Warner Bros.' boss made bank last year, despite the Hollywood strikes

Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

• Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. CEO David Zaslav earned $49.7 million in 2023.
• Zaslav’s compensation increased despite actors’ and writers’ strikes, topping his 2022 earnings.
• Warner Bros. reported losses for the year despite Zaslav’s increased compensation.

In a year when thousands of writers and actors were fighting for higher paychecks, one media mogul earned big.

The CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., David Zaslav, raked in a pay package worth $49.7 million in 2023, according to a regulatory filing released Friday.

Despite both the actors’ and writers’ strikes that lasted nearly 4 and 5 months respectively, Zaslav’s pay for the year went up.

In 2023, his total compensation increased 26.5% from the year prior. It included $3 million in base pay, combined with more than $23 million in stock awards and a $22 million cash bonus, along with $1.6 in additional compensation, the filing shows.

But Zaslav’s compensation in 2022 and 2023 is still modest compared to what he earned in 2021, when he was in charge of Discovery Inc. before its merger with WarnerMedia. That year, his pay package topped nearly $246.6 million.

At the same time, Warner Bros. as a company lost money for the year despite generating about $1 billion more profit than expected, thanks to costs saved from TV and film production being halted during the strikes, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Meanwhile, thousands of striking actors and writers went without a paycheck as they struggled to pay the bills and fought back against an industry that barely trickled the profits down to them.

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