Yahoo Lifestyle Why Would Warner Bros. Fire Its Marketing Chief Ahead of Its Riskiest Movie Slate in Years?
On Jan. 7, Warner Bros. worldwide marketing chief Josh Goldstine was called into the office of his bosses, studio chiefs Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy, at the end of the day to find out that he was being let go after four years at the company. His three year-contract was renewed in early 2024, so Goldstine’s dismissal came as a surprise to many on the Burbank lot, given that he played a key role in promoting successes that range from “The Batman” and “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” to “Barbie” and “Wonka.” Goldstine’s firing was publicized the following day, at the height of the devastating Los Angeles wildfires, which some found to be in poor taste, though knowledgable individuals chalked up the timing to an unfortunate coincidence.
There’s an adage in Hollywood: When a movie flops, blame marketing.
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So this executive shuffle is unusual because Warner Bros. had enjoyed a decent 2024 in terms of ticket sales. Andrew Cripps, the company’s head of international distribution, was also dismissed as part of a shakeup that’s purportedly designed to streamline global theatrical efforts. Under the new order, longtime Warner Bros. domestic distribution chief Jeff Goldstein has been elevated to oversee all aspects of the company’s worldwide exhibition efforts.
“In building for the future, we have made the decision to realign our business unit with a singular global operation at its center to offer greater alignment for all our team members,” De Luca and Abdy said in the statement to announce the shakeup.
The axing of Goldstine and Cripps comes ahead of the riskiest slate that Warner Bros. has crafted in years, one that puts a greater emphasis on expensive, auteur-driven originals rather than tested tentpoles. Those offerings include new works from directors like Paul Thomas Anderson (an artistic force if not always a commercial one) and Maggie Gyllenhaal (whose prior film “The Lost Daughter” was nominated for three Oscars but debuted on Netflix, not in theaters). There’s also a share of sequels, with follow-ups to “Mortal Kombat,” “Final Destination” and “The Conjuring” on the schedule.
Over the past 12 months, Warner Bros. suffered a few costly flops (namely “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” and “Joker: Folie à Deux”), though it wasn’t the only company to back some money losers. But the film studio also fielded several blockbusters, expanding the appeal of “Dune: Part Two” beyond its core demographic of sci-fi fans and into an all-audience tentpole, boosting the MonsterVerse franchise to new heights despite mixed reviews for “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” and successfully reviving the Ghost With the Most after 36 years for “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.” Warner Bros. struggled at the international box office with “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” and “Twisters,” which were domestic powerhouses that weren’t as embraced in overseas markets. Yet the studio has endured far more tumultuous box office runs, like in 2021, when the entire Warners slate was released simultaneously in theaters and on streaming under the direction of then-WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar.
Some insiders and analysts suggest that Goldstine’s firing was tied to cost-cutting measures. After all, it’s unclear if the worldwide marketing position will be replaced. Despite industry-wide speculation that Goldstine was being scapegoated for the embarrassment of “Joker 2,” sources say there wasn’t a single precipitating event that led to the marketing guru’s outser.
“Warner Bros. had a pretty good year,” says Jason Squire, professor emeritus of USC School of Cinematic Arts. “You can’t point to a series of movies that haven’t made the grade, short of the ones that didn’t deserve a strong audience like ‘Furiosa’ and [‘Joker 2’]. That’s not marketing’s fault. That’s production.”
Within the first few months of 2025, the studio will unveil a mix of genre fare and filmmaker-driven originals, including “Companion,” a low-budget sci-fi thriller with Sophie Thatcher and Jack Quaid (Jan. 31), “Parasite” director Bong Joon Ho’s oft-delayed $80 million-budgeted “Mickey 17,” starring Robert Pattinson (March 7), “Wag the Dog” director Barry Levinson’s $45 million gangster drama “Alto Knights,” in which Robert De Niro stars opposite himself as a mob boss (March 21), the Jack Black-led “A Minecraft Movie,” a live-action adaptation of the popular video game (April 1) and “Sinners,” a $90 million-budgeted vampire horror story from “Black Panther” and “Creed” director Ryan Coogler and star Michael B. Jordan (April 18). Except for “Minecraft,” these films don’t have the benefit of brand recognition and will require clever promotions and compelling advertising to get audiences to buy tickets.
“Their next five movies are really in trouble, so it’s curious they’d do this [executive overhaul] now,” says one industry executive on the condition of anonymity. “‘Superman’ will be a massive hit. Everything else on their entire slate is a question.”
James Gunn’s “Superman” reboot, anchored by David Corenswet as the Man of Steel and Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, flies to the big screen on July 11. Other sequels on the calendar include “Final Destination 6” (May 16), “The Conjuring: Last Rites” (Sept. 5) and “Mortal Kombat 2” (Oct. 24). Those are the safer bets. Then there’s Anderson’s untitled film with Leonardo DiCaprio, which cost at least $130 million and requires $300 million to break even (Aug. 8), Gyllenhaal’s $80 million Frankenstein spinoff “The Bride!” (Sept. 26) and Joseph Kosinski and Brad Pitt’s $300 million racing drama “F1,” which is backed by Apple but will be distributed by Warners. Promotional efforts can start as early as the film gets the greenlight, so marketing has been underway for most of these titles. But the bulk of advertising is typically deployed within two months of theatrical release.
“On paper, it’s an ambitious schedule,” says Squire. “You worry about the budget on some of these movies; it forces marketing to spend more because they have to be high enough to offset the cost of the movie.”
Goldstine was hired in 2021 by former Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group chairman Toby Emmerich, who was ousted himself in 2022 as David Zaslav took the reins of Warner Bros. Discovery. A veteran of Sony and Universal Pictures, Goldstine is known as a skilled marketer with a reputation for consistency and strong filmmaker and talent relationships. But his employment isn’t without controversies. At Sony in 2001, he was suspended without pay for 30 days for falsifying film critic quotes to promote four of the studio’s movies. Goldstine was wrongfully terminated from Universal in March 2018 for alleged misconduct; an arbitration judge in 2020 ruled in his favor and awarded him a reported $20 million in damages.
Over his 30-year career, he’s launched the campaigns for big-budget blockbusters like Sony’s Tobey Maguire-led “Spider-Man,” which at the time was the first $100 million opening weekend in history, as well as Universal’s “Jurassic World,” “Despicable Me,” “50 Shades of Grey” and “Fast and Furious” franchises. Goldstine has also orchestrated the promotional efforts for artsier fare like David Fincher’s 2010 Facebook origin story “The Social Network,” Tom Cruise’s 1996 comedic sports drama “Jerry Maguire” and Jordan Peele’s lauded directorial debut “Get Out.” (“The Social Network” and the “50 Shades” trilogy were coincidentally produced by Goldstine’s eventual boss, De Luca.) More recently, he was the architect behind the pink publicity machine of Greta Gerwig’s 2023 sensation “Barbie,” which is Warner Bros.’ highest grossing movie in history.
“Marketing people are the first to be blamed and the last to be given credit,” says Chapman University’s film school dean Stephen Galloway. “People say ‘Barbie marketed itself.’ No, it didn’t. They did an amazing job.”
Warner Bros. has withstood a chaotic last decade, involving two new parent companies (the first being AT&T followed by the Discovery merger) and major turnover at the top of the studio. De Luca and Abdy, who replaced Emmerich more than two years ago, were hired in part because of their deep ties to the creative community. Prior to Warners, they ran MGM and landed splashy projects like Anderson’s “Licorice Pizza,” which scored the studio’s first Oscar best picture nomination since 1988, Ridley Scott’s starry crime drama “House of Gucci” and Channing Tatum’s box office sleeper hit “Dog.” At Warner Bros. they got to work quickly and moved forth with an edict to take big swings while brokering deals with such directors and stars as Cruise, Timothee Chalamet, Baz Luhrmann and “The Batman” filmmaker Matt Reeves. On one hand, Hollywood feels it’s admirable they are willing to take creative risks in an era where reboots and sequels have reigned supreme. There’s an exhaustible supply of intellectual property, meaning the entertainment industry needs new ideas in order to survive. But others question the amount of money that Warner Bros. is putting on the line.
Industry veterans acknowledge that it’s common for new studio chiefs to clean house and fill the C-suite with their own appointees. Abdy and De Luca haven’t said whether they intend to tap a new worldwide marketing chief. In the meantime, the duo has deputized three of Goldstine’s direct reports — Dana Nussbaum and Christian Davin to oversee the global marketing team and John Stanford for theatrical creative advertising — on an interim basis.
According to sources familiar with De Luca and Abdy’s rationale, the studio bosses felt that Goldstine was operating under an “old school” mentality. With the changes, they believe they retained the executives who played a pivotal role in the winning campaigns for “Barbie” and “Wonka” but have implemented a structure that allows the pair to exert more oversight. While intensely passionate about his work and job, Goldstine has been described as stubborn and blunt with his manner. Some have speculated he butted heads with Abdy and De Luca. However insiders dismiss this as a factor, noting it’s not unusual for top lieutenants like Goldstine to be dogged and opinionated.
“You can never rule out people’s chemical affinity for each other in these jobs,” says Galloway.
All of this ups the already sky-high stakes for “Superman,” which relaunches the DC Universe under the direction of Gunn and Peter Safran. The film is the studio’s best hope at fielding a billion-dollar blockbuster in 2025, but even the Man of Steel isn’t impervious to box office Kryptonite. The superhero adventure is arriving at bust times for the once-impenetrable genre.
“There is a ticking clock for everyone at the studio. July 11 is D-Day,” says Galloway, referring to the date that Clark Kent makes his theatrical return. “If ‘Superman’ can’t storm the beaches of Normandy, a lot of people will be in trouble.”
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