We have confirmed that former Paramount co-CEO Brian Robbins is launching a new family production company dedicated to animated and live-action fare. CAA, a handful of financiers and Sony are backing it, however, the latter is only a minority investor. The total sum raised for the new endeavor is around $100 million, we have verified.
Robbins will shepherd content for YouTube and shortform platforms with an eye to evolve them into feature film IP which Sony will release theatrically. The idea is that proper streaming analytics will be a better indicator, and incubator, for big-screen potential product. We understand that Sony among other parties haven’t finaled their deals yet.
Robbins created the YouTube channel and multi-channel network Awesomeness TV in 2012 which was aimed at Gen-Z. He wound up selling that to DreamWorks Animation in 2013. At the end of the day, after Universal absorbed DWA, Awesomeness wound back at Viacom where Robbins was working.
Robbins became President of Paramount Players films in 2017 before he was elevated to President of Nickelodeon in 2018. In September of 2021, Paramount Chairman and CEO Jim Gianopulos was shown the door with Robbins taking over his spot on the motion picture side. Robbins landed the top job at Paramount Pictures given his knack for exploiting kids properties; read he revived Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as an animated movie and the Paw Patrol movies which yielded more than $2.5 billion in consumer products revenue in 2023 alone. In April 2024, he was made co-CEO of Paramount alongside George Cheeks and Chris McCarthy as the studio was being eyed for acquisition by David Ellison’s Skydance. Upon completion of the merger this past August, Cheeks stayed on board to oversee the linear networks for the new Paramount while McCarthy and Robbins departed.
Word was during Robbins’ exit from Paramount that he had assembled financiers to kick the tires at Lionsgate for a possible acquisition. It’s our understanding that the executive and his partners passed on that opportunity.