 million) won less than $ 87 million in Bakish a year.
Acrimony exit from Bob Bakish from Paramount
Bob Bakish became president and chief executive officer of Paramount Global on December 4, 2019 after having moved to the studio in Viacom. In December 2023, Bakish and David Zaslav discussed a possible merger of Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery, Axios reported. The resulting entity would have had an assessment of $ 38 billion. However, in February 2024, the talks were abandoned. Finally, Paramount started to negotiate with Skydance for a merger. In April 2024, Bakish announced that he would withdraw from his role as CEO of Paramount. Deadline reported that Skydance CEO David Ellison would take over because the council wanted him at the helm. This marked the exit from Bakish from the world of entertainment.
