Hollywood’s Top Execs Got a 51% Pay Hike in 2025 as Layoffs Erased 17,000 Jobs

It’s crazy how many “eat the rich” movies these guys greenlight

Some details:

* The top 18 Hollywood executives raked in a combined $746 million in compensation in 2025, according to TheWrap’s analysis of company proxy filings.

* The total compensation for the top executives surged a stunning 51% from a year earlier, based on a tally of $615 million vs. $408.5 million in 2024. (This total excludes Paramount’s David Ellison and Jeff Shell and Starz’s Jeff Hirsch, who do not have 2024 comparisons.)

* The pay gap is particularly eye-opening when stacked against the more than 17,000 jobs cut across television, film, broadcast, news and streaming in 2025, according to employment firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

* The combined compensation of the average employees of the entertainment companies included in the analysis represents just 0.2% of the CEOs’ combined pay. According to SEC filings, top entertainment and communication conglomerates report staggering CEO-to-worker pay ratios (topped by WBD CEO’s David Zaslav at 1,378 to 1, see below), well exceeding the S&P 500 average of 281 to 1 reported in 2024.

* Taking the prize for largest pay package was Zaslav, whose compensation more than tripled to $165 million. And that doesn’t include the up to $887 million golden parachute he may receive with the closing of the Paramount merger.

* Zaslav also held the largest pay gap with his employees, though when excluding one-time grants, the ratio drops to 463 to 1. Other executives with massive gaps include AMC Theaters CEO Adam Aron at 1,174 to 1 and Ellison at 1,109 to 1. Starz’s Hirsch was the executive with the smallest CEO pay ratio at 67 to 1.