WB has had a rough go of it recently. The company isn’t going under, of course, but they’ve had some pretty big flops during 2024 and 2025. In spite of all that, David Zaslav and quite a few other executives are getting big raises.
Per Variety, Zaslav’s pay package is now at $51.9 million dollars which is about a four percent increase from the previous year. A four percent raise doesn’t seem like a lot, but when you make $49.7 million dollars, which was Zaslav’s total pay package in 2023, four percent amounts to millions of dollars.
From Variety, “Zaslav had a 2023 pay package worth $49.7 million, up 26.5% from the year prior. Zaslav’s compensation totaled $39.3 million in 2022, after he received an astonishing $246.6 million (which included $203 million in stock-option grants) in 2021.
For 2024, Zaslav’s base salary was $3 million. He received stock awards worth $23.1 million, bonus compensation of $23.9 million and “all other” compensation of $1.9 million.”
Other executives that received a pay raise of millions of dollars include chief revenue and strategy officer Bruce Campbell who received an eight percent raise and international president Gerhard Zeiler who received about an eleven percent raise.
“Per WBD’s 2025 proxy statement, the company says its executive compensation committee reviewed Zaslav and Wiedenfels’ annual performance in February and ‘determined that each of Mr. Zaslav and Mr. Wiedenfels had exceeded expectations and over-delivered with respect to their respective strategic goals and approved a payout for the portion of the CEO’s 2024 cash bonus that is based on strategic metrics at 115% of target and a payout of 114% of target for the portion of the CFO’s 2024 cash bonus that is based on strategic metrics.’ (Variety)
This comes as Warner Bros Discovery’s revenue is down by three percent and the company posted a loss of $11.3 billion dollars in tax year 2024, per THR.
WBD has had some major flops. Mickey 17 lost money, Furiosa lost money, The Watchers likely lost money, Horizon: An American Saga lost money, Joker: Folie à Deux lost tons of money, and Warner Bros games didn’t do any better. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League lost hundreds of millions of dollars and received mixed, but mostly negative reviews from both fans and critics.
WBD did have some hits in 2024, but none of them were astronomical successes. Twisters, Dune: Part II, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, and a few others made a profit, but, as was stated earlier, WBD’s revenue still went down three percent and they posted an enormous amount of losses.
The company does have some big releases to look forward to in 2025 including F1, Sinners, Jurassic World: Rebirth, and, of course, Superman. Without a doubt, Superman will be a big hit for WBD as the reception to just about everything to come out of the film including images, trailers, and sneak peaks has been pretty positive. Superman flies into theaters this summer in June.
What are your thoughts on Zaslav’s big raise? Let us know in the comments!