Paramount Pictures Employee Layoff

Friday, October 4th, 2013 2:57PM CDT

Categories: Movie Related News, Company News
Posted by: Va'al Views: 41,987

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We have just received news that, unfortunately, Paramount Pictures, the company behind Michael Bay's Transformers series, is involved in a big employee layoff, almost 5% of the staff. This is not the first time that something like this happens, as just last year 120 employees were let go by the same company. You can read more about it here, and take a look at some extracts below.

The layoffs will affect about 5 percent of the studio's 2,200 employees that work on the Los Angeles movie lot or in international locations.

The job cuts will occur primarily in the areas of finance, human resources, information technology, international home media distribution, legal and marketing, according to the memo from Paramount Pictures Chief Operating Officer Frederick Huntsberry.

[...]

Paramount studio's second-quarter revenues were down 29 percent, year over year. But profit was off only six percent due to cost cutting, reported the Los Angeles Times in August. In fact, last year at about the same time Paramount laid off 120 employees.

Paramount is the studio behind the "Transformers," movie franchise and this summer's zombie thriller "World War Z," starring Brad Pitt, which grossed $539 million worldwide, according the Box Office Mojo website.

Credit(s): CSMonitor

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Re: Paramount Pictures Employee Layoff (1521766)
Posted by Rated X on October 4th, 2013 @ 3:25pm CDT

Billions and billions of dollars profit and more layoffs. So who got canned ? The water boy ? the guy who applys girls makeup ? The guy who holds the stupid clicker and says "action" ?

Re: Paramount Pictures Employee Layoff (1521767)
Posted by Burn on October 4th, 2013 @ 3:53pm CDT

Rated X wrote:Billions and billions of dollars profit and more layoffs. So who got canned ? The water boy ? the guy who applys girls makeup ? The guy who holds the stupid clicker and says "action" ?

Maybe read the article?

The job cuts will occur primarily in the areas of finance, human resources, information technology, international home media distribution, legal and marketing

I can see most of these as being understandable as technology becomes more and more dominant.

Except legal. I thought they'd be bumping those numbers up to go after the "pirates". :lol:

Re: Paramount Pictures Employee Layoff (1521769)
Posted by njb902 on October 4th, 2013 @ 4:03pm CDT

What difference does it make if it was a gaffer or a executive, it still sucks for them. Though it is good for the shareholders.

Re: Paramount Pictures Employee Layoff (1521782)
Posted by Rated X on October 4th, 2013 @ 4:40pm CDT

Burn wrote:
Rated X wrote:Billions and billions of dollars profit and more layoffs. So who got canned ? The water boy ? the guy who applys girls makeup ? The guy who holds the stupid clicker and says "action" ?

Maybe read the article?

The job cuts will occur primarily in the areas of finance, human resources, information technology, international home media distribution, legal and marketing

I can see most of these as being understandable as technology becomes more and more dominant.

Except legal. I thought they'd be bumping those numbers up to go after the "pirates".

I missed that part in the long text full of boring corporate jargon.

"Pirates" are low priorty to the movie industry. Bootleg DVD's and torrents can never replace Saturday night at an IMAX theater. Thats where the big money comes from. DVD sales are chump change to the movie industry. It's the music industry that hates "pirates" so much because music sales are all they got. It reminds me of Hasbro vs. the KO industry. TF collectors whine more about KO's than Hasbro actually does. Hasbro's market is the kids, so profits made from adult collectors are just a drop in the bucket to them.

Re: Paramount Pictures Employee Layoff (1521785)
Posted by njb902 on October 4th, 2013 @ 4:55pm CDT

So in how many threads are you going to bring up the IP issue?

What evidence do you have, other than because rated x says so, that video media does not care about piracy?

Re: Paramount Pictures Employee Layoff (1521798)
Posted by Bumblevivisector on October 4th, 2013 @ 5:46pm CDT

Much as I usually agree with Rated X on IP stuff, just this week, it'd be refreshing to see this cutback blamed partly on piracy as a break from every private and public sector cutback being somehow blamed on Obamacare.

Yes, I went there to prevent this thread from going down a different, too-well-worn path. I'm sorry, if only because I know it won't work anyway.

My opinion of Paramount hinges largely Shout! Factory getting the rights to release all the MST3K episodes involving their movies. Little else will raise or lower my view of that particular mountain range.

Re: Paramount Pictures Employee Layoff (1521813)
Posted by Rated X on October 4th, 2013 @ 7:10pm CDT

njb902 wrote:So in how many threads are you going to bring up the IP issue?

What evidence do you have, other than because rated x says so, that video media does not care about piracy?

Simple. When they say a movie grosses 100 million in one week theyre talking about box office sales. Netflix and DVD sales is just an added bonus revenue that the movie industry gets after the big money. It would probally cost them more to fight "piracy" than they would make on DVD sales, so it's pointless.

On the other hand, a music album only gets one release date. Some albums that flop dont even gross $100,000 in the first week let alone a cool million. So "piracy" is a much biggger deal to the music industry than the movie industry. Also the porn industry suffers the same problems as the music industry with tangible sales being their only means of profit.

I used to record underground hip hop music so I studied the music industry and it's downfall. But it doesnt take rocket science to see what Im saying here.

Re: Paramount Pictures Employee Layoff (1521815)
Posted by Shockwave7 on October 4th, 2013 @ 7:15pm CDT

Just have Nancy Pelosi or one of the other dunces they bankrolled into public office come and give them a speech about how being fired will 'let them spend time with their families', 'walk on the beach', and 'write the great American novel'.

How's that 'FUNemployment' feel now?

Re: Paramount Pictures Employee Layoff (1521818)
Posted by njb902 on October 4th, 2013 @ 7:22pm CDT

Rated X wrote:
njb902 wrote:So in how many threads are you going to bring up the IP issue?

What evidence do you have, other than because rated x says so, that video media does not care about piracy?

Simple. When they say a movie grosses 100 million in one week theyre talking about box office sales. Netflix and DVD sales is just an added bonus revenue that the movie industry gets after the big money. It would probally cost them more to fight "piracy" than they would make on DVD sales, so it's pointless.

On the other hand, a music album only gets one release date. Some albums that flop dont even gross $100,000 in the first week let alone a cool million. So "piracy" is a much biggger deal to the music industry than the movie industry. Also the porn industry suffers the same problems as the music industry with tangible sales being their only means of profit.

I used to record underground hip hop music so I studied the music industry and it's downfall. But it doesnt take rocket science to see what Im saying here.

That's not evidence, that's you just claiming things. Though I do believe that the industry trying to get SOPA passed says something, though that's just my opinion.

Re: Paramount Pictures Employee Layoff (1521851)
Posted by Metrosuplex on October 4th, 2013 @ 11:07pm CDT

Let's fire all the I.T. staff and have ONE GUY do all the work! YEAAAAAAHHH!!!! >:oP

If the movies aren't doing so well, it would make more sense to fire movie staff... but I get the feeling that this extraneous staff being fired will hardly change anything, other than putting more pressure on the 2-3 people left to do the work of 20-30.

Anyway, my beef is specifically with I.T. - a lot of companies have one guy just travel around the country to take care of ALL the I.T. needs. It's cost effective and absurd. I'm not convinced that being so miserly and stretched thin with supportive services like legal and I.T. will help Paramount recover.

It's like trying to lose weight by cutting out a liver, lung, and appendix. Sure, you don't technically need BOTH livers or BOTH lungs... but you sure you wanna cut those out, bro? :lol:

Re: Paramount Pictures Employee Layoff (1521859)
Posted by njb902 on October 4th, 2013 @ 11:37pm CDT

You mean kidneys not liver right, you only have one liver.

Re: Paramount Pictures Employee Layoff (1521872)
Posted by Flashwave on October 5th, 2013 @ 12:22am CDT

njb902 wrote:
Rated X wrote:
njb902 wrote:So in how many threads are you going to bring up the IP issue?

What evidence do you have, other than because rated x says so, that video media does not care about piracy?

Simple. When they say a movie grosses 100 million in one week theyre talking about box office sales. Netflix and DVD sales is just an added bonus revenue that the movie industry gets after the big money. It would probally cost them more to fight "piracy" than they would make on DVD sales, so it's pointless.

On the other hand, a music album only gets one release date. Some albums that flop dont even gross $100,000 in the first week let alone a cool million. So "piracy" is a much biggger deal to the music industry than the movie industry. Also the porn industry suffers the same problems as the music industry with tangible sales being their only means of profit.

I used to record underground hip hop music so I studied the music industry and it's downfall. But it doesnt take rocket science to see what Im saying here.

That's not evidence, that's you just claiming things. Though I do believe that the industry trying to get SOPA passed says something, though that's just my opinion.

Claim or not, what he's saying makes sense. Sure, Hollywood wants every cent they can out of a movie, and DVD sales make money. But its the actual theatrical productions that pay the bill. By the time the DVD comes out several months later (never understood the time delay on that), one HOPES that the theatrical release has already covered production costs. If it has, then the DVD sales are just "interest" paying off on the investment of the movie itself. And if the tetrical release HASN'T covered the bills, then odds are pirated movies are not the biggest concern of the producers right at the moment.

Metrosuplex wrote:Let's fire all the I.T. staff and have ONE GUY do all the work! YEAAAAAAHHH!!!!

If the movies aren't doing so well, it would make more sense to fire movie staff... but I get the feeling that this extraneous staff being fired will hardly change anything, other than putting more pressure on the 2-3 people left to do the work of 20-30.

Anyway, my beef is specifically with I.T. - a lot of companies have one guy just travel around the country to take care of ALL the I.T. needs. It's cost effective and absurd. I'm not convinced that being so miserly and stretched thin with supportive services like legal and I.T. will help Paramount recover.

It's like trying to lose weight by cutting out a liver, lung, and appendix. Sure, you don't technically need BOTH livers or BOTH lungs... but you sure you wanna cut those out, bro?

Speaking as someone who's mother was ousted in favor of downsizing technology, I wholeheartedly agree with this.

Re: Paramount Pictures Employee Layoff (1521963)
Posted by YoungPrime on October 5th, 2013 @ 12:11pm CDT

Should've let go of Bay, those new characters look horrid as usual.

Re: Paramount Pictures Employee Layoff (1522033)
Posted by First-Aid on October 5th, 2013 @ 9:16pm CDT

njb902 wrote:You mean kidneys not liver right, you only have one liver.

I WISH I had two livers. I think mine has some mileage on it...

Essentially this shows that even Hollywood is feeling the pinch of the economy. It's still really bad and not really improving much. Funny side effect is you are seeing some Hollywood stars jumping political ship. Rats, after all.

YoungPrime wrote:Should've let go of Bay, those new characters look horrid as usual.

And this affects the company how? Doubt this has more than a bump in their total budget. Just had to bring Bay up into this somehow though...

Re: Paramount Pictures Employee Layoff (1522220)
Posted by 5150 Cruiser on October 6th, 2013 @ 7:48pm CDT

njb902 wrote:
Rated X wrote:
njb902 wrote:So in how many threads are you going to bring up the IP issue?

What evidence do you have, other than because rated x says so, that video media does not care about piracy?

Simple. When they say a movie grosses 100 million in one week theyre talking about box office sales. Netflix and DVD sales is just an added bonus revenue that the movie industry gets after the big money. It would probally cost them more to fight "piracy" than they would make on DVD sales, so it's pointless.

On the other hand, a music album only gets one release date. Some albums that flop dont even gross $100,000 in the first week let alone a cool million. So "piracy" is a much biggger deal to the music industry than the movie industry. Also the porn industry suffers the same problems as the music industry with tangible sales being their only means of profit.

I used to record underground hip hop music so I studied the music industry and it's downfall. But it doesnt take rocket science to see what Im saying here.

That's not evidence, that's you just claiming things. Though I do believe that the industry trying to get SOPA passed says something, though that's just my opinion.

Seems there is a little bit of truth to both your thoughts. According to this article in Forbes..

http://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstra ... -industry/

Rated X is right. The music industry defiantly takes a much harder hit than film, but that's not to say that it isn't really affected by it. As you can generally get good quality pirated music. Much harder to get a good quality pirated movie the day of its release in theaters. While its defiantly true that the big money comes from the movie theater stint, but regardless the movie studio is still paying to put the movie on DVD. Piracy takes away from the revenue. Albeit not very big revenue, but the longer you let it go, the more money you'll loose.

Re: Paramount Pictures Employee Layoff (1522253)
Posted by Manterax Prime on October 6th, 2013 @ 10:24pm CDT

With all due respect Va'al, 5% isn't all that big. I mean sure, 110 employees out of work isn't good, but there's still 2090 out of the initial 2200 employees.