Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy are out at Warner Bros, an insider tells The Hollywood Reporter.
The news of film chiefs’ imminent exit comes as Paramount Skydance prepares for its landmark $111 billion merger with Warner Bros. The combined David Ellison-owned super studio is now called, simply, Skydance, with the merger expected to be finalized on Oct. 6.
Paramount film heads Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein are expected to oversee both movie studios. Abdy and De Luca are said to have told associates they have been in talks for a possible next act at Netflix.
De Luca and Abdy‘s tenure as heading up Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group began in 2022 and has been marked by highs and lows. The highs have included box office successes like the Minecraft Movie ($960 million, globally) and Ryan Coogler’s Sinners ($370 million, globally), along with critical achievements like last year’s best picture win for Paul Thomas Anderson‘s One Battle After Another and other wins for Sinners. The misfires have included expensive swings like Maggie Gyllenhaal‘s The Bride! and Tom Cruise starrer Digger, which is tracking to open this weekend to a dismal $8 million to $15 million on a $125 million-plus budget.
De Luca and Abdy joined Warner Bros from MGM, where they oversaw that storied studio’s film slate for two years until its 2022 $8.5 billion acquisition by Amazon Prime Video. The duo is known for being director-friendly, offering a big studio home (and big studio budgets) to filmmakers like Anderson, Coogler, Bong Joon Ho and Emerald Fennell.
Earlier this week, Cindy Holland exited her post as Paramount Skydance’s streaming chief, with HBO boss Casey Bloys expected to lead all streaming efforts at the combined studios. Also this week, it was announced that Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz would come on as co-CEO with Ellison.
Puck first reported the news of De Luca and Abdy‘s exit.