Paramount Pictures chief Brian Robbins wants to boost the studio’s annual theatrical output to 12 to 15 releases, up from its current Covid-affected level of eight this year and 10 to 12 in 2023.
“Theatrical is here to stay,” Robbins said in an appearance at the Bank of America Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference. “I’m not going to say it’s going to be a growth business. I think franchises matter. I think quality matters.” Still, he continued, “I think that you will see more films” compared with the currently “weird” comeback phase after the shutdowns of Covid and the Omicron variant. Given the potency of original films as a subscriber acquisition and retention tool for streaming services like Paramount+, he added, “the path to monetization now is greater” for feature films.
Accordingly, Robbins said, the value of movie studios for their media company parents is “way more” than it was five years ago because of the streaming opportunity. Paramount Global last month reported 43 million subscribers to Paramount+, which is still rolling out to additional global territories, as of the second quarter. That was a jump from 39.6 million in the prior quarter.
Paramount has punched above its weight in 2022, releasing one of the biggest hits in Hollywood history, Top Gun: Maverick, as well as The Lost City, which proved an unforeseen smash. Echoing comments from Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish and other colleagues, Robbins said the company has found its groove with most theatricals coming to Paramount+ 45 days after their initial release before then rolling out on linear networks. Top Gun, which has been a notable exception to the company’s “fast-follow” streaming pattern, will finally get to Paramount+ later this year, Robbins said.
Robbins’ mandate also includes leading Nickelodeon and he is also chief content officer of movies, kids and family fare for Paramount+. He spoke about franchises in the kids space, notably Paw Patrol but also less obvious ones like Clifford: The Big Red Dog. Despite merely passable theatrical box office, Clifford proved enough of a draw in streaming that it merited a sequel.
In the kids space overall, Robbins said, “linear television has obviously been declining for a while now, but what we’ve seen is, if you take our linear share and the audience for kids that we’ve picked up on Paramount+, we actually have more audience and share of kids 2 to 11 than we’ve had in years.” As far as overlap between what viewers watch on streaming versus linear, “Surprisingly, it’s not as much as you’d think. … We were in this declining reach for years and now it’s a growth story for us. And that growth will grow all of our other lines of business,” among them consumer products and theatrical.
Asked by moderator Jessica Reif Ehrlich, a veteran media analyst for BofA, what Paramount+ stands for as a brand, Robbins cited the recent deal struck between Paramount and Walmart. The companies’ pact made Paramount+ the sole streaming offering made available at no extra monthly charge to millions of members of Walmart+, the retail giant’s loyaly program. Robbins said P+ is “very aligned with Walmart’s brand.”
As far as original films produced exclusively for streaming — a business that is still under scrutiny at major studios — Robbins said Paramount is continuing its efforts to make about a half-dozen of them each year. But the studio puts them through a conventional testing process to assess their playability. Smile, a horror release coming up later this month, was one such example. When its test results came back strong, Robbins said, “We said, ‘We have to find a way to release this theatrically.’”