Warner Bros. Discovery is unifying its themed entertainment businesses into one global division.
WBD's Chief Revenue and Strategy Officer, Bruce Campbell, today announced that the new Warner Bros. Discovery Global Experiences division will combine the company’s current Global Themed Entertainment licensing group and the Studio Tours & Retail division. As such, it will oversee the Warner Bros. Studio Tour locations, licenses for theme parks, attractions, exhibitions and location-based experiences, as well as branded retail.
Simon Robinson, Chief Operating Officer of WBD Studios, will oversee Warner Bros. Discovery Global Experiences in addition to his current responsibilities. While Robinson will continue to report to WBD’s Chief Financial Officer Gunnar Wiendenfels for his studio and content operations, he now will report to Campbell for his leadership of Experiences.
"WBD has an incredible mix of location-based experiences for fans around the world, from theme parks and tours to exhibits, retail and more," Campbell said. "Bringing these two teams together under one roof gives us an opportunity to leverage and coordinate the talent and resources across all of our experiential businesses to better delight our consumers through offering even more truly authentic and engaging in-person experiences and events in every market."
Reporting to Robinson will be two veteran WBD leaders in the themed entertainment space.
Peter van Roden will serve as Executive Vice President, Global Themed Entertainment, continuing to lead the company's licensed location-based entertainment and theme parks businesses, as well as the division's global business development. His team's responsibilities include the WDB's partnership with Universal Destinations & Experiences for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter locations and Miral for Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi and The WB Abu Dhabi.
Sarah Roots will serve as Executive Vice President, Worldwide Studio Tours & Retail, continuing to lead WBD’s owned and operated experiences including the Warner Bros. Studio Tours in Burbank, London and Tokyo, as well as the New York Harry Potter flagship and other retail stores.
"Peter and Sarah are experts in curating and executing global location-based experiences at the very highest caliber," Robinson said. "Our teams have an obsession for detail that we bring to each project and together, we will be able to bring partners – and fans – even more of what they've come to expect from a Warner Bros. experience."
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This obviously makes sense, but these guys are so late to the game that I doubt it will make any difference in the prospects of WB/Discovery as a whole. Zaslav has made a bad situation worse as he assumed control of the combined company and turned an industry leader into a niche content provider.
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If you invested $1,000 on the day Warner Bros & Discovery merged to compete in the streaming business, in 2022...you would have about $380 now.
If you invested $1,000 in Warner Bros on the day it IPO'd back in 2005...you would have about $1,070 now.
Dumpster. Fire.