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“He’s Not Afraid to Call an Audible”: The Case for Brian Robbins at Paramount

Robbins, the newly installed C.E.O. of Paramount Pictures, was perceived as an “affront” to film industry purists. But the former Nickelodeon chief may be just what Paramount+ needs to compete with Netflix in a low-stakes, high volume, post-theatrical world.

Brian Robbins, the newly installed C.E.O. of Paramount Pictures, hasn’t been thrilled by the media coverage of his ascension. Last week, The New York Times noted that the ascension of the former Nickelodeon chief to run the storied studio was perceived as an “affront” to film industry purists. Critical columns in this space and in THR focused on the ham-fisted manner in which ViacomCBS handled the replacement of the statesman-like Jim Gianopulos, and the likelihood that Robbins represents the studio’s significantly reduced theatrical film ambitions. The Ankler newsletter has been referring to Robbins simply as “Norbit,” the lame 2007 comedy that he directed, which derailed Eddie Murphy’s Oscar campaign for Dreamgirls—the kind of movie that Paramount used to release, critics say.    

In meetings with his staff and chats with friends, Robbins has openly complained about the coverage, according to three sources that I talked to this week. That’s fine, I’ve never met a studio chief who loves their press. And ViacomCBS has been scrambling behind the scenes to improve the optics. Chris Petrikin, Paramount’s communications chief and a longtime Gianopulos ally, was abruptly ousted without explanation. C.E.O. Bob Bakish made sure to insist at the Goldman Sachs conference this week that the plan for Paramount includes “maintaining its extraordinary theatrical legacy, as exemplified by the fantastic slate we have coming in 2022.” Meanwhile, the company’s P.R. team has slipped reporters a list of Robbins’ “strong industry relationships”—powerful people who, in the time-honored tradition of Hollywood back-scratching, are happy to say nice things about him in the media. Congrats to those who made the list: UTA’s Jeremy Zimmer (Robbins’ former agent); Jeffrey Katzenberg (who once bought Robbins’ digital startup, Awesomeness, for $33 million and currently shares a luxury box with him at L.A.’s SoFi Stadium); the former Viacom executive Van Toffler; producers Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, Shawn Levy, Neal Moritz and Will Packer, etc. etc.

I talked to a few of those people this week, and—shocker—they did indeed say nice things about Robbins: strategic, innovative, quick decision-maker, entrepreneurial, multi-talented, sees the full landscape. I won’t bore you with the canned quotes. 

But I also talked to others not on the pre-approved list, and while most were almost equally laudatory, some other words came up: Cunning, transactional, political, and, my favorite, “the taste of an 11-year old girl.”

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